It’s pretty fair to say that the national perception of the Oregon Ducks took a brutal beating over the weekend.
While not many people expected the Ducks to go into Atlanta and beat the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs, most thought that they could at least be competitive on the same field.
They were not.
Losing 49-3, Oregon showed that they don’t quite yet belong on the same field with Georgia, and the perception now is that the Ducks have a long way to go before they can get back to competing for a championship in Eugene. That’s a tough start to the Dan Lanning era, but one that the team can grow from.
Every week, we will look at ESPN’s Football Power Index to get a feeling for how Oregon is expected to finish out the season, looking at expected winning percentage and chance at making the postseason.
After the first week, the numbers aren’t pretty.