College Football Week 8: Thursday night matchup

Thursday, October 18th

1. #3 Oregon @ Arizona State  9:00 PM ET ESPN

- This has the making to be a long night of football , but in the end you will be sitting there trying to catch your breath. The Oregon Ducks are averaging 86.2 plays per game and Arizona State is averaging 77.8 plays per game. I have a feeling this is going to be like the game from the 2010 season. It will be very fast paced and physical game. It will be the Ducks first real challenge of the season. This is going to be a test to see how freshman Marcus Mariota handles the pressure of facing a better defense and playing in a tougher environment. The Ducks also go into Thursday with defensive problems relating to an incident that left defensive tackle Isaac Remington suspended indefinitely. True freshmen defensive lineman Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner will see the field a lot more now and junior Taylor Hart will take Remington's spot on the line. Senior Dion Jordan will also be asked to do a lot more on the defensive side of the ball. The Ducks need to prepare for a Sun Devil air raid offense that is averaging 291.2 passing yards per game. Sun Devil quarterback Taylor Kelly has averaged 266.6 passing yards per game and the offense is averaging 40.5 points per game. The Duck's offense is currently second in the nation in scoring with 52.3 points per game. The Oregon rushing attack, which averages 302.3 yards per game, will play a defense that is giving up just 15.8 points per game. This is going to be a really tight game for the most part. We will see if the Ducks can tire the Sun Devil defense out and pull away in the second half. The Ducks have beaten Pac-12 opponents this season by an average of 35 points and have won the last seven meetings against the Sun Devils. Lastly, I will take The Duck aka Puddles to take down Sparky in a fighting match. Over the past month, both have been running negative campaign ads proving why the other should not be President. 

Pick: Oregon 

sources: teamrankings.com, espn.com, and registerguard.com