The Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal are playing one of the biggest matchups of the college football season on Thursday night, as the Ducks will travel to Stanford Stadium for a Pac-12 conference game on Thursday night football on ESPN and the game will start up at 9:00 PM and streaming online on Watch ESPN.
The Ducks are in a must win situation, as they are being chased down in the BCS and needs to keep winning, while Stanford represents the biggest challenger for the team in the Pac-12. The ducks have been one of the most impressive teams in the country and they are currently leading the North division over Stanford and that is what makes this game so tough and so important for both sides. Stanford lost to Utah this season, but they are 7-1 and have only one loss in the conference and they can even things up and take the advantage with a head to head win over Oregon. The Ducks are 8-0 and tops in the division, while Stanford is 5-1 within the conference and 7-1 overall.
The team has a nice lead over Oregon State and Washington and while they will play the Beavers later in the season, they are more concerned with Stanford right now. Arizona State is tops in the South division and that could mean a big matchup later in the season and Stanford will have to account for one of the best offenses in the nation with Oregon, who is ranked second in points scored per game with nearly 60 and the defense has been doing a good job as well with just 17 points per game. The team is averaging over 600 yards per contest and that could be a huge test for Stanford.
The team has been dominant this season on offense and they have scored over 40 points in every game this season, including last week against UCLA and the closest game was the week before that with Washington State. Oregon has Marcus Mariota as a Heisman candidate with over 2,200 yards and 20 touchdowns passing and he also is second on the team with over 500 yards and nine touchdowns, while Josh Huff is leading with 38 catches for 700 yards and six touchdowns.
The team had a big win against UCLA and now Stanford comes in having won two in a row since losing to Utah and they have been in close games. The team will need to score more than the 44 combined points over the past two weeks to beat Oregon, but the defense has been doing its part with 20 points allowed per game and David Shaw has his team ready to go.
Stanford has a tough schedule coming up with Oregon and USC before playing against California and Notre Dame and that gives the team a chance to get ahead in the Pac-12. Oregon is going to be tough to stop and Stanford has been solid on offense, but the total yards are nothing like the Ducks and it will be a tough test to stop them on Thursday night. The game will be on ESPN starting up at 9 pm and the Oregon Ducks will visit Stanford Stadium to play the Cardinal.