Brooks: Ambitious Ducks A Mighty Challenge For Buffs

BOULDER – Week 8 of the Colorado Buffaloes’ Pac-12 football season finds them cast in the same role as Week 1 – an underdog. Big difference, though: CU has seldom been this big an underdog.

But that doesn’t mean the Buffs will trek to Eugene for Saturday’s matchup against No. 3 Oregon (2:30 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks) with an ‘L’ already packed alongside their raingear.

College football’s oddsmakers have made the Ducks a 32.5-point favorite. In reality, their case isn’t difficult to make: The Buffs are winless this season in the Pac-12 (0-7), have been beaten in their last 23 road games against ranked opponents, and now are beaten up almost beyond recognition on defense.

Meanwhile, the Ducks are once-beaten in conference (6-1), are assured a spot in the Pac-12 title game as North Division champions, and have a solid chance to make an appearance in the inaugural four-team College Football Playoffs on New Year’s Day – provided they convincingly take care of business between now and then. Oregon (9-1) is currently No. 2 in that four-team CFP race, trailing only Alabama.

It’s a textbook case of everything to play for vs. very little to lose, but CU’s quarterback isn’t buying into those astonishingly long odds against his team. “I don’t see why we couldn’t beat Oregon or any team in the country,” said Sefo Liufau, whose weekend status has been clouded by a concussion suffered two Saturdays ago at Arizona. Liufau is expected to start but likely will share time with backup Jordan Gehrke, who played in the final quarter in Tucson.

Continued Liufau: “Besides one game where we just gave away a lot of points in the first half against USC, we’ve been in every game, even against Arizona State when no one thought we could stay with them. I think we outplayed them for the most part. We just didn’t score points . . . I definitely think we can beat Oregon and the whole team has that mentality. Other people may not see it that way but we just know we have to go out there and execute for four quarters.”

That’s been the Buffs’ chief problem. A lack of execution – specifically, many turnovers offered and very few collected – has sentenced them to a 2-8 season. Their turnover margin – 11 gained, 20 lost, for minus-9 – ranks them tenth in the Pac-12. The Ducks, meanwhile, are at plus-15 and lead the league in that category and most others on offense (scoring, rushing, total offense).

If CU coach Mike MacIntyre was a member of the CFP selection committee, he would have boosted Oregon past Alabama in this week’s poll. “I would put them at number one,” he said at his weekly news conference. “Offensively and defensively they’re really, really talented . . . they’re an excellent football team.”

Any rundown of the Ducks begins with a run game that averages 232.1 yards (No. 1 Pac-12, No. 21 nationally), an offense that averages 531.2 total yards (No. 1 Pac-12, No. 5 nationally) and a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback. Oregon’s ‘O’ thrives under Marcus Mariota, who accounts for 330.4 yards of total offense a game. He’s passed for 29 touchdowns (with two interceptions) and run for eight TDs.

Maybe the Buffs will be aided by the weather in slowing Mariota and his offense; the forecast for Autzen Stadium and the surrounding area calls for an 80 percent chance of rain. But those might be ideal Duck conditions.

MacIntyre says Mariota “is playing at a high, high caliber. He’s healthy and he’s running around and making plays . . . in today’s college football, I think he kind of fits (the perfect QB mold) to a ‘T.’ He’s able to keep plays created and he’s able to make a lot of throws. They do a good job with him in their offense, the way they utilize him. But I think one of the things that also makes him go is that he has a lot of good weapons around him.”

One weapon – tight end Pharaoh Brown – is out of the lineup (and season) with a leg injury, and center Hroniss Grasu is out for two weeks with a knee injury. But tackle Andre Yruretogoyena returns after an eight-game absence, rejoining an offensive line that suffered in September with the loss of Jake Fisher. The Ducks’ stellar left tackle is back, however, and MacIntyre believes Oregon’s O-line as a whole has “grown up and matured.”

CU is ranked last in the Pac-12 in rushing defense (104th nationally), allowing 206.4 yards a game, and 118th in scoring defense (38.6 points a game) – not favorable stats against the run-happy Ducks. In addition to Mariota’s ability to scramble and make plays on the edge, big freshman tailback Royce Freeman (6-0, 229) averages just under 100 yards (94.5) rushing and has scored a league-best 14 rushing TDs. He needs 65 yards to become the fourth Pac-12 player to reach 1,000 yards on the ground this season.

The Buffs’ defense is battered, bruised and running critically low on safeties, with the top five at that position either out for the season or in week-to-week status. Out: Jered Bell, Chidobe Awuzie and Marques Mosley. Questionable due to concussion symptoms: Tedric Thompson and Evan White.

Said MacIntyre: “I've been coaching for 25 years and I've never seen anything like it attack one position. That has really limited us. We've got guys playing double roles and guys that two weeks ago were on scout team that now are starting. It's a situation where we're getting every man available that can play."

The defense’s vulnerability due to injury makes it imperative for Liufau, Gehrke and their offense to be as efficient as possible. It’s a tall order against an Oregon defense that MacIntyre compares physically with the Syracuse basketball team’s vaunted zone defense.

“They’re all so long and they just consume the field,” MacIntyre said. “They’re 6-7, they’re 6-8, they’re 6-5. They’re long, athletic guys . . .  they get in passing lanes and they run people down. Their secondary is tall and athletic (and) I think they’re very, very talented.”

CU receiver Nelson Spruce agrees, calling the Oregon secondary “the best we’ve faced so far.” But Spruce will be among the best receivers the Ducks corners and safeties have faced so far. He is within realistic reach of several CU seasonal and career records.

One catch at Oregon will give him 100, making him the first player in school history to hit that total in one season. If he catches a touchdown pass in either of the final two games – the Buffs close the season at home against Utah on Saturday, Nov. 29 – it will be his 12th this season, giving him CU’s single-season mark for TD receptions. And 18 catches over the last two games will make him CU’s career reception leader.

CU receivers coach Troy Walters, said Spruce, has talked to his players about Oregon’s secondary being “a benchmark to see where we’re at against the top team in the nation. We’re going to be able to see where we’re at as individuals and as a team.”

At least two sneak peeks already are available: Spruce is among 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, while the Buffs still search for four-quarter consistency, offensive efficiency and their first Pac-12 win.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU