Oregon 37, Oregon State 20. Of all the superlatives heaped on Oregon's diversity, tempo and killer instinct over the last two months, the Ducks probably haven't received a better compliment this year than this: Today's 496-yard, 37-point effort in a blowout win over their hated rival, featuring two different Duck backs over 130 yards rushing, was just, you know, routine. Oregon came into the day as a 16-point favorite, and leaves a 17-point winner. Another day at the office.
That's what we should expect from a top-ranked team putting the finishing touches on a championship season, and it's what the Ducks have consistently delivered from the opening kick. Through 12 wins, only one victim kept the final score in single digits. None led in the fourth quarter. Oregon State is only the second to hold the nation's No. 1 attack below 40 points, and only the fourth to keep it below 500 yards – mostly, because Oregon wasn't exactly compelled to keep the pedal to the floor in the second half.
In other words, they make it look easy, which is saying something for a team that spent most of 2010 worrying about how to handle the unflattering spotlight that accompanied a rash of off-field trouble and the departure of its star quarterback. With the exception of the harrowing, 15-13 escape from Cal in November, the Ducks have barely broken a sweat, except to break into one of their patented second half sprints on the scoreboard. Today, they went on a 21-6 run from the start of the third quarter into the final two minutes, bringing the second half tally in games that were still competitive (within single digits) at the half to Oregon 183, Opponents 51. If Cal did stumble upon a "blueprint" for slowing this team down in Berkeley, Auburn has a month to decipher the code for the BCS title game, because nobody else has come close.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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