Oregon Ducks' key defensive stars proving they're ready to make a deep College Football Playoff run

Early in the season, Oregon wasn't quite living up to the hype that they were garnering in the summer. Starting the season as the No. 3 team in the AP Poll, the expectations were that this team was going to contend for a National Championship.

They were tested more than they should have been by University of Idaho, and they narrowly avoided losing to Boise State. Lately, the defense looks like one of the best units in the country , which is great news for Oregon's hopes of fighting for hardware.

Friday night's showing sees Oregon continuing to build their resume on defense. They were suffocating.

Michigan State's offense was completely suffocated. Let's start with the run game. Oregon held the Spartans to only 2.0 yards per carry throughout the game (and only 1.5 ypc in the first half), limiting them to only 59 total rushing yards. Their longest gain on the ground was a 14-yard quarterback scramble.

When quarterback Aidan Chiles dropped back to pass, it was a long night. Oregon's defense, once again, lived in the backfield, logging six sacks and a whopping 18 hurries. Most notably, it was the Jordan Burch show, as the athletic edge rusher continues to solidify his status as one of the top pass rushers in the country.

Derrick Harmon and Jamaree Caldwell have been dominant up front as well. Harmon, from the defensive tackle spot, led the team in hurries with four, and logged a sack. Caldwell, playing nose tackle, had two hurries of his own and consistently dominated the point of attack, eating up double teams. This front is legit.

People need to start talking about the Oregon defense as being an elite unit. Boise State put up 34 points on them in Week 2 of the college football season on the back of a three-touchdown performance by the best running back in the country, Ashton Jeanty , but outside of that game, Oregon has not allowed more than 14 points in each of their other four outings.

In this one, Oregon was pitching a shutout until the fourth quarter when the game was already well out of reach for the Spartans. They have the ability on the defensive line, linebackers that fly to the ball, and opportunistic and athletic playmakers in the secondary that can stay with receivers and make a play on the ball. Obviously next Saturday poses their biggest challenge of the season as they will go against Ohio State, but this unit is carrying all the momentum in the world.

Related: Oregon Ducks running back Jordan James puts narrative to bed with monster performance

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