Oregon’s defense will face the task of stopping Cal’s high-powered offense
By Shawn Miller
November isn’t kind to Northwest college football fans, and with a predicted 60 percent chance of rain Saturday, No. 15 Oregon and No. 23 California are preparing accordingly. “Weather should be a factor,” Cal head coach Jeff Tedford said.
That means more emphasis on each team’s running game, where Oregon has played between hot and cold all season and Cal has succeeded. The Ducks rank sixth in the Pacific-10 Conference in rushing offense with nine touchdowns and an average of 137.1 yards per game. Meanwhile, the Bears rank second, scoring 19 times on the ground and gaining 247 yards per game. “They have two backs that average over 100 yards a game,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “That’s a difficult proposition.” Cal sophomore running backs Marshawn Lynch (108.8 avg.) and Justin Forsett (108.4) rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in the conference for rushing yards per game. Lynch, who averaged a conference best 8.8 yards per carry last season, played in reserve for current NFL running back J.J. Arrington, who led the nation with 2,018 rushing yards last season. Forsett is currently having the breakout season that Lynch enjoyed one year ago, averaging 8.2 yards per carry. “You have to make sure you play really good, strong gap defense,” Oregon linebacker Anthony Trucks said. “You get one big explosion play to the house and it changes the shape of the game.”
Cal is used to taking it to the house. The Bears average 37.9 points per game, 10th in the nation, and rack up 462.6 yards per game. “The defense, we just worry about one thing and that’s dominating on defense, being aggressive, playing fast,” Oregon cornerback Justin Phinisee said. On the other hand, Oregon has averaged 137.1 rushing yards per game and scored only nine touchdowns on the ground — both ranking in the bottom half of the conference standings. The Ducks leading rusher, senior Terrence Whitehead, is averaging just more than 55 rushing yards per game and has scored only two rushing touchdowns. That means the offensive line will have to play at the top of its game, creating openings. However, that isn’t an easy task against Cal, which has given up an average of 123.6 rushing yards and touchdowns per game. “They’re good up front,” Oregon center Enoka Lucas said of his opposition. “Their D-ends are really good, their inside guys are good. They fly around the ball.” The Ducks rank third in the conference in rushing defense, allowing only 121.4 yards on the ground per game. Knowing that the running game will be prevalent for both teams, it will be up to the defenses and weather to determine Saturday’s outcome. So how does a team prepare for weather?
“We’ll dump balls in buckets of water today,” Tedford said before Tuesday’s practice. “We’ll have trash cans full of water and we’ll just dump the balls in there and let the quarterbacks throw them. It’s not just about the quarterbacks, it’s about the center, the running backs. “Wet-ball mechanics is about the whole team being very heads up, that at any time that ball could come out. You should always keep your head on a swivel because the ball could come out at any time,” Tedford added. “It is really important that we are heads up to wet-ball mechanics, offensively and defensively. In the kicking game, the punter securing the ball, just a little extra focus on catching the football.” Bellotti agreed with that assessment.
“The balls we end up using in practice if it rains during practice are much worse than any of the balls we use during a game,” Bellotti said. “They get heavier, they get slicker, and we don’t have quite the same wet-ball mechanics from our managers that we get from Pac-10 officials.” The winner of Saturday’s game will cement itself in the top three of the conference standings and in line for a solid bowl berth. If Oregon wins and Stanford loses to top-ranked USC Saturday, the worst the Ducks could finish would be in a tie for third place in the conference standings.
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