Oregon vs. USC Brings Many Challenges That Ducks Must Answer Defensively

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Oregon has a very easy game on Friday night against Portland State, a contest it should win by 40-plus points. 

That isn't really a game anybody is talking about, as many are looking ahead to the USC game next Saturday. Taking on USC, the No. 12-ranked team in the country as of right now prior to its game against Rutgers, there are a lot of reasons to believe that this could be a deciding factor in Oregon's season. 

If Oregon loses this game after dropping its contest against Oklahoma State, one could strongly argue that Oregon will be left out of the College Football Playoff. 

Obviously, if it wins every other game in the Big Ten, makes the Big Ten championship game, and wins it, it would make the playoff, but every loss right now is going to be a major one. Regarding this game against USC, I really don't think it's crazy to say that it could be season-defining.

It's almost tough to get a feel for what Oregon will look like in this game, but one writer from The Athletic tried to say it best. He spoke about how good USC's offense has been and how bad Oregon's defense has been, which could lead to a disaster.

“And then there’s the defense, which did not look remotely like a veteran unit. It is currently tied for 113th in pass plays of 20-plus yards allowed with eight, and 89th in opponent passer rating (132.4). And a week from Saturday, they face USC’s Jayden Maiava, who, through three games, is completing 80.7 percent of his passes with 10 touchdowns and one INT.

“But I won’t make any assumptions just yet. The Trojans have opened with three G6 lightweights while Oregon has faced possibly the top G6 team in Boise and what may turn out to be a pretty good P4 foe. The Ducks may have been the first national title contender to get exposed, but many of the others haven’t yet played someone capable of doing so,” Stewart Mandel wrote.

Oregon's defensive problems have been disgusting to start the year and, frankly, inexcusable. I completely understand that defensive problems have been seen at times in recent years, but we've never seen anything like this. 

We also assumed entering the season that Oregon would be one of the best defensive teams in America, though it has been far from that to start the year. 

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