Round 2 of the College Football Playoff is here, and since the bracket was announced it was almost an inevitably that No. 5 Oregon would meet No. 4 Texas Tech. Though this match-up was predicted so long in advance, there are still some questions that will only be answered on the field.
Texas Tech’s Defense
Texas Tech’s defense has been elite this season. It is one of the top-ranked defenses in every category, including No. 1 in rush defense. They are without a doubt the best defense and team in the Big 12. However, their schedule has been exclusively Big 12 with an uneventful out-of-conference slate. It’s their schedule and they have played it to the best of their ability, the only blemish a loss to Arizona State when their starting quarterback was injured.
But we know relatively nothing about how Texas Tech’s defense stacks up against one of the Top 5 teams in the country and one of the top teams in the B1G, which is a better conference from top to bottom. Sure, Texas Tech dismantled BYU in the regular season and again in the conference championship game, but BYU’s roster is a far cry from what Oregon can field — and the only other significant win on Texas Tech’s schedule this season was against an OK Utah team. Texas Tech fans will be quick to point out that Utah has beaten Oregon in the past, but the last time Utah beat Oregon was in 2021 before Dan Lanning.
The Ducks have one of the best rush offenses and offensive lines in the country. They have already been tested against some of the best B1G rush defenses, and have chewed them up. The exception is Indiana, where Oregon moved away from the run but beat Indiana’s average rush defense in yards per play allowed.
Will Oregon’s offensive line control the line of scrimmage against potentially the best defense they’ve faced so far, or has Texas Tech’s Big 12 schedule overly inflated their stats?
Noah Whittington and the Oregon running backs are some of the best in college football. Can Texas Tech stop them?
(Photo By: Brad Repplinger)
Can Oregon’s Defense Play Four Quarters of Elite Football?
Oregon’s defense has been good this year, though they’ve been burned against some of the more prolific offenses. Oregon ranks eighth in total defense, giving up 271.4 yards per game. That is a stat that comes after Oregon gave up 500 yards of garbage time offense to JMU in the first round. In terms of scoring defense, the Ducks rank No. 10 with 16.3 points per game. That is about a two-point increase over the pre-JMU stat.
The Ducks have an absolutely dominant defense when they get rolling, but they tend not to play four quarters’ worth of elite defense. There are naturally instances in games when the game flows in favor of the other team, but against some of the better teams, that usually comes with giving up points.
Texas Tech on paper has one of the best scoring offenses in the country, ranked No. 2 with 42 points per game. However, just like their defense, they have played a Big 12 schedule which has not offered top-tier resistance.
Close Game Grit
Oregon has played in some close games this season and we’ve seen the best and worst of Dante Moore. Against Penn State, Moore was clutch and pushed the Ducks’ offense to victory over the Nittany Lions. Against Indiana, though, Moore was under duress and played horribly — and with the game on the line, he threw two interceptions that allowed Indiana to pull away with the win late in the fourth.
Since Indiana, Moore has shown he has some real grit when it matters. He has learned from that experience and grown from it. He put together a last-minute scoring drive against Iowa to put the game away, which required some difficult passes, and with the help from Malik Benson’s incredible catch, Moore set the Ducks up for a game-ending field goal.
But he will need to prove that he can play in another big-time game, and it will be up to him to lead the Ducks to victory.
Dante Moore has shown he can produce under pressure, and Texas Tech will provide pressure.
(Photo By: FishDuck Football Pictures)
On the other sideline, the Red Raiders haven’t played in many close games with an average score differential in the 20s. This is in part due to their strong defense and in part due to their schedule.
When push comes to shove and the game is on the line, which team has the ability to shut the door on the other?
Second-Round Curse
Will the second-round hangover show up again this year? Last year every team that got a first round bye lost in the second round, and all teams were sluggish coming out in the first quarter. We are all familiar with what happened to the Ducks. Will Texas Tech start fast or will they feel the long bye slump?
These topics are fun to debate, but the reality is that we can’t know the answers to these questions until Thursday morning when the Orange Bowl kicks off.
David Marsh
Portland, Oregon
Top Photo By: Scott Kelley
Natalie Liebhaber, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in financial technology in SLC, Utah.
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David Marsh is a high school social studies teacher in Portland, Oregon. As a teacher he is known for telling puns to his students who sometimes laugh out of sympathy, and being both eccentric about history and the Ducks.
David graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012 with Majors in: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and Geography. David began following Ducks Football after being in a car accident in 2012; finding football something new and exciting to learn about during this difficult time in his life. Now, he cannot see life without Oregon football.