I’ve been thinking about it. You’ve been thinking about it. Your mom and dad are probably thinking about it. If your dog could talk, she’d talk about it too. “It” is the Civil War of course. The biggest Civil War in history! Other than that actual “war” that we fought against the Confederacy. I guess that was relevant too. But this war is for the Roses!
Keys for the Ducks:
- Hit Sean Canfield. Hit Canfield hard. Canfield on the ground equals Ducks on their way to victory.
- Slice and dice the Beaver secondary – The Beavs are good against the run, but are susceptible to missed tackles and appearing lost in the secondary. If Masoli is able to get in a rhythm early on, OSU is in for a long day.
- Stop the fly sweep. Last year the Ducks shut down the Beavers and their signature play. They need to replicate that effort in order to seal their Rose Bowl berth.
- No more Masoli fumbles. No more muffed punts. It’s that simple.
Keys for the Beavs:
- Spread the wealth around Mr. Canfield. Continue to complete passes at a high percentage, and incorporate your lesser known but extremely effective offensive weapons (Halahuni, Adeniji, etc) and this could be the signature win in Oregon State football history. Yeah, this would be bigger than any USC beatdown.
- Quizz left, Quizz right, Quizz up the middle, Quizz out of the backfield. Quizz Quizz Quizz. Give the soon-to-be two time Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year the ball in space and let him do his magic. The Ducks are typically good against quick backs, but they’ve yet to play Quizz, and he wants to show them what they’ve been missing.
- Wrap up LaMichael James. The Beavs better understand what they’re facing in James (a miniature clone of their own star) or else he’ll be the Texas running back who leaves with the accolades.
- Stay focused, tune out the crowd, and keep the game close. Both teams excel in a pressure cooker environment. OSU wants to be there when the game is on the line. If so, their playmakers have just as good a chance as Jeremiah “the Great Escape” Masoli.
Predictions and more links and analysis are yet to come.
What are your keys to the Civil War?
Had a family discussion on this subject. I think our oldest son put it best when he said, “The Beavers have a much smaller margin for error than the Ducks”. Being at Autzen and with our undefeated record at home this season we have an advantage. However, the Beavers have played well on the road, with only one loss, that to USC, and it was a close high scoring game. The Beavers obviously aren’t afraid to go on the road. Canfield and Masoli are very different QBs, but at this point both are playing their A games. I don’t see the Beavers defense holding the Ducks down very much, so I see this game as the Beavers having to outscore the Ducks. Although they may be capable of doing this, I just don’t see it happening unless they play near perfect ball; winning the turnover margin and not turning the ball over, few penalties and not in key situations, in other words, don’t beat them selves. The keys for the Ducks are to; play focused but be loose (have fun), don’t beat yourself with turnovers and penalties. The Ducks need to make Canfield beat them, not Quizz, he must be held down way below his average. The Beavers will be difficult enough to stop even if they are one dimensional throwing the ball. If Quizz is running wild and Canfield is picking us apart it may be a long day. There is no doubt in my mind the Oregon offense is going to score over 40, just how much over 40 is a mystery. The goal is to hold OSU down enough so 40 points is a win. It will sure help the Ducks if the defense and special teams can both score, or at least set the offense up for multiple easy scores. This has all the makings for a great game; two very good teams, a lot on the line, and a rivalry game.
For the record, LaMichael is bigger than Jaquizz