CougCenter and Addicted to Quack blogs preview Oregon-Washington State matchup

With No. 2 Oregon playing their first 2012 game outside of Autzen this Saturday against Washington State, both teams' blogs crossed enemy lines to give fans a preview of what to expect.

Washington State's SB Nation blogs CougCenter and Oregon's, Addicted to Quack, both produced Q&As about their respective teams to prepare everyone for round two of Pac-12 play.

After holding an Arizona team that was averaging 605 yards to a mere 332 in Oregon's 49-0 shutout of the Wildcats, Addicted to Quack addressed questions about how the Ducks' defense has improved:

"... the Ducks have been recruiting very well defensively over the past few years. Recruiting great top-to-bottom classes started in 2007, and that has continued as Chip Kelly has taken over. This influx of talent (as well as the number of plays that Oregon runs offensively) has allowed Oregon to expand the number of players getting significant playing time. Over the past few years, Oregon has consistently gone 25 players deep on defense, which is another great recruiting selling point."

On the other end, CougCenter took time to address this offense's regression in head coach Mike Leach's new Air Raid system:

"Well, people tried to tell us that the Air Raid is highly nuanced and takes some time for teams to pick up, but there was a school of thought – one espoused by me – that the transition would be easier because of the pass-heavy nature of the Cougs' offense under offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy. (WSU passed on about 60 percent of plays last year.) After watching the team struggle, my new pet theory is that it might actually be harder to go from a pass offense to the Air Raid than from a run offense to the Air Raid. Leach, who is very particular about how he wants things done, is asking them to change their pass game habits, rather than just learn new pass game skills."

Kickoff for this game is tentatively scheduled at 10:30 p.m. EST with the broadcast being available on ESPN2.

For more discussion about the Ducks, head on over to Addicted to Quack. If the Cougars are more your cup of tea, pay a visit to CougCenter.