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3 keys to victory for No. 10 Oregon Ducks against No. 9 UCLA Bruins

How the Oregon Ducks can pull off a huge victory over Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins at Autzen Stadium on Saturday.

Saturday’s battle between the No. 10 Oregon Ducks and the No. 9 UCLA Bruins will be among the most exciting college football games of the year.

Chip Kelly returning to Autzen, two top-10 teams with high-octane offenses, ESPN’s College Gameday in tow, with Sabrina Ionescu guest picking, man it’s going to be quite the spectacle.

Of course, the theatrics are a lot more fun for Ducks fans if the game results in a victory for the men in green and yellow, and no doubt Kelly and the Bruins want to spoil the party and keep their undefeated record.

For Dan Lanning and the Ducks to secure a victory, here are three keys that need to be followed:

Bo at his Best

Simply put, Bo Nix playing the best football of his career on Saturday is the easiest way for Oregon to secure a huge victory at Autzen Stadium.

UCLA is a top-20 defensive team against the rush, holding opponents to under 100 yards per game on the ground. They are less effective at stopping air attacks, surrendering 245.8 yards per game on the season.

If Nix can move the ball efficiently through the air, while avoiding costly mistakes, this Oregon team should be able to put up enough points to stop Chip Kelly’s offense from winning.

But, Oregon can’t just rely on the offense for a win in this one:

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5 questions for Oregon Ducks to answer in big-time showdown with UCLA Bruins

Will Bo Nix steal the stage from DTR? Will Autzen swing the game in favor of the Ducks? We have some questions ahead of Saturday’s top-10 matchup.

The Oregon Ducks have not had this magnitude of a matchup since the first week of the season when they were faced with a showdown against the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs. They learned a lot in that game, most notably how far they still had to go before contending with the best teams in the nation, and most obviously, that Dan Lanning’s former team is still really good.

They grew from that experience and have used it to better prepare for this second big-time matchup of the year.

“Our theme for this week was just ‘control what you control,'” said tight end Moliki Matavao. “That’s really what the Georgia game kind of set out for us; forget about everything else and just control what you can control. Control our effort, control our physicality, control our assignments. As long as we do that, we’ll come up big.”

It will be interesting to see if that’s enough to sway the tides in their favor.

While there are some obvious questions that everyone has going into this game — Who is the top dog in the Pac-12? Does the winner of this game have a chance to sneak into the College Football Playoff? — we want to take a strong magnifying glass to this game and see what it reveals. Here are our five most important questions for Oregon to answer against UCLA on Saturday:

Trojans Wire goes on YouTube show to talk Pac-12 officiating controversy and UCLA-Oregon showdown

Our #USC show at the @VoiceOfCFB featured a chat with @ZacharyCNeel of @Ducks_Wire and @TonyBruin of @LastWordOnCFB before the Oregon-UCLA clash.

There is certainly a lot to talk about in USC football and Pac-12 football during a week in which the Trojans will not play. While USC takes a breather and tries to get its top players healthy for the stretch run, there is no shortage of interesting material to kick around in the Pac-12.

USC-Utah was a thrilling and controversial game with a lot of intense emotions during and after the contest. People are still talking about that game and all the big plot twists which unfolded in Salt Lake City.

Now, though, the scene shifts to Eugene for the big Oregon-UCLA game. It’s a clash of two top-10 teams. It’s a battle between Chip Kelly’s current employer, the UCLA Bruins, and his former employer, the University of Oregon.

Trojans Wire went on Mark Rogers’ show at The Voice of College Football to discuss USC-Utah. We asked two guests — Tony Siracusa of The Last Word on College Football, and Ducks Wire editor Zachary Neel — about the big battle between UCLA and Oregon. It’s a loaded show:

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Rapid-fire Q & A on UCLA-Oregon; get answers to all your important questions on Bruins-Ducks

We asked tons of questions to @Donald_Smalley of @Ducks_Wire about UCLA-Oregon … but each answer is no more than two words. Let’s play the lightning round!

UCLA-Oregon is almost here. We’re two days away from kickoff at the time of publication on Thursday morning. You need to be following our friends at Ducks Wire for complete coverage of Bruins-Ducks, this top-10 showdown involving Chip Kelly and his former employer.

You have probably noticed that Ducks Wire editor Zachary Neel helped us cover the larger world of Pac-12 football with a midseason check-in on a number of different topics. Now that the midseason items have been posted here at Trojans Wire, we’re shifting into full UCLA-Oregon mode.

With USC not playing a game this week, our attention is focused on Eugene this Saturday. We’re going to share Ducks Wire’s articles on the game while also posting some reaction stories of our own, plus our normal Sunday rankings of the Pac-12 and some comments on the championship race in the conference, which USC will be a part of until the very end of the Pac-12 season.

We asked Ducks Wire analyst Donald Smalley a large number of questions about UCLA-Oregon. We asked Don to limit his answers to two words for every question, so this will be a very quick read, but it will help you identify the players and storylines you need to monitor during Saturday’s huge game in Autzen Stadium:

7 notable quotes from Dan Lanning with matchup vs. No. 10 UCLA just days away

“These are games that don’t take a lot of pep talks. Guys are excited, we all recognize the moment here.”

The Oregon Ducks have had a couple of weeks to prepare for this top-10 showdown with the UCLA Bruins thanks to a well-timed bye week, but now we are just a few days away from the matchup taking place.

It will be quite the spectacle, with storylines running rampant. ESPN’s College GameDay will be in town, and former Oregon coach Chip Kelly will be once again making a return trip to Eugene. On top of that, you have the power balance in the Pac-12 conference hanging in the balance, with the winner of this game taking an undisputed spot at the top of the hierarchy, as well as moving up in the national rankings as well.

So how are the Ducks preparing for this all to take place? On Wednesday afternoon, media members got one last chance to talk to head coach Dan Lanning about it all. Here are some of the most notable quotes from that press conference:

Oregon should expect to see vintage Chip Kelly with UCLA’s offensive attack

Oregon might want to look at film of itself from a decade ago in order to prepare for the Bruins offense on Saturday.

It’s been quite a while since Chip Kelly’s offense has been rolling like this. The current UCLA Bruins are 6-0 and are going to put their perfect season on the line when they stroll into Autzen Stadium Saturday to take on the Ducks.

The uniforms have changed, the uniform manufacturer has changed and of course, the players inside the uniforms have changed. But what hasn’t changed is Kelly’s offensive schemes and ability to light up the scoreboard.

Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson is having a banner senior season as he is completing 75 percent of his passes and is averaging 251 yards through the air as well as 15 touchdowns to go with just two interceptions.

“He’s really familiar with their system. He’s completing the ball at a really high rate right now; he’s operating their offense,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said. “Obviously, he’s a weapon with his legs. He understands what they’re trying to accomplish. I think it’s a lot of the same things you see right now with our quarterback. Understanding what’s supposed to be accomplished on the field and executes at a high level and he’s certainly doing that.”

Senior tailback Zach Charbonnet is doing his best LaMichael James impersonation, although he is quite bigger than the former Duck great. At 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, Charbonnet is lumbering down the field at 123-yard-per-game clip. He has found the end zone six times.

Lanning said the Ducks need to keep Charbonnet lumbering down the field and avoid those explosion plays. If he’s going to rack up over 100 yards on the ground, Oregon needs to make sure Charbonnet does it in as many carries as possible.

“Ultimately, it’s about preventing explosive plays. You pull up explosive plays given up this year and created this year, what’s unique is both UCLA and us are, I think a plus 31 ratio right when it comes to explosive plays,” Lanning said. “That’s a really big indicator of wins and losses. But look at the top of our conference, I think maybe Washington is the only team that has more explosive plays created than UCLA and Oregon. When you look at those given up and those created that’s a really big factor in this game. I think the team that walks away with giving up less explosive plays and creating more is gonna have a great advantage.”

DTR can also hurt the opposition with his arm and he has a couple of good receivers to choose from. Jake Bobo is a tough matchup for any corner with his size-speed combo that he possesses. At 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, Bobo leads the Bruins with 64 yards a game and five touchdowns.

Kazmeir Allen has seemingly taken over that possession receiver role from Chase Cota, who moved to Eugene to become a Duck. Allen leads UCLA with 28 catches, but he’s averaging just 33 yards a game.

A lot has been made about Oregon’s experienced offensive line, but UCLA’s big uglies up front have done a good job for the Bruins. Raiquon O’Neal, Atonio Mafi, Duke Clemens, Jon Gaines and Garrett DiGiorgio have started all six games this season.

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5 UCLA Bruins the Ducks need to watch out for on Saturday

The UCLA Bruins are a perfect 6-0 as they come to Autzen Stadium on Saturday. These are the five Bruins that Oregon needs to watch out for.

Chip Kelly’s UCLA Bruins team comes into Autzen Stadium as the No. 9 in the nation and has a perfect 6-0 record. They also have an impressive win over Utah under their belt.

Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson has finally come into his own and is running the Chip Kelly offense to perfection. He runs a dynamic offense that scores over 40 points a game. The defense isn’t great, but it’s good enough to hold the opponent down enough for the offense to do its thing.

But the Bruins have played just one road game and that was at Colorado. So obviously, this is the first real big test for UCLA this season. Going into Autzen is vastly different than Boulder.

UCLA definitely has the talent to go into Eugene and go back to Pasadena still undefeated. There are five different Bruins Dan Lanning’s Ducks have to look out for and do their best to hold down in order to be victorious. Here are those five players.

Pac-12 midseason report: biggest surprise from the first half of the season

We talked to @Ducks_Wire about our #Pac12 midseason surprises. The biggest one is a coach Oregon fans know well … and who will be in Eugene this Saturday.

Trojans Wire talked to Ducks Wire and editor Zachary Neel about Pac-12 midseason awards, impressions, and storylines.

Here’s our big Pac-12 surprise, as told to Ducks Wire:

There are lots of big surprises in the conference. I didn’t think Utah would lose twice in the first six weeks. I didn’t expect Arizona to win at San Diego State, but the Aztecs’ offense is as bad as Iowa’s offense, which is really saying something.

Bo Nix, I have to admit, has greatly exceeded my expectations. I was not high on him and was not shy about saying so. USC’s defense not allowing 30 points in any of its first six games is incredible. I didn’t see that one coming. Washington looking great and then collapsing on defense is a real mind-bender.

Yet, more than anything else, it has to be Chip Kelly suddenly looking like he did at Oregon a decade ago. I’m sure, Zach, that you’re looking at UCLA and seeing the similarities to Chip’s Oregon teams.

Who thought Chip would suddenly figure it out at UCLA after completely failing to achieve anything significant during the Clay Helton years and wasting a huge opportunity?

UCLA looked bad against South Alabama, too. It’s not as though UCLA was playing great football in September. This all happened very quickly. It sure sets up an amazing scene in Autzen on Oct. 22.

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Everything Chip Kelly said about Oregon during his weekly press conference

Chip Kelly still holds Oregon in a high regard, but he’s coming up to Eugene on a mission and that’s to defeat the Ducks.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or are younger than eight years old, you know what Chip Kelly accomplished during his time at Oregon. While on the Duck sideline, everyone was a faceless opponent and no game was more important than any other game.

But over the years, Kelly’s stance on that might have changed, or possibly Oregon is just different since he actually wore green and yellow for a few years. He had plenty of positive things to say about the Ducks in his weekly press conference leading up to the game featuring two Top 10 teams.

Although he spread some love around, make no mistake that he is taking this game very seriously and Oregon has UCLA’s full attention come Saturday.

Here are just a few things Kelly said about this current Duck team.

Ranking the Pac-12 QBs through Week 7: Maybe winning does matter after all

The Pac-12 quarterback rankings may finally have stabilized after a couple of huge upsets in the conference.

In last week’s Pac-12 quarterback rankings, we questioned whether actually winning games had an effect on the Pro Football Focus numbers because it didn’t seem so. Dorian Thompson-Robinson had won a huge game for UCLA, but his numbers and overall ranking didn’t adjust all that much.

Although the rankings themselves, according to PFF haven’t changed all that much, the numbers for each quarterback may have been properly skewed into a more realistic spot.

One would think a couple of fairly big upsets, such as Stanford defeating Notre Dame and Utah over USC, would throw everything out of whack, but as Lee Corso will say, “Not so fast my friend!”

We also have a new member of the group. Oregon State’s Ben Gulbranson makes an appearance after his second full week at the helm of the Beaver offense. We’re not sure when Chance Nolan will return, so he’s out of the rankings for now.