Lesson of the weekend: Don't make Oregon coach Chip Kelly angry. You won't like him when he's angry, especially if you're a defensive coordinator:
The call Kelly had a beef with was a borderline interception by Stanford's that helped set up a field goal to extend the Cardinal's lead to 31-24 just before the half. In truth, it was a standard-issue eye-of-the-beholder play, and he had no problem getting the officials' ear for a review (which he lost.) But even if Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh had been hobnobbing with the refs, they couldn't have done a whole lot to save him. The fire Kelly carried into the locker room came out in the form of a 28-0 whitewash in the second half, finishing off a 49-10 run by the Ducks out of a 21-3 hole in the first quarter.
This is becoming something of a trend against non-cupcakes. At Tennessee, Oregon trailed 13-3 well into the second quarter, before rallying to tie it just before the half. At Arizona State last week, the Ducks were down 24-14 late in the second quarter, before reclaiming the halftime lead with a pair of late touchdowns just ahead of the break. Saturday, Stanford roared in for touchdowns on each of its first four possessions and still looked unstoppable on offense with the halftime lead.
In the second half of those games, Oregon has proceeded to outscore the Vols, Devils and Cardinal by a grand total of 77 to 7, leaving each to limp away with demoralizing tread marks down their backs.
The Ducks' M.O. may be more Flash than Hulk Smash, but like Alabama in the SEC, Saturday night left no doubt about their place as Pac-10 overlord until further notice. We've seen intermittently since Kelly's arrival as offensive coordinator in 2007 how quickly his spread option scheme can get on top of a defense and burn it to a crisp. But this attack – still No. 1 nationally in total and scoring offense after incinerating a D that came in ranked among the best in the conference – may be the first that can hit the accelerator on a weekly basis.
It would help if they occasionally got around to hitting it a little faster. But with USC's apparent defensive demise, there's not a more intimidating defense left on the schedule than the one the Ducks just lit up in one of the most hyped games of the year, with the possible exception of Arizona. And when you add the fact that Oregon's own defense has been the best in the country at forcing turnovers, the potential for this team to turn every game on the schedule into a grisly, one-sided ambush is unmatched anywhere in the country.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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