Pac-12 Championship Preview: No. 10 Oregon vs. No. 17 Utah

Story posted December 2, 2021 in CommRadio, Sports by Ethan Ellis

It has been an interesting season in the PAC-12 with two teams, Oregon and Utah, being ranked for the majority of the season.

Unsurprisingly, these are the teams that will compete for the PAC-12 championship on Friday night. Unlike most of the Conference championships, these teams have already played each other this season.

Two weeks ago, Utah pulled off the upset and beat then-No. 3 Oregan to ruin its playoff chances with a final score of 38-7.

This loss was extremely demoralizing to the Ducks and brings up the question:

What happened to Oregan in this game and what can they do to prevent another loss in the all-important championship game?

Looking back at the game, one stat that jumps out is the running game or lack thereof. In the game, the team combined for 63 total rush yards and zero touchdowns while averaging a dismal 2.7 yards per carry.

Travis Dye, who has been getting most of the carries on the team of late, had only 29 yards total in the game. If Oregan wants even a chance in this game, the dismal performance from their running backs cannot be repeated.

Without the ability to run the ball, Oregon will not be able to drive down the field and could very well be shut out. Defensively, Oregon needs to improve on its red-zone defense.

In the game against Utah, four of Utah’s five touchdowns came from short runs inside the red zone.

Oregon needs to figure out how to stop the run game inside the 20 or else it will be very hard for them to keep up in this game.

Utah’s path to victory is much less complex than Oregon’s but is equally as important.

The coaching staff and the players need to take their practices this week seriously and not let that score of two weeks ago go to their heads. Utah needs to treat this as a whole new game because it is.

There will be no home-field advantage for Utah this time and they will be playing a very hungry Oregan team.

The Ducks have undoubtedly been reviewing film all week and will have a better idea of how Utah plays. Utah needs to have more tricks up its sleeves for this game if they want to pull off another win.

In this contest, Oregon will have a better running game that will help them to put some drives together. However, they will not be able to keep up with the Utah offensive attack.

With a win in this game, Utah or Oregon would earn a berth in the Rose Bowl to play a Big Ten team.

Prediction: Utah 31, Oregon 14

Ethan Ellis is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at ece5133@psu.edu.