#5 Oregon Ducks at #15 Oregon State Beavers Preview

Saturday at 3:00 in Corvallis, Oregon, the #5 Oregon Ducks will take on their in-state rival #15 Oregon State Beavers. Oregon is coming off of a shocking overtime loss to Stanford while Oregon State is coming off of a blowout against Cal.

Oregon looked to go on to the National Championship game against Notre Dame if they would have gotten by Stanford, but unfortunately for Chip Kelly and the rest of the Ducks, that didn't happen.

Of course with them being ranked #5, if the right teams lost, and they won out, I guess they could possibly still find their way into the National Championship picture, but it's looking unlikely.

Marcus Mariota has thrown 29 TDs
and only 6 INTs.

Although Oregon probably won't be looking at the National Championship picture, their freshman quarterback Marcus Mariota could still possibly be looking at the Heisman picture. Although he has quite a bit of competition, Mariota has looked really impressive this season, throwing 201 completions in 288 attempts, for 2,371 yards, 29 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Pretty good stats if you ask me.

Mariota has a solid, Heisman hopeful in the backfield by the name of Kenjon Barner. Barner, who is a senior this year, has rushed 220 times for 1,426 yards and hit the endzone 19 times. Barner is quite the work horse for the Oregon Ducks, and will look to continue his impressive stats against the Beaver's defense, who is giving up an average of 18.6 points per game (Oregon is giving up an average of 21.8 points per game).

Oregon State is led by sophomore quarterback Sean Mannion, who has had a pretty good year. He's thrown 149 completions in 238 attempts for 1,904 yards, but he has only thrown 12 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. His touchdown to interception ratio isn't even close to Mariota's.

OSU also has freshman running back Storm Woods in the backfield. What a cool name huh? Woods has rushed 143 times for 698 yards and seven touchdows.

Markus Wheaton has 977 receiving yards, and 10 TDs.

The biggest weapon the Beavers have on offense is in their wide receivers. Although sophomor Brandin Cooks has had a pretty solid year, reeling in 59 catches for over 1,000 yards and five touchdowns, their senior WR Markus Wheaton has caught double the touchdowns (he has 10 touchdowns this season), although he hasn't had as many yards (he only has 977 yards catching in 68 attempts). If Mannion can connect to Wheaton and spread the Ducks' secondary thin, that opens the game up for the Beavers to be able to control it until the final whistle.

It's going to be quite a tough task though, especially with Oregon coming off of it's first loss of the season. It's usually not an easy thing to beat a one-loss team after their first loss of the season. But in college football, crazier things have happened.

This game will kick off at around 3:00 PM ET Saturday afternoon. It should definitely be a good matchup. Both teams have offensive and defensive fire power, but I have to give the nod to the Oregon Ducks. They're going to come into this one hungry to get a W after that tough loss against Stanford.

I got a blowout...

Oregon: 52
Oregon State: 28

- Jackson McNamara

@jacksonmcnamara

#11 Oregon State Beavers at #14 Stanford Cardinal Preview

After two consecutive BCS appearances, the #14 ranked Stanford Cardinals now have a reputation to uphold. The University, the Fans, the Pundits, and everyone else, expect big things from the Cardinals. At 7-2, and after punting on the first two drives last week to 1-7 Colorado, Stanford Head Coach David Shaw benched starting QB Josh Nunes in favor of redshirt freshman Kevin Hogan. Hogan went on to lead 6 scoring drives and a rout of the Buffaloes, 48-0. While its easy for Stanford fans and players to get excited about this, they must be reminded that they were playing Colorado...and Colorado is no Oregon State. 

Saturday afternoon we are in for a treat with Oregon State vs Stanford

This feature match-up is taking place at "The Farm" at Stanford and will showcase the skills of young Stanford QB, Kevin Hogan. This game also features a battle between both of the teams sitting right behind Oregon in the PAC-12 and will more than likely be the odds on favorite to compete with Oregon for PAC-12 title. Additionally, the winner of this game could still be in line for a BCS birth, should Oregon play for the National Championship. The specifics of this game are really non-existent because the end result of the game is going to come down to the play of Hogan. While he looked great against Colorado, #11 ranked Oregon State is the 19th best team in the country for points allowed which means they will do their best to stifle the freshman QB. Conversely, Stanford could hold an advantage, because the only game tape that can be used for preparation against Hogan is last week's game against Colorado. Since he has played in no other games, this could pose a true challenge for the Beavers as they travel into Stanford. 

Either way, the fans all around are going to be treated to a great game and a true chess match as both teams need a victory in order to keep their hopes alive in both the BCS and PAC-12 contention. Stanford comes into this game holding a home field advantage and as a result Oddsmakers currently have them as a 4.5 point favorite (-4.5). With that being said, I honestly do not see any way that Oregon State finds a way to lose this game. They are tougher against the run which will put added pressure on the freshman QB. The score will remain low, but I definitely feel as though Vegas has this one wrong as Oregon State will leave the Farm with another victory.

The Sports Messiah's Prediction:  Oregon State wins and will cover (+4.5)

- The Sports Messiah