3 keys to an Oregon Ducks football victory against Colorado

The schedule is about to get pretty intense for Oregon.

Starting next week, the Ducks will begin their regular-season ending run of three straight games against teams who are currently 6-2 and in the upper half of the Pac-12 standings — Washington, No. 12 Utah and No. 24 Oregon State.

But if Oregon is going to make this a November to remember, it must first take care of business against the worst team in the conference.

The Pac-12 leading Ducks (7-1, 5-0) will take a seven-game winning streak into Folsom Field for a 12:30 p.m. game Saturday against Colorado (1-7, 1-4).

Extending that streak to eight games will take a focused effort by Oregon, which has shown the ability to not play down to their opponent this season as they’ve recorded blowout victories against California, Arizona and Stanford — the bottom three teams in the conference standings.

“We talk a lot about stacking days,” safety Steve Stephens IV said. “We’re just trying to stack good days on top of good days, and good games on top of good games, and we just gotta stay humble and hungry and that’s what it comes down to. Trying to refocus and recenter every week.”

Game day basics: Notes for No. 8 Oregon Ducks vs. Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder

The Ducks go into the game in eighth place in the first College Football Playoff rankings that came out Tuesday. It's where they stand in the weekly Associated Press and USA TODAY AFCA Coaches polls as well.

Saturday will also be the last true road trip for Oregon, which won’t leave its home state again until the postseason.

"I think they're doing a good job of just focusing on the task at hand and continually looking for opportunities to get better,” coach Dan Lanning said. “That's kind of been our mantra from day one and our guys have done a good job of accepting that.”

Keeping focus might be the biggest challenge against the Buffaloes, who average 26 points less than Ducks. But Colorado is also 1-2 under interim coach Mike Sanford, who took over after the Oct. 2 firing of Karl Dorrell.

“You definitely see some fight in these guys,” Lanning said. “I know the results haven't always been what they wanted but this team hasn't mailed it in by any means, they're still working hard.”

Here are three keys to the game for Oregon.

Avoid another slow start

Oregon’s offense has been more explosive than just about every other team in the NCAA during it’s seven-game winning streak, so any critique of the Ducks’ productivity feels a bit nit-picky.

But despite their 48-point average during that stretch — tied with Tennessee for second-most in the nation behind Ohio State’s 52.9 average per game — the Ducks have struggled to score early in games.

Oregon has just 47 first-quarter points this season, just 19 during Pac-12 play and only nine in their three conference road games, including a scoreless first quarter against California last week.

"We have to try and figure out ways to recreate that more for us in practice,” Lanning said. “We've been really good in the middle of games and something we have to improve on is how we start and finish games.”

The Ducks are averaging 17.75 points in the second quarter, 10.4 in the third quarter and have been incredibly productive in the “middle 8,” with 104 points in the last four minutes of the second quarter and first four minutes of the third quarter.

"You just go out there and try to play to the best of your ability," Lanning said. "Our team still knows that we have better football to play and that's the approach. You always like going on the road to prove that you can do it. It's a lot easier at home. But to go somewhere else and perform at a high level it takes a lot of focus and attention to detail."

More:Oregon Ducks stay at No. 8 AP Top 25 poll; Oregon State Beavers earn 1st ranking since 2013

Keep sharing the ball

Quarterback Bo Nix and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham have been masterful at spreading the ball around this season, and that will be even more important this week with a depleted receiving corps.

Starting wide receiver Chase Cota left the win against Cal in the first half with an injury and reserve Seven McGee quit the team this week.

Cota is the Ducks' second-leading receiver with 24 catches for 319 yards and a touchdown. Fellow starters Troy Franklin (38, 595, 5) and Kris Hutson (21, 260, 0) are first and third, respectively.

But Oregon has also utilized its tight ends to great success this season, getting a combined 41 catches for 424 yards and nine touchdowns from Terrance Ferguson — who leads with 20 catches for 194 yards and five scores — Cam McCormick, Moliki Matavao and Patrick Herbert, who had a 40-yard touchdown grab against Cal.

Running backs Bucky Irving, Noah Whittington and Sean Dollars also combined for nine catches for 176 yards and two touchdowns last week.

Don’t be surprised to see a similar approach against Colorado if Cota, who was still being evaluated at the start of the week, isn’t available.

“I think we’ve done a great job of rotating guys this year,” Nix said. “Troy and Kris will continue to play well, the tight ends, running backs, we us a lot by committee. We throw the kitchen table at defenses so there’s a lot they’ve got to prepare for.”

Hutson showed his versatility last week when he played multiple receive spots after Cota went down, finishing with four catches for 67 yards, though he also dropped a perfectly placed deep pass early in the game that could’ve set up a score.

“I’ve seen Kris run that play and catch that ball so many times to where I know that is very rare and it just happens sometimes,” Nix said. “It’s hard to really get mad at a guy like that when he’s always at practice, always doing the right things, always trying to get better and working hard and competing.”

Don’t give up big plays

Just because the Buffaloes struggle to tally points — they're the lowest scoring team in the Pac-12 at 16.25 per game and 15 total touchdowns — doesn’t mean they’re not capable of being dangerous.

Colorado scored 34 in a loss to Arizona State last week, the first time it scored more than 20 this season.

Lanning said earlier this week that Colorado’s offense likes to take up to seven deep shots down the field each game, “which is a higher percentage than a lot of the teams that we’ve played. When they hit on those, they can have a lot of success.”

Both of Cal’s first-half scoring drives last week were set up by long completions, though Oregon’s defense hasn’t typically been susceptible to those deep passes this season.

“Playing safety, they say, ‘Keep the roof on the house,’” Stephens said. “And that’s what we’ve been trying to do week by week.”

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. 

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This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks vs. Colorado Buffaloes: 3 keys to an Oregon football win