Oregon football vs. USC Trojans 3 keys to a victory for the No. 6 Ducks
No. 6 Oregon football is soaring following yet another dominant win over California and will look to keep that momentum rolling against USC this weekend at Autzen Stadium.
Saturday's 7:30 p.m. game against the Trojans will be the first matchup between the teams in Eugene since 2015. The game will be broadcast on FOX.
Here are three keys to victory for the Ducks as they look to win their fourth in a row and move one step closer to a Pac-12 title game berth.
Put USC's Caleb Williams into binds
There’s no doubt reigning Heisman trophy winner Caleb Williams will beat the Ducks a few times come Saturday. The presumed top pick in the upcoming NFL draft has accounted for almost 40 touchdowns through 10 games and is still one of the most electrifying athletes in football, despite the Trojans' recent woes.
The junior has thrown for 2,958 yards on a nearly 70% completion rate with 28 touchdowns through the air and just four interceptions. On the ground he’s just as lethal with 173 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.
“He can run, he’s got great speed,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “He’s really strong in the lower body, he’s a hard guy to get to the ground. But again, the prep is every day. It’s the drill work we do — you have to do some particular drills throughout the week to really prep you for the difference in play for him and how he plays.”
Perhaps the one weakness to Williams’ game is his propensity to hold on too loosely to the ball while trying to make a play. Through 35 career games Williams has fumbled the ball 30 times.
The Trojans have put the ball on the ground 20 times this year and lost eight fumbles.
One such play changed the tide last week in a loss to Washington, when a Williams fumble set up a UW touchdown in an offensive shootout.
Though Williams has a slew of great weapons around him like tailback MarShawn Lloyd and receiver Tahj Washington, to name just a few, getting more possessions for the Oregon offense will be key Saturday.
“You try to take them all away,” Lanning said of Williams’ weapons. “It’s hard. You talk about trying to make a team play left-handed. This is a hard team to make play left-handed because they do so many things really, really well … you can’t expect this guy not to have some success in this game. He’s going to have some success. It’s really about how we respond to that success and it’s about the combination of plays over time.”
Run, run, and run some more
The Power Five’s fourth-worst rush defense, and the nation’s 120th ranked run defense, has had a rough go of it lately.
The Trojans seem to allow a career day from opposing running backs no matter who they face, including Washington’s Dillon Johnson, who ran for nearly 200 yards before contact last week. Johnson totaled 256 rushing yards and four touchdowns after having just 430 yards on the ground through seven games before last week.
That USC run defense gives up nearly 5 yards a carry and 186.5 yards per game.
That number, among other things, led to Alex Grinch’s firing as defensive coordinator this week.
Though USC’s pass defense isn’t that much better, the Ducks could get Bucky Irving his own career game this week if they give him the rock enough times. Oregon has the 11th-ranked run offense in the nation, averaging 6.33 yards per carry and over 200 yards per game.
Limiting the number of times Williams touches the ball on offense while thoroughly controlling the game on the ground would set the Ducks up with a lot of success.
Adjust to any potential wrinkles
With Grinch out in Los Angeles, USC defensive line coach Shaun Nua and linebackers coach Brian Odom were promoted to co-defensive coordinator.
Though Lanning and his coaches don’t expect too much to change scheme-wise, the defensive play calling will be something the Ducks have to adjust to on the fly.
“It all comes back to what football is all about,” Lanning said. “Tackling, blocking, breaking tackles, making catches. So, all those things are going to hold true. We have to play to our identity. Hopefully when people watch this team — on both sides of the ball — you see an identity. Our identity has to hold true regardless of what scheme we see against us.”
Interesting enough, Odom called plays the last time Oregon played Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl in 2021. The Sooners won that game 47-32, led by a freshman Williams.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football vs. USC Trojans: Keys to victory for the Ducks
