No. 8 Oregon travels to the birthplace of college football to take on 3-3 Rutgers Saturday, and the betting line has already jumped.
The Ducks travel 2,482 air miles for the opportunity to reclaim their momentum and reset their chase for a playoff berth, 3:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network from SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. The updated betting line suggests the Scarlet Knights are in for an onslaught of revenge-minded Ducks.
The game opened at Oregon -15.5 and it's already moved to the Ducks -16.5. That's a big number for a road game, requiring the visitors to win by three scores coming off a devastating loss. That it's jumped a point in 24 hours shows the public is leaning heavily into a bounce-back victory.
After the loss to Indiana Dan Lanning declared the team's intention going forward, insisting that all of their goals were still reachable.
“Our players know that," Lanning said. "They recognize what’s in front of them and it’s about improvement. It’s about going to attack."
"It’s hard to go unscathed in college football, especially against a good team. They played a better game than us. They were better coached than us today. Our guys recognize that there’s still, every one of our goals is still in front of us and an opportunity to attack.”
Rutgers has the misfortune of being the next roadblock in the way, and you get the sense Oregon's going to hit it like a stolen Wehrmacht truck in "The Dirty Dozen."
After the Hoosiers pounded his defense for three long, decisive touchdown drives linebacker Bryce Boettcher said, “Obviously no one’s happy about losing that game. We’ve got something to prove. We’ve got a chip on our shoulder. We can use it as fuel or be down on ourselves. We’ll go to the doctor tomorrow, learn from it, and then back to work.”
The lights were on at Autzen Stadium at 6:00 a.m. this morning. Based on the reaction of the betting line, the public thinks the Ducks are touching down in New Jersey with a sense of mission and purpose.