Josh Pate and Danny Kanell Preview Ohio State at Oregon, Find a Small Window for the Ducks

In a conversation yesterday on the CBS Sports YouTube channel, Josh Pate likened Ohio State's early domination of their schedule to an elite Olympic sprinter racing at a middle school field day.

The competition hasn't been elite, he allowed, but that still doesn't mean the guy blowing them away isn't world class. And their last victim, Iowa, was a pretty good team. Though that game was close at halftime, 7-0, the Buckeyes dialed up the pressure in the second half, pulling away like Usain Bolt winning all the ribbons at Lynch Meadows School. Emeka Egbuka caught three touchdown passes, two of them in the second half, while the Buckeye defense piled up four sacks and nine tackles for loss in another easy win, 35-7.

Chip Kelly's OSU RPO-based offense is so efficient that they've scored 32 touchdowns through five games, settling for field goals just twice.

But there's one avenue of opportunity for the Ducks, he suggested. Not an avenue, really, maybe more of a narrow side street. When Pate talks to scouts and defensive coordinators, they tell him, "Keep watching that offensive line. It is the relative (holds up his fingers in air quotes) weakness of that team even though it is still the envy of a lot of people in the sport."

O-line was the preseason concern for the Buckeyes, but Kelly's offensive design allows quarterback Will Howard to get the ball out quickly to a deep roster of receivers, freshman wunderkind Jeremiah Smith, Egbuka, Carnell Tate, Brandon Innes, all of whom will dot NFL rosters over the next few years. Teams can't afford to crowd the passing lanes either, since the backfield of Howard, Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson gashes opponents for 6.24 yards a carry, 5th-best in the nation.

Howard has been sacked only 4 times all year, something Oregon's front might test. Pate calls the Ducks, "One of the best, most multiple defensive fronts they'll face all year."

Oregon has 9 sacks in their last two games. Defensive end Jordan Burch earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors for his work in the Michigan State game, slashing the Spartans for 2.5 sacks and a fumble recovery at the goal line.

Still, OSU being favored in Autzen is no small thing, the Late Kick host continued. "Vegas thinks highly of the Buckeyes," he said.

"And they should," Kanell said.

Kanell wonders how the Ducks will respond to the upgrade in competition. "That's the team I think people are sleeping on, because we haven't seen them reach their max potential, and that might be a work in progress over the course of the season. But I'm more concerned, interested to see what the Ducks look like than the Buckeyes," he said.

In their 5-0 start #3 Oregon has yet to play a clean and complete game. They've been sluggish on opening drives and coming out in the third quarter. They'll need their best outing to match Ryan Day's juggernaut, the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten, a four-point road favorite Saturday night, 4:30 Pacific Time on NBC. The Autzen Stadium attendance record of 60,055 is likely to be in jeopardy.