#4 Stanford Vs. #7 Oregon: Preview

LaMichael James ran for 3 TD's and 257 yards last season against Stanford.
(Photo By Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

Rarely do expectations in college football meet reality. In the Pac-12 at the beginning of the year, everyone had Oregon and Stanford as the preseason favorites to win the conference. A lot of things can happen through the season, be it injuries, teams not living up to expectations or what have you but this showdown in Palo Alto has maintained it's luster to this point in the season. College Gameday will be on hand for what is sure to be the premier match up of the week. (More after the jump)

Last season, Stanford rolled into Autzen Stadium in a game that did not disappoint. The Cardinal was able to capitalize on Oregon mistakes early and took a 21-3 lead. Stanford's physical brand of football was dominating the home team when they had the ball and everything was going their way. Oregon, though showed signs of life in the second quarter and Darron Thomas connected with Jeff Maehl for the touch down. The momentum started to turn when on the ensuing kick off, Rob Beard kicked the ball onsides and recovered it, himself giving the Ducks the ball back. They would convert that drive into another score bringing it close at 21-17. Andrew Luck would not be denied though and lead Stanford on what would be the last touch down on the day. Stanford would lead 31-24 at the half and would not score again.

The second half belonged to Oregon as the Ducks scored 28 unanswered, including a game capping 76 yard touch down run by LaMichael James to give the final score of 52-31.  Both teams ended up playing in BCS bowls. Stanford won the Orange Bowl and Oregon lost in the national championship.

That brings us to this season. The roles seem a bit reversed as Stanford is now the home team and are hot in pursuit of a national championship berth. Oregon on the other hand, are on the outside looking in for the big game but could make significant ground on the top 4 teams in the nation by knocking off the Cardinal on the road.

For Stanford, it all starts and stops with Andew Luck. To this point in the season, Luck has thrown for 2424 yards and a stellar 26 touchdowns against only 5 interceptions. Luck has also benefited from stellar line play which to this point in the season has only surrendered 4 sacks. The apple of the NFL draft's eye, Luck has completed 71.3 percent of his passes and has been impressive to this point in the season. Luck's favorite targets are Griff Whalen and Senior tight end Coby Fleener. Luck and Fleener have connected on 8 touch down passes so far this season and the two have been deadly.

One concern the Cardinal have to this point in the season are their mounting injuries. Last week against Oregon State, Chris Owusu sustained his third concussion in 13 months and is doubtful to play against the Ducks. His vertical threat will be missed, but not nearly as much as Zach Ertz and Levine Toilolo. Stanford loves to run their offense out of a 3 TE set and the absence of Ertz and the 6'8" Toilolo could be felt if neither play against Oregon. The offensive line doesn't seem overly concerned as tackle Johnathan Martin was quoted as saying "We're very confident with what we do," he said. "We play a lot better at home. We're a little banged up, but we look forward to getting healthy this week and being ready to go." How healthy they are will go a long way in deciding the outcome of this game. Earlier in the season, the defense took a hit also as leading tackler and leader of the defense Shayne Skov went down with a broken ankle early on against Arizona. Filling in admirably in his place has been Chase Thomas who has racked up 35 tackles to this point in the season.

Their opponents have not been without injuries themselves. The Ducks have seen starters such as Darron Thomas and LaMichael James go down to injuries against Arizona State and California, respectively. Both missed time, but last week against Washington seemed to be getting back into the flow of the offense. The Oregon offense has at times seemed inconsistent but overall have been effective. Last week, LaMichael James got back to form rushing for 153 yards and a touch down against the Huskies. On the defensive side of the ball, senior Anthony Gildon has been out for the past few weeks with an injury but could return against the Cardinal. Gildon would provide experience in a green secondary and solidify one of the corner slots for an Oregon defense who performed admirably against Washington. The Ducks, however will face their biggest test of the season trying to slow Andrew Luck and the Cardinal's powerful offense.

The one knock that could be presented against Stanford is that to this point in the season they have not played any team currently ranked in the top 25. Their stiffest challenge came against USC in a triple overtime affair which saw the Cardinal come away with a fumble in the end zone to cap the victory. It will be interesting to see if their defense can stand up against a dynamic attack like Oregon's. The game features the two highest scoring offenses in the Pac-12 and only 4.2 points separate the defenses in points per game allowed. Something has to give between these two juggernauts of the division. The winner of this game will become the outright favorite to win the North division and conversely the favorite to win the Pac-12 and host the championship game.