Just some background and some thoughts.....Mariota suffered a badly sprained knee during the UCLA game and wasn't the same the rest of the year. He was hurt much worse than was ever let on to the media for the Stanford game (it was pretty evident watching that game). Losing the read option is a big hit to his game and the overall Ducks offensive strategy. I live in the Portland metro area and it's been widely talked about since Spring ball started just how injured his knee really was (the former D coordinator Aliotti was actually on the radio the other day saying as much). As for the AZ game, many of the players quit after they lost to Standford as they had a national championship or bust attitdue (absolutley no excuse but it was widely written about and discussed on the local radio shows up hear last year. Several players were even quoted in the paper saying as much). They definitley lost a bit of their swagger after the beating they took by Stanford. Again no excuse.
It will be loud in Autzen and I suspect MSU won't be completely ready this early in the season for the Oregon speed and up tempo Ducks offense (I see some potential similarities between this game and the Tennessee game early last year in Autzen). I'm not on a side (yet) but I like Oregon to win by 2 scores and will consider taking the points if the line gets out of whack. Good luck.