Oregon Football Gets Ready for Rematch Against Arizona
Eugene, OR—381 days have passed since the Oregon Duck football team suffered its worst loss, since the 2017 season against #12 ranked Washington, against the Arizona Wildcats 44-15. Oregon’s offense struggled against the Wildcats defense with Justin Herbert throwing for only for 186 yards on 48 attempts, two touchdowns and one interception.
But where Oregon struggled most in that game was on the ground, rushing for under 100 yards on only 23 attempts between Herbert, Travis Dye, Tony Brooks-James and CJ Verdell.
“Over the course of your career, you’re going have games where you look back at what went astray,” said offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo. “We want a lot of that stuff back and it was just one of those games.”
Since then, the Ducks have become a more balanced offense, averaging a whopping 184 yards on the ground and 274 passing yards per game so far this season. On top of that, Oregon has the second highest scoring offense in the Pac-12 averaging 38 points per game, while Arizona has the worst scoring defense in the conference, allowing 37 points per game.
“I think that our running game and our ability to work certain aspects of the defense is something that we’ve gone on with just the offense,” Arroyo said.
Things could be different this week however for the Wildcats defense with the installment of new defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil, who took over the position two weeks ago from Marcel Yates.
Cecil has only coach one game since taking over against the Oregon State Beavers, where the defense allowed a season-high of 56 points.
Although Cecil is still acclimated to his new role as the defensive coordinator, the Ducks don’t plan on underestimating them.
“Ya it’s kind of tough,” said senior quarterback Justin Herbert on facing another new defensive coordinator. “We’ll do our best to just watch as much as we can and get a feel for their defense.”
Oregon will face Arizona on Saturday, November 16 at Autzen Stadium. Kickoff begins at 7:30 p.m.
