Oregon Football: 3 bold predictions for home tilt against Stanford

3. Ducks win low scoring affair

The Oregon Ducks have the S&P+’s 25th ranked offense and star quarterback Justin Herbert but the Stanford Cardinal can answer that with the S&P+’s fourth-best defense in the nation. Herbert has thrown for 840 yards while averaging 10.4 yards per attempt while tossing 12 touchdowns and only four interceptions. The Ducks passer is a winner, as Oregon has won nine straight regular season games with Herbert as the starting quarterback.

Stanford’s defense is led by linebacker Joey Alfieri. Alfieri has logged 16 tackles (four tackles for loss) and 2.5 sacks over three football games in 2018. The Cardinal rely on the 6-foot-3, 239-pound linebacker to make big plays as part of their havoc creating defense. Stanford is built to stop the run and rush the passer and they’ll have to hang back in coverage against the Oregon wide receivers and get to Herbert before he can deal the football.

Oregon can play defense when needed and Stanford was created to play low scoring games much like they did in their 17-3 win over the USC Trojans. Oregon isn’t going to be held to three points, by any means, but they won’t be putting up 49 either.