Oregon

[ALUF]

Some thoughts on this weeks game. I’ll start with negatives, I believe that Oregon is better in every single way other than the return game than usc. This includes QB and receiver. Coaching will be better for them than usc. My concerns with Utah are what happens with our D without Barton who in my mind is as significant of a loss of anything else we’ve had with the D this year if not more so. Can our run game repeat the last two weeks? Can we handle the pressure of gameday? Can the fans (myself included) bring the noise in an afternoon game? Hangover from usc does make me very nervous, can we go back to back in HUGE games?

Positives, Barnes has shown he can ball with little mistake. His pick six was under pressure from bear alexander. I think we tighten things up at qb to the point where we are going to be pleased with his play the rest of the way! Vaki is the dude we need and I would rather have him and JJ just go back and forth full time instead of Vaki on D full time. Our receivers are coming around, the line is improving. We have a kicker again, the defense is well, THE defense. I think we will get to nix enough to slow them down. I know I expressed concern with the day game…but let’s get real RES is where it is at! We will be loud all day long. We will get some false starts, delay of games, and added juice to our team in our favor all game long.

My prediction, I initially said Oregon by 2 scores but looking at some stats of the teams Oregon has faced and vice versa with our team…Utah wins 28-17

[chinngiskhaan]

I don’t know what will happen, but I do have some thoughts on your points.

– I think Damuni is not as good as Barton, but still very capable. Our defense will be okay. I don’t think it is the linebackers that will be the problem (if there even is one)
– I don’t think a USC hangover will be an issue, especially for the fans. We are getting Gameday. If that doesn’t get the fans excited, then nothing will. Honestly, it takes far less than that for our fans to get jacked.

– I’m still nowhere near sold on our receivers. Parks dropped a huge pass. If Barnes wasn’t so tough, that would have killed our chances at a win. He and Vele did play better though (not hard to play better when you are virtually invisible for the first 6 games of the year). How much of that was USC’s defense?

[BungalowUte]

If Utah was playing in Autzen. I would pick Oregon to win rather easily. But, Because it’s at RES. I think Utah has a good chance to win this game. I’m thinking the score is going to be around 28-21. Both defenses are pretty good. Also, the weather isn’t going to be great Saturday either. Chance of rain and snow.

[RedUte14]

i think USC has better receivers and arguably better QB.

[The Miami Ute]

I think that USC has a better offense, period, than Oregon. USC has the #11 offense in the FBS after playing the following defenses:

#11 – Notre Dame
#14 – Utah
#34 – ASU
#35 – Arizona

As stated previously, the best defense that Oregon has played up to this point of the season is #59 – Texas Tech. We’ll see how highly ranked Oregon’s offense is at the end of the year.

[Utah]

I agree about the LB’s. The Barton loss is huge. BUT, we have some great LB’s on this team. While Damuni isn’t as good as Barton, he’s great. He carried Stanford’s defense at times the last few years. And he knows the defense now. I don’t think there will be that big of a drop off.