Keys to the game: Oregon State at Oregon

Friend of The Zoo David Levick pointed out on Facebook that Mike Bellotti, the all-time winningest coach at Oregon, pretty much nailed the "keys to the game" concept for all time with this simple formula:

Offense… run the ball

Defense… stop the run

Offense… protect the quarterback

Defense… sack their quarterback

Special teams… play special.

Class dismissed. Any college football game, any time, these will be the keys to the game boiled down. The article becomes a staple of Thursday/Friday football content because the whole point of this gig is to get people talking and clicking, but in reality it's a simple game. That uncomplicated list has been the essence of it since Gus Dorias to Knute Rockne.

As with all things the devil is in the details, and for Oregon State at Oregon the details are these:

1. Get out of town without any more significant injuries.

This goal is elusive in what Bellotti called a collision sport. Steve Tannen of Sports Talk 953 in Eugene recalled a story this week of the old ball coach talking to a power forward from the basketball team who wanted to try out for tight end.

While Bellotti wasn't completely opposed to the idea he had reservations. "Basketball is a contact sport," he said to the ambitious roundballer. "Football is a COLLISION sport."

The collisions haven't been kind to the Ducks in the early going this season. They lost top returning receiver Evan Stewart in the spring. Five-star freshman safety Trey McNutt broke his leg in fall camp. Lead running back Noah Whittington missed the Northwestern game with an injury and this weekend at practice, Dakorien Moore went down with a hip pointer.

Moore could be good-to-go for the Civil War (he's not on the official report) but that's a tough run of bumps and bruises to key players for so early in the year. The Ducks are beginning to look like the knight in the Monty Python movie, blood pulsing out of his shoulder, declaring "It's just a scratch."

Already there have been too many scratches, especially since they are eight days away from meeting a relatively unscratched Penn State team at their place, the Nittany Lions coming off a bye.

Oregon needs a weekend where they start fast, exercise control of the game and get out of Autzen Stadium without any more injury timeouts and solemn silences in the building. It feels like it's almost time to conduct a sage-smoke ceremony at the 50-yard line. The toll has been savage. The point of having great depth and talent is not to need so much of it.

2. Pressure and contain Maalik Murphy

Murphy is a 6-5, 234 magician who can sling the ball all over the field, reportedly the highest-paid quarterback on the West Coast. He's tuck-and-roll upholstery on a rusted 1965 Cadillac, something that doesn't fit on a low-rent Beavers roster, incongruous.

In a 45-14 loss to Texas Tech the No. 17 Red Raiders intercepted him twice and sacked him three times. Ranked No. 6, the Ducks should challenge themselves to put some stuff on film that wil make Drew Allar gulp, something like four interceptions and six sacks or thereabouts.

The Biebers are an 0-3 team covered in the bad tattoos of underfunding and a 5-10 record since Trent Bray took over. In addition to being a collision sport, football is a sport of no mercy. The Ducks can't let their once-hated rival off the mat in this matchup. The goal is to put them away and rob them of their best weapon, the quarterback who is about to make three million dollars or so in the next round of the transfer portal.

If Oregon can make it a merciless day for Murphy, the rest of the task will be easy. Pressure him and send him back to the Corvallis river walk in abject misery. That's the assignment.

3. Clean up the run blocking

The Ducks have the best pass block grade in the Big Ten after three games. Their incandescent quarterback, a relative bargain in NIL valuation at $640,000 according to On3 Sports, has operated out of a clean pocket in the team's 3-0 start, and the results have been scintillating, a 78 percent completion percentage, highlight throws that make NFL scouts salivate.

The run-blocking has not been similarly brilliant. Instead it's been uneven, a spectacular 64-yard touchdown one play, a pileup at the line of scrimmage on the next one. Missed blocks and spotty technique have marred the results despite good overall numbers; Oregon has had way more success running outside and simply depending on Moore than they have running up the middle.

That's fine for beating Northwestern and Oklahoma State, but to compete against Penn State and Indiana, the Ducks have to show the will and the footwork to move bodies off the line of scrimmage. Thus far it's been a nagging question mark.

Or perhaps a problem to leave for another day. Behren Morton of TTU shredded the OSU secondary for 464 yards and four touchdowns, including TD passes of 38, 61 and 30 yards. There's no reason for Oregon to reinvent the seige weapon. Moore could put away this motley crew in four or five well-designed drop backs, arcing some flaming footballs into their parapets.

4. Unleash the kraken

Let Dante Moore cook. He has the arm, the protection, and four or five guys who run fast. Air it out and put them back in their misery. Don't make it complicated when it doesn't have to be. The Beaver pass defense ranks 122nd in the country. Exploit it.

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