The Oregon Ducks opened their PAC-12 conference schedule against the California Golden Bears on a rainy Saturday night. On the first play of the game, Oregon’s star running back De’Anthony Thomas was injured and did not play for the rest of the contest. For most teams, a star player being injured would at least slow them down – not Oregon.
Oregon ran riot on the California defense and won easily, 55–16. The Golden Bears never even looked like competing with the Ducks. The 27 point first half was their third game of the season in which they scored at least 20 points in the first quarter; the only game that they didn’t score more than 20 in the first quarter was against the Tennessee Volunteers.
The Ducks’ offense looks unstoppable, but can any team in the PAC-12 come even close to stopping it?
Stanford is the only team in the PAC-12 that might be able to slow down Oregon’s offense with their defense, and that would mean that they would have to still put up around 40 points of offense against Oregon’s stout defense. It could happen, but it’s very unlikely.
All of the other PAC-12 teams are all just now getting back to having the depth and talent needed to take on teams like Oregon and Stanford. UCLA, Arizona State, Washington, Arizona and Oregon State are all good NCAA teams, but they are nowhere near the talent level to beat Oregon.
If any team wants to steal the PAC-12 from the Ducks, they are not only going to need their players to play at the best of their ability, but they are going to need a whole lot of luck as well. Expect Oregon to continue to roll over opponents until their first real test against Stanford on November 7.
Taylor Sturm is an SEC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS or add him to your network on Google.
