USC is gathering intel on Colorado, but don’t forget about Oregon

USC’s first task when watching Colorado-Oregon is to scout the Buffs, but don’t forget the November Trojan trip to Autzen.

The USC Trojans play Colorado on September 30. When they eventually watch film of the upcoming Colorado-Oregon game, they will mostly look at the Buffaloes. However, this doesn’t mean they won’t scrutinize Oregon.

USC will give the Ducks a longer look when the Trojans prepare for their November 11 trip to Eugene, but you can be sure the coaching staff will take some notes about Oregon and refer to them later in the season when the trip to Autzen Stadium arrives.

The education of the USC Trojans can be filtered through a lot of different questions, but one is how Colorado tries to solve Oregon.

What is the biggest key to victory for the Buffaloes? We asked our Pac-12 panel:

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Donald Smalley, Ducks Wire: Oregon turns the ball over and the Buffs have a short field for easy scores. Shedeur Sanders will have to be great on Saturday.

Zachary Neel, Ducks Wire: Score points. That sounds obvious, but this is a game where Colorado needs a shootout in order to be competitive. They won’t be able to stop the Ducks from scoring, so they will need a big day from Sanders in order for it to be close.

Matt Wadleigh, Trojans and Buffaloes Wire: The biggest key to victory is finding some way to contain the Oregon offense. The Colorado offense isn’t the concerning part, although it didn’t look very promising for the majority of the CSU game. If it gets to a shootout, the Buffs have to find a way to get some stops at some point.

Matt Zemek, Trojans Wire: Pick off Bo Nix three times. CU has to force turnovers and get points off them to have any realistic chance.

Catch all of Ducks Wire’s Pac-12 team previews for the 2023 season:

Arizona — Arizona State — California — Colorado — Oregon State  — Stanford — UCLA — USC — Utah — Washington — Washington State