Oregon State vs Oregon Ducks: For Beavers Its All About Pride
The Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers Are Playing For Different Things. The Ducks Look To Their 8th Win in a Row, the Beavers Simply For Pride
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It is the annual battle between big brother and little brother. Oregon and Oregon State. House Divided. Whatever you want to call it if you live in the State of Oregon, but for the Ducks the game on Friday comes down to one simple truth. A win will give them their eighth straight heading into bowl season and a shot at a New Years Day game. Granted it is not the National Championship or the Pac-12 Championship, but this team has come a long way this season after starting a Quarterback with minimal experience in the system.
Vernon Adams has grown into the leader of this team in less than a season, which in itself is impressive. In his last game he threw the ball around to six different Wide Receivers in a win over Pac-12 South rival USC. Oregon has a lot left to play for. On the other side of the field at Autzen Stadium is a team that is just looking for the year to be over. Oregon State has been given a waiver this season after watching Mike Riley depart for the Big Ten and Nebraska, the Beavers hired Gary Andersen who was with Wisconsin as their new Head Coach before the season began.
Quarterback Sean Mannion has departed for the NFL which left Oregon State starting a Freshman at Quarterback. Seth Collins has done his best, but he is clearly no Marcus Mariota. If you compare the two QB’s entering this game it is like night and day. Adams has thrown 22 touchdown passes this season, Collins has thrown 6 to go with 4 interceptions. The Beavers have yet to get a Pac-12 Conference victory this season. They are 0-8 in Conference with their best opportunity at win being against Colorado, which was a 3 point loss.
Oregon State has two wins this season in non-conference play and last weekend were nearly shutout on the road at Washington as the Huskies took a 45-0 lead into halftime. The Beavers are averaging 19 points per game this season, good enough for 117th in the NCAA. As painful as this is to write, Oregon State is not a very good team, however when they play Oregon they eat their Wheaties and it is a different game. Are the Beavers capable of beating Oregon? Yes, but they have to play a perfect road game to do it. Pride is pretty much all that is left to play for on Friday.
One more statistical example, for the Oregon Ducks their top two Offensive Threats, Vernon Adams and Royce Freeman have combined for 34 touchdowns and over 3500 yards of total offense. For Oregon State, all three of their Quarterbacks have accounted for 1810 yards through the air to go with 10 interceptions. One of those Quarterbacks, Seth Collins is also the teams leading rusher with 536 yards on the ground.
Next: Oregon Ducks Headed To Alamo Bowl?
Oregon and Oregon State face off in the 119th edition of the Civil War on Friday at 1pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports 1.