Ducks await return of Thomas, James

By Matt Swartz FOXSportsArizona.com The center-of-the-Pac-universe game Saturday night between Oregon and Arizona State turned out about as expected, with the Ducks pulling away in the second half for a relatively comfortable 41-27 win after an entertaining and competitive first 30 minutes. What wasn't expected was that much of Oregon's offensive success came after starter Darron Thomas left with a painful-looking knee injury, as redshirt freshman Bryan Bennett came in and made a big impact in the running game. With Bennett at the helm running the zone read, the Ducks racked up 269 rushing yards in the second half; in the first half, they had 58 and led just 21-17. Of course, the absence of LaMichael James and his dislocated (yet somehow not broken) elbow probably had a lot to do with that. Kenjon Barner and DeAnthony Thomas are blazing fast but not returning Heisman Trophy finalists, so the running game wasn't at its usual levels to begin with. And that's where Thomas comes in. While Bennett is a little more dangerous with his legs, Thomas can do things in the passing game that nobody else on Oregon's roster is prepared to do. Statistical proof: Thomas has thrown 17 touchdown passes and three interceptions this year while averaging 204 yards per game, putting him 10th in the country in pass efficiency. Against ASU, he threw two big TD passes in the second quarter, both on-the-money-throws while rolling out, to put Oregon ahead at the half despite a very good performance from Brock Osweiler and the Devils' offense. So Thomas' injury status -- and James' status, for that matter -- is of obvious interest for a team that still has high hopes for this season and hasn't yet played its biggest games. Oregon is currently calling the injury a "knee sprain," but coach Chip Kelly refused to provide any details at his Sunday press conference. According to ESPN.com, Kelly said after the game that "I think we'll get (Thomas and James) back," but exactly when wasn't specified. So what's the outlook? Duck Territory is reporting that Thomas is doubtful for this weekend's monumental game against umm Colorado. No surprise there since the Buffs are winless in Pac-12 play and probably won't present much of a challenge even if neither Thomas nor James can play. After that game is Washington State, a team that's much improved but still far from a powerhouse. That's when it gets interesting: Oregon plays at No. 25 Washington and at No. 8 Stanford in back-to-back games at the beginning of November. James will presumably be back by then -- a dislocated elbow usually doesn't linger for more than a month and shouldn't have much effect on his running ability anyway -- but Thomas' injury is less certain. Sprains can linger, and if he's not mobile, he won't be any sort of threat in the ground game. It was probably a good sign for Oregon that the junior QB was walking along the sideline late in the second half Saturday without a significant limp. Given the way Keith Price and Andrew Luck have been methodically shredding defenses every week, the Ducks will probably need all the offense they can get in their two biggest games to keep their BCS hopes alive. IS IT A TWO-TEAM RACE? The Oregon-Stanford game on November 13 is for all the North Division marbles right? Maybe not. Washington is 5-1 (the only loss was on the road against No. 13 Nebraska) and seems to be getting better every week. The most recent win was a 52-24 pasting of Colorado that saw the Huskies go up 38-10 at the half and cruise to the finish line with a whopping 562 total yards, giving them a 3-0 conference mark for the first time since 1999. They've also won nine of their last 10 games overall. The primary reason for that success: Keith Price. As hard as it is to believe, there's a legitimate debate over which QB has been the best in the Pac-12 this season, as Price has completed 69.41 percent of his passes with 21 TDs and four interceptions. Luck's numbers: 71.27 percent with 18 touchdowns and three picks. With Price, running back Chris Polk and wideout Jermaine Kearse leading an offense that's averaging 37 points per game, this team is "for real" in a general sense. But is "for real" enough for anything better than third in a division that includes Oregon and Stanford? We're about to find out, as the Huskies head to Palo Alto for a Price-versus-Luck showdown Saturday that could drastically alter the presumed landscape in the North. Two weeks later, Oregon comes to Seattle. "We realize that we have a huge task in front of us," Washington linebacker Cort Dennison said after the win over Colorado. "They are a great football team, and if we want to be among the best teams in the Pac-12, you've got to go in and play teams like Stanford." We'll know a lot more about U-Dub in three weeks (a home game against Arizona is sandwiched between the two big divisional contests). Even if the result is a 1-2 mark, a relatively easy late-season schedule means 9-3 is still well within reach, which would continue a phenomenal turnaround for a program that didn't win a single game just three years ago. HOT SEAT OR UNDERSTANDABLY COLD START? Cal has lost three straight games and is 0-3 in conference play for the first time in Jeff Tedford's tenure. The obvious reaction has been hot-seat-related talk and speculation. But it might be worth zooming out and looking at the bigger picture. The last three games were as follows: at Washington, at Oregon, USC. Cal wasn't (and shouldn't have been) favored to win any of those games, so losses in all three weren't surprising. The next four games, on the other hand: Utah, at UCLA, Washington State, Oregon State. All of those are winnable, and if Cal is a decent team (like its 3-0 start to the season indicated), three or four wins in that stretch seems like a reasonable goal. That'd be enough to get the Bears to at least a .500 mark for the ninth time in Tedford's 10 years -- the only blip was last year's 5-7 mark -- which is impressive considering that he took over a program that didn't have a single winning season in the decade prior to his arrival. Also, don't forget that Cal doesn't have a home this season. Memorial Stadium is being renovated, so the Bears are playing their "home" games at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. That's not exactly an easy situation for any team, let alone one that lost its starting quarterback (Kevin Riley), starting running back (Shane Vereen) and about half its defense, including first-round pick Cameron Jordan off the defensive line. But it's a "what have you done for me lately" sport in which a lot of good coaches have flamed out in a hurry. Two straight bowl-less seasons wouldn't go over very well given where the bar was set early in Tedford's tenure (having Aaron Rodgers probably helped a little), so if he can't get it turned around in the upcoming winnable games, he could find himself out of a job he made desirable after years of misery. If that happens, it'd be interesting to see if the Pac-12 school one state to the Southeast that happens to be looking for a new coach would be interested. WHO'S NEXT? WHO KNOWS? Speaking of Arizona, the speculation about Boise State coach Chris Petersen isn't going away. With AD Greg Byrne not commenting on the search to replace the recently fired Mike Stoops (defensive coordinator Tim Kish has the job on an interim basis), all that's left is speculation anyway. Well-connected longtime beat writer Anthony Gimino of TucsonCitizen.com says he believes Petersen -- who was an assistant at Oregon while Byrne was in the school's administration -- is the clear-cut favorite and that Byrne won't move on until he gets an answer. Whether Petersen would take the job is less certain; it seems unlikely after he passed up the Stanford job last offseason, which had to be enticing for a Northern California native who'd have had a year of Andrew Luck to ease the transition. The other high-profile names out there, Mike Leach and Rich Rodriguez, seem less likely at this point. Gimino says he'd be "shocked" if Leach gets the job because his less-than-social demeanor wouldn't be a logical transition away from the Stoops era, while ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel recently reported that a source close to Rodriguez said he's likely to hold out for a better job offer in the upcoming offseason. Of course, we won't know anything for sure until the famously secretive Byrne is standing at a podium announcing a new coach, and that's probably not happening until at least mid-December. POWER RANKINGS 1. Stanford (6-0). Gets first real test this Saturday when Washington visits Palo Alto. 2. Oregon (5-1). Pulled away from ASU despite no LaMichael James and only a half from Darron Thomas. 3. Washington (5-1). About to find out over the next three weeks just how good this team really is. 4. Arizona State (5-2). Hung in for a while against Oregon, and there's no real shame in losing a competitive game at Autzen. 5. USC (5-1). The Pac-12 South race would be a VERY interesting one if this team were eligible. 6. UCLA (3-3). There's a big drop after the top five, but UCLA -- at 2-1 in the conference -- still has the schedule and opportunity to make some noise in the division. 7. Utah (3-3). Bounced back from three straight losses with solid nonconference win over Pitt. 8. Washington State (3-3). Played even with Stanford for a half and then Andrew Luck took over. 9. Cal (3-3). Toughest stretch of the schedule is over now, but will the Bears turn it around or continue sliding? 10. Oregon State (1-5). Loss to BYU wasn't a strong follow-up to the win over Arizona. 11. Arizona (1-5). Interim coach Tim Kish got a bye week to try to pull the team together heading into a nationally televised Thursday night game against UCLA. 12. Colorado (1-6). The losses aren't getting any more competitive, and the next three games are as follows: Oregon, at Arizona State, USC. Yikes. GAME OF THE WEEK Washington at Stanford, 5 p.m. Saturday, ABC. The Huskies' offense is good enough to make this a game, and if U-Dub can pull off an upset, the division will suddenly be up for grabs in a three-team race. The Keith Price-Andrew Luck battle should be worth the price of admission by itself. Honorable mention: USC at Notre Dame. Both teams were largely forgotten after early losses but are now on a roll, and the winner still has a legitimate shot at a 10-win season.