Is this the year of the Duck? Fortune cookies aside, I say yes. Absolutely yes. While that may upset my Beaver believers, we need to look at things in reality. The Ducks are a becoming a national brand and that is helping them win in the recruiting wars. Now onto the presented question.
Anytime the Ducks take a snap and Marcus Mariotta is under center you have a chance to do some pretty awesome things! Mariotta will be under the Heisman watch all year and he deserves that type of praise. He can throw, run, and basically make any defensive coordinator lose sleep the week the Ducks are on the schedule. I admit, when I watch him play my Beavers, he is the one guy that makes me nervous everytime the ball is snapped. A quarterback on the run, is a very dangerous quarterback. When he's called to hand the ball off, he can hand it off to a stable of very talented running backs who can be gone in a flash. During their spring game the running backs actually looked better than the receivers. That's the area on the offense that they are a little green (excuse the pun), their receiving core. They lost a lot of talent from last year with their receivers, so you will probably see a lot of short passes to get the receivers in space and let them make plays that way. It's hard to replace Josh Huff and Daryle Hawkins. Then they lose a stud receiver in Bralon Addison during spring practice. I still feel the Ducks will be just fine despite their young receiving core. Mariotta won't accept anything, but their best effort on every play.
Defensively, the Ducks will be good. The defensive line will be stout and quick as usual. The Ducks front seven will give many offenses major fits because of their quickness and aggressive type of play. Defensive lineman Deforest Buckner was a star during the spring game as was the linebacker Rodney Hardrick. These two will create the push and havoc that those rabid Duck fans expect to see on a consistent basis. If the Ducks want to win the hearts and minds of the playoff panel, it's going to start with Buckner and Hardrick and the rest of the front seven.
In the end, the Ducks can win it all. They will be beat Stanford this year. Mark it down. Like any team, they have some weak spots, but when you have Marcus Mariotta leading the way and a good defense that will take you to a place where the Ducks have yet to be... Holding the championship trophy.
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