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After meeting in the Holiday Bowl to end 2005, Oklahoma travels to Oregon Satuday.
By Douglas Kroll
Special to Collegejersey.com
With Week Three upon us, and so many great matchups on the slate, one of the least heralded contests will take place up in Eugene, Ore. between the 11th ranked Oklahoma Sooners and No. 18 Oregon.
In a rematch of last year’s Holiday Bowl, the Ducks will try and get some revenge after the Sooners walked away with a 17-14 win to end last season. The only other meeting between the two teams was back in 2004 when Oklahoma won easily 31-7 in Norman, Okla.
After being the favorite last week at home against Fresno St., the Ducks will be favored once again this week, but for the second straight week they may be the upset pick of Saturday. At home last weekend, they narrowly escaped an upset minded Fresno St. team to remain undefeated.
The Sooners, who will be playing its second straight Pac-10 team, will have to be able to stop a potent Oregon offense which has been in full throttle the first two weeks of the season. They are averaging 39.5 points and 456.5 yards per game, including over 200 yards on the ground. Junior QB Dennis Dixon will get his first crack at Oklahoma, and so far this season has looked good in his first two games in the green and yellow. Dixon has thrown for 476 yards and a touchdown and is completing two-thirds of his passes.
Sophomore running back Jonathan Stewart will return to the lineup after an impressive opening game against Stanford, in which he ran for 168 yards. An ankle injury allowed Stewart to only run one time for three yards last week.
When it comes to stopping the run, this is where Oregon may find itself in a little bit of trouble. With one of the better running backs in the nation, in Adrian Peterson, coming to town, the Ducks will have to do better than allow over 150 yards per game rushing.
The Sooners have relied heavily upon the junior running back, with new quarterback Paul Thompson still trying to figure out the offense. Peterson has rushed for 304 yards and three touchdowns in the first two weeks. While Thompson has struggled at times, he hasn’t been a complete flop when it comes to replacing Rhett Bomar under center. Thompson has completed just over 60 percent of his passes, and thrown four touchdowns, but he’s also been intercepted three times, a ratio that will have to get better as the season goes along.
Thompson’s favorite target thus far early on, has been Malcolm Kelly. He’s hauled in only nine passes, but two of them have been for touchdowns with both of them coming last weekend against Washington. Kelly leads the team in every receiving category heading into Eugene.
One thing that the Oklahoma does need to step up is there defensive line play. Teams have averaged nearly 170 yards on the ground so far, and they have only picked up one seack on the young season. The defense will also be hungry for their first interception of the 2006 season, going empty-handed against UAB and the Huskies.
The Sooners hope to imrove to 3-0 for the seventh time in the last eight years, while Oregon will look to do so for the second consecutive season.
Douglas Kroll can be reached at dckroll@hotmail.com
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