Quack Fix: Ducks prepare for physical Utah team, rise to 4th in CFP rankings

Highlights (from Tuesday's practice)

• If there is a team this year that has the ability to execute the "blueprint" that has taken down Oregon in recent years, it might just be Utah. They can grind it out in the run game, and they have a disruptive defensive front. But if practice yesterday was any indication, the Oregon defensive line might be able to match the Utah defensive line. They were all over the place in practice, getting into the backfield constantly against the scout team.
• A key for Oregon will be containing Utah RB Devontae Booker, who has been successful despite Utah's anemic passing game. From Coach Helfrich's comments, it sounds like Oregon will be keying on stopping the run, and not allowing them to get a play-action game working.

Links

• Tyson Alger has five takeaways from Oregon basketball's exhibition win against NCU, which Oregon won 101-69. If you missed it, go check out John Blutarsky's comment in the game thread from yesterday on how to feel about Altman and the basketball team.
• We're #4! We're #4! At this point the national consensus seems to be that Oregon and ASU control their own destiny. Both teams have a long November to get to the playoffs, though.
• Legal weed in Oregon! I guess that's now something the Oregon athletic department will have to worry about. Marijuana is still a banned substance according to the NCAA according to NCAA rules. But with more autonomy being given to the Power 5 conferences, it will be interesting to see what schools and conferences do about the issue. Marijuana is now legal in half of the states with Pac-12 teams.
• SBNation.com has an OddsShark prediction post on the Oregon vs. Utah game. Oregon sits as a 10-point favorite right now, and OddShark says that's just too little to pass up. After their shaky start, Oregon is 4-0 against the spread in their last 4 games. If their offense performs as they have recently, I expect that to move to 5-0. But I'll reserve full judgement until I see kalon's advanced stats preview dropping today.

Video Of the Day

In the latest installment of Mac and Mose, they review the Stanford game. While there is plenty of praise for the offense, they have some good comments on Erick Dargan, and how his physical play is helping set the tone for the defense and been a big part of the improvement shown over the past months.