Containing Jeremiah Smith, disrupting Luke Fahey and finding a way to move the football against an elite defense will determine whether the Ducks can turn the lessons of Northwestern into a season-changing victory in Columbus.
The most useful lesson Oregon can take from Ohio State’s loss to USC is not that the Buckeyes have suddenly become an ordinary football team. They haven’t, and the talent remaining on Ryan Day’s roster makes that an especially dangerous assumption. Instead, the lesson is that Ohio State can be beaten even when it controls significant portions of a game, provided its opponent takes advantage of the opportunities that emerge.
The Trojans did not dominate Ohio State statistically. They were outgained by 126 yards, possessed the football for barely 20 minutes and allowed the Buckeyes to run for more than 200 yards. Yet USC created the more valuable offensive plays, prevented Ohio State from consistently finishing drives and capitalized on the mistakes that contributed to the Buckeyes’ second loss of the season.
That performance provides Oregon with a useful starting point, although the Ducks must recognize that simply attempting to reproduce USC’s approach would ignore the differences between the teams. Oregon has its own strengths, personnel considerations and vulnerabilities, and defensive coordinator Chris Hampton must account for a receiver whose extraordinary ability changes virtually every calculation.
The challenge for the Ducks is identifying which elements of their recent improvement can translate against Ohio State and where their game plan must change to account for the Buckeyes’ superior talent.
