Photo by: Walt Grondona of Walt’s Photography
sustain drives. OSU defensive lineman
Bill Swancutt (6-4, 260) will make it
difficult up front, and senior linebacker
Seigler (6-3, 229) will continue to impress
scouts from his future employer, the NFL.
Clemens, Parker, WR Demetrius Williams
and Day will ultimately need to make
some big plays in order for Oregon
to win.
Oregon defensive coordinator Nick
Aliotti will depend primarily on Igor,
Long, Siavii, Robby Valenzuela and
Quinn Dorsey to control the running
lanes inside and keep Jackson under
100 yards. However, OSU will counter
by running outside, making the play of
Kevin Mitchell, Lewis and the other
linebackers and safeties critical. The
Ducks have been fairly successful with
this strategy in other games, but it will
inevitably come down to third and
long, where Anderson, Newson, Hass
and Euhus will test the Duck secondary.
Oregon’s success or failure will depend
on (1) how effective Aliotti can mix basic
and blitz defenses to confuse Anderson,
(2) how well the linebackers cover short
and midrange pass routes, and (3) whether
Lewis can continue to provide adequate
help for the Duck corners as he did in
the UCLA game.
Currently OSU is third in the Pac-10
at 4-2 and the Ducks are fourth at 4-3,
with Cal lurking close behind at 4-3.
Remember the Ducks beat the Bears.
If USC beats UCLA and the Beavers,
and WSU and Cal beat their traditional
rivals, the Ducks and Beavers will finish
third and fifth (or fifth and third)
depending on who wins on Saturday.
No pressure. Not much at stake here.
During the season both Oregon
and Oregon State beat Arizona, a team
that beat the Huskies, who beat both
the Ducks and Beavers. And UO and
OSU both beat Cal, the only team in
the nation to defeat USC, currently
ranked #2 in the BCS. All of this means
that the Pac-10 should be renamed the
Parity-10, and the Civil War may go to
seven overtimes on Saturday. The team
with eleven players still standing at that
time will probably win. Unless there is
a power failure and the lights go out.
(It is an afternoon game, but this is
Oregon in November, right?)
Justin Phinisee would like to duplicate Keenan Howry’s Civil War punt returns.
2. Which team will maintain its resolve
throughout the game?
3. Will Oregon seniors (including
Dan Weaver, Parker, Siavii, Mitchell,
Steven Moore and Lewis) play with
distinction in their last Autzen
appearances?
4. Will special teams make the
plays that decide the outcome?
5. Which team will have fewer
penalties?
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Ducks and Beavers — unpredictably
predictable?
The Ducks-Have-the-Last-Quack
Prediction: Oregon 30, OSU 27
The Ducks-Suffer-A-Quack-Up
Prediction: Beavers 35, Ducks 17
BOTTOM LINE
PREDICTIONS
Other Pac-10 rivalries
on Saturday:
Cal 31, Stanford 21
WSU 35, Washington 28
USC 37, UCLA 10
CIVIL WAR
PRE-GAME PARTY!
GAMETIME QUESTIONS
1. Will the weather be crappy as always?
Photo by: Walt Grondona of Walt’s Photography
Stanford, 43-3, last Saturday. The
Cardinal had won two straight before
arriving in Corn Valley, but their con-
fidence was short-lived as the Beavers
jumped out to a 14-3 first quarter lead,
which they extended to 31-3 at the half.
OSU put Stanford away in the fourth
quarter with a variety pack of scores —
a field goal, a touchdown and a safety.
Junior running back Steven
Jackson (hopefully for Duck fans an
NFL rookie next year) rammed and
slammed for 148 yards and a TD, while
QB Derek Anderson had an impressive
day through the air, with a 26-of-48
performance for 383 yards and four
scores. Wide out James Newson had
nine catches for 115 yards, while Mike
Hass had his best day as Beaver receiver
with 225 yards and two TD’s on nine
receptions. Churchill High School grad
Tim Euhus snagged six balls at his tight
end position and scored on two of them.
Oregon State has won two in a row,
with 1089 yards of offense and 95 points
against Arizona and Stanford. Meanwhile
the Beaver defense has allowed only
365 yards of offense and 26 points.
THE MATCH UP It’s going to be
another physical contest between two
comparable teams that don’t really like
each other. A lot of macho pride is at
stake and each team wants to “get into
a better bowl than the other guy.” Early
in the trash-talking battle, the Beavers
have taken the lead, with linebacker
Richard Seigler announcing immediately
after their last win, “Now it’s Duck
season.” There have been no Keith Lewis
utterances from Eugene... yet.
OSU’s Anderson seems to have found
his stride and the lead in his unofficial
competition with Oregon’s Kellen
Clemens as the best Pac-10 quarterback
recruited from the state of Oregon three
years ago. With Arizona’s Nic Costa
(Aloha HS) falling out of favor in Tucson,
Anderson (Scappoose HS) has put up
more consistent and bigger numbers in
leading the Beavers to a 7-3 record this
year than Clemens (Burns HS) has done
with the Ducks. Saturday’s face off will be
the first game in which the two will start
against each other.
Duck offensive coordinator Andy
Ludwig knows that the offensive line
has played dinged up all season and
that RB Terrence Whitehead is not your
prototypical power back, so he’ll have to
use a lot of variation and a few tricks to
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Great kickoff returns by Kenny Washington is a key for the Ducks’ success.
DucksIllustrated
NOVEMBER 20, 2003 5