Former conference rivals face off in Week 4 as Oregon State visits Autzen Stadium to face cross-state rival Oregon. The Ducks' head coach, Dan Lanning, has been clear: he wants this rivalry to continue. This will be the 129th meeting between the two schools, as Oregon leads the series 69-49-10. While the Ducks come in as heavy favorites, there are still bold predictions to be made in this early-season rivalry game.
Oregon State has struggled thus far this season. The Beavers opened the season against California. Cal dominated the early part of the game. After scoring on the first drive of the game, Cal led 17-3 going into the halftime break. Oregon State turned over the ball twice and fell 34-15. In Week 2, the Beavers were the favorites heading into the contest with Fresno State. It was a tight first half, and the Beavers had a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs dominated the fourth quarter, scoring 16 points and winning the game 36-27. Then, Oregon State hit the road for the first time, facing Texas Tech, losing 45-14.
Meanwhile, Oregon is now 3-0 on the season. After a Week 1 victory over Montana State, the Ducks had a historic performance against Oklahoma State. The 69-3 victory was the largest win by a team against a non-conference power opponent since 1996. Oregon then hit the road for the first time and had some struggles. The team was a 24.5-point favorite over the Northwestern Wildcats, but came away with just a 34-14 victory.
Dante Moore dominates this game
The Oregon passing offense has been stellar this year. While sitting 101st in the nation in passing attempts per game, the offense is still 37th in the nation in passing yards per game, and 10th in yards per pass on the season.
Sophomore quarterback Dante Moore has been spectacular this year. After starting his career at UCLA, passing for 1,610 yards and 11 scores, he transferred to Oregon. Moore took a redshirt year behind Dillon Gabriel. This year, he has completed 50 of 64 passes for 657 yards and seven touchdowns. He has thrown just one interception, and has also not been sacked this season.
Last week, he faced the strongest defense of the year. Still, the quarterback completed 16 of 20 passes for 178 yards and a score. Moore will be in for another sound game. Against Oklahoma State, he completed 16 of 21 passes for 266 yards and found the end zone three times. A repeat of that performance is coming this week.
Gabarri Johnson sees the field for the Beavers
Oregon State landed a solid transfer at quarterback this season. Aidan Chiles was expected to be the quarterback of the future, but he left with Jonathan Smith when Smith took the Michigan State job. Last season, three different quarterbacks saw game action, but Gevani McCoy and Ben Gulbranson both left the program this past offseason.
This led the Beavers to add former Texas and Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy. Murphy has not been great this year. He has completed just 76 of 124 passes for 893 yards. Further, while he has six touchdowns, he has also been intercepted five times and sacked six times.
This places Oregon State raking 125th in the nation in interception percentage and 75th in sack percentage. With this game likely to be a blowout, Gabarri Johnson will see time in this contest. Johnson has attempted just 33 passes in his two seasons, for 176 yards and an interception. Still, with the turnover issues of Murphy, if they continue, he will find himself on the bench before the end of the game.
Oregon breaks rivalry records in Week 4
The largest margin of victory for a team in this series has been a 69-10 victory for the Oregon Ducks in 2017. That season, Oregon State was already 1-10 and had struggled most of the year, with just one loss being within a score. The game was also in Eugene, Oregon, much like this year. While Oregon State may be just as bad as they were in 2017, Oregon is a much better program this year.
Oregon finished that regular season 6-6, in what would be the team's only season under Willie Taggart. The Oregon offense is high-flying once again. The team is third in the nation in points per game, while sitting 13th in yards per game. Further, they are fourth in the nation in third-down conversions and the best in red zone scoring.
Moreover, the defense has also been great this year. Oregon is seventh in the nation in opponent points per game while sitting 18th in opponent yards per game. Meanwhile, the Beavers have struggled. Not only is the offense 96th in points per game, while also 98th in turnover margin this year. The defense has been even worse, allowing over 35 points per game this year.
With the quality of this Ducks team, combined with how bad the Beavers have been, this is going to be a blowout. The largest margin of victory in this series is 59 points, and the Ducks eclipse that in Week 4.
