Oregon shows it can win Iowa's way, but USC has one clear advantage over Ducks

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

What a clunker that Oregon-Iowa game was, huh? Trojan fans hope that’s not a preview of next week, because that means Iowa is imposing its will and USC is going to have to find a creative (likely stressful) way to win like they did against Nebraska.

The Ducks were up to the task though, pulling out an 18-16 win at the last minute to remain a 1 loss team in currently in position for a College Football Playoff berth.

Here’s everything to take away about Oregon’s performance in that game, why they showed they will make it tough on USC and one key advantage I believe USC has at this point.

Environment

Oregon struggled a little bit with Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium environment, especially with penalties and getting their passing game going. The Ducks were penalized 5 times for 57 yards and had only 112 yards through the air. Their communication looked out of sync at times.

It’s one of the only tough environments the Ducks have faced all year, with Beaver Stadium at Penn State being the other. USC won’t have that advantage in two weeks — the Ducks will be playing at home at Autzen Stadium.

But, Iowa won’t have the advantage of their raucous home crowd against USC next Saturday. They’ll instead have to face what is expected to be a strong Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum turnout for homecoming weekend.

Running depth

Oregon has one of the deepest running back rooms in the country, and Dante Moore isn’t too shabby running the ball either when he needs to. They leaned on that depth heavily against Iowa. The Ducks had 3 players rush 7 times or more, and totaled 7.3 yards per rush as a team.

Noah Wittington led the charge with 17 rushes for 118 yards, and the Ducks gained 261 yards on the ground total.

Unless USC gets Waymond Jordan back healthy against Oregon, they will have a clear disadvantage against the Ducks in terms of depth. The running load will be put almost entirely on King Miller’s shoulders again, while Oregon has a depth of talent to dip into for a change of pace or should one of their backs get injured.

USC needs to be consistently good against the run for a full 60 minutes to beat Oregon. Not just contain 1 player, not just lock it down in the second half. And after how the last few weeks have gone, that means USC needs to step it up in their run defense.

Ducks have a good run defense to boot

Oregon held Iowa to 3.3 yards per rush without a 39 yard loss on a bad snap that was credited to the “team”. They consistently made it tough on the Hawkeyes.

This spells the Notre Dame game for USC, where Notre Dame bullied the Trojans on the ground on offense and limited King Miller defensively.

They need to find a way to make sure that doesn’t happen, and that is true on the offensive side of the ball too. Some suggestions: consistent rushing attempts for Jayden Maiava, working Makai Lemon into the rushing attack, getting one of Bryan Jackson/Harry Dalton III/Riley Wormley ready to take 10 rushing attempts against Oregon.

The turnover battle

Despite Oregon’s relative dominance in the trenches, I would still say Iowa gave them this game. The Hawkeyes shot themselves in the foot by losing the turnover battle 3-1. That included a safety on a bad snap for the first score of the game.

Remind me what the difference in the game was again? Oh yeah, 2 points. 2 free points that the Hawkeyes just gave the Ducks.

USC needs to take care of the ball against Oregon (and Iowa for that matter). They can’t count on the Ducks to make lots of mistakes at home.

USC’s biggest advantage is at quarterback

It’s clear after the Iowa game that Jayden Maiava is better than Dante Moore, and that’s not controversial at this point in the season.

Maiava has nearly 1,000 passing yards more than Moore. Moore has passed for over 250 yards 3 times, Maiava has passed for 250+ 7 times. He has 4 more total touchdowns than Moore also. Jayden Maiava has been good in every game against Nebraska and flat out dominates inferior opponents. Dante Moore is just inconsistent, regardless of Oregon’s opponent’s caliber.

Against Northwestern, Oregon and USC’s one common opponent, Moore was 16 for 20 with 178 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception. Maiava just completed 24 of 33 passes for 299 yards and 3 total touchdowns with 1 interception.

Moore is also in a slump. In the past two weeks he has 198 combined yards with no passing touchdowns and 1 interception.

USC needs to exploit this

Oregon hasn’t been in a lot of shootouts. Sure, their offense put up big numbers against inferior opponents, but they haven’t had to go blow-for-blow against a team with an elite passing attack. That’s partially because their defense is so good, holding opponents to under 24 points in every game they’ve played.

But if USC can open up the passing game at Autzen Stadium, that could put Moore and the Ducks offense in an uncomfortable position.

Maiava struggled against Nebraska, the best pass defense in the country, but just tore up Northwestern. The Wildcats have a very good pass defense by many metrics as well.

The opportunity ahead

We all know Maiava is a much better quarterback when he’s feeling confident. The Iowa game is big in and of itself, but could also fuel Maiava’s confidence against Oregon.

Think about it: Dante Moore just laid an egg against Iowa. If Maiava has a much better game against the Hawkeyes like I expect he will, he can take a quick look at the box scores and head into the Oregon game knowing that if the game against the Ducks comes down to him versus Dante Moore, Maiava is the better, more battle tested quarterback.

It’s a big moment for USC’s receivers to continue their resurgence as well and prove that Maiava can rely on them against the better defenses in the country.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Oregon football beats Iowa despite subpar play from Dante Moore

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos