Oregon vs. Oregon State: Keys to victory for Ducks

The Oregon Ducks are preparing for the 116th Civil War, and SB Nation's Oregon blog Addicted to Quack has a full breakdown of what the Ducks need to do to gain the edge over the Oregon St. Beavers.

One of the things to watch out for is Oregon State throwing deep, they write. The Beavers rank 40th in the nation in long passing plays, with a combined 82 passing plays of at least 20 yards, and 21 that are at least 40 yards. Addicted to Quack:

With the secondary for Oregon also being a question mark the Beavers need to take advantage of this and get some explosion plays. The Beavers have Markus Wheaton, a Beaver I've thought was awesome since he first started, and Brandin Cooks, who make up a tandem that parallels USC's Marqise Lee and Robert Woods in terms of production.

On offense, a key for the Ducks will be the running game. Since running for 321 yards against USC, Kenjon Barner has averaged just 65.5 yards in the last two games. He had a 7.2 yards-per-carry average coming out of the USC game, but has managed just 3.2 ypc since. Addicted to Quack points out the solution might not before Barner to find his legs:

De'Anthony Thomas looked phenomenal running the football, averaging 6.1 yards a carry. The coaches have to make a much better effort making sure that De'Anthony Thomas gets more touches throughout the course of a game.

Thomas had only seven carries against Stanford. The full post contains much more on what both teams need to do to win, so don't miss it.