ESPN produces the worst betting advice, Oregon evaluation ever issued

In a column for ESPN offering college football betting advice, Pam Maldonado calls Oregon "a fragile team."

Madonado wrote, "Early execution, but late-game anxiety. The negative fourth-quarter margin says everything (minus-4)."

Statistics pulled out of context can be used to advance any theory. This one is patently absurd.

The Ducks are as far from fragile as a team can be. Two weeks ago they won a game at Iowa in the wind and rain with a field goal drive in the final two minutes of the game, while missing four of their best playmakers on offense.

They rolled to big wins over Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Minnesota and Northwestern while shutting down the offense in the fourth quarter. Reserve quarterbacks finished all of those games, and the defensive lineup was sprinkled with twos and threes.

In the blowout wins the Ducks played over 30 players on defense. They've achieved a 9-1 record despite losing Evan Stewart, Kenyon Sadiq, Gary Bryant Jr., Dakorien Moore and Alex Harkey for chunks of the season, Stewart all year.

Throwing out a damaging label to support the SEC narrative

To call a team that's been superbly resilient "fragile," an analyst has to ignore the facts and the story while getting lost in the minutia of the box score in a way that defies logic.

Oregon's one loss supports the theory, outscored 10-7 by No. 2 Indiana at home on October 11, but everything else contradicts it. They've won two one-score games. They've dominated weaker competition.

Saturday's game against USC, 12:30 p.m. on CBS from Autzen Stadium, will be the one that defines their season. Soft, fragile and overrated go out the window if they respond with a focused performance against an upset-minded ranked opponent.

This could be a team that's peaking at the right time, poised to make noise (and silence all the outside noise) in the playoffs.