**Editor’s Note: Each week during football season, we feature an essay from the opponent’s student newspaper on why Oregon will lose. This week’s edition is from Devone Slappy, a staff writer at The Signal.**
Georgia State is listed No. 2 in ESPN’s Bottom 10 list only because it beat the previous No. 2 team, New Mexico State. Yet Georgia State still has a great chance to knock off No. 12 Oregon because of injuries, experience, momentum and the edge of having nothing to lose.
Oregon confirmed Tuesday that its starting quarterback, Vernon Adams Jr., has a broken right index finger. Adams broke the finger in Oregon’s season opener and played through the injury in the game against Michigan State. Based on that game, Adams can’t perform at the same level at which the Ducks need him.
If Adams does play against the Panthers, Georgia State shouldn’t fear much, considering he is missing wide-open receivers in clutch moments as well as throwing costly interceptions. If Adams doesn’t play, Oregon will have to start redshirt junior Jeff Lockie.
This is where experience will come into play. If Lockie is to start against Georgia State, it will be his first since high school. Expect the Panthers’ defense to bring the pressure since Jeff Lockie isn’t a mobile quarterback and lacks college football experience.
Georgia State is coming off of the best offensive performance in school history – 582 yards of total offense and a conference win against New Mexico State. Georgia State’s freshman receiver, Penny Hart, seems to be fitting the system and building chemistry with starting quarterback Nick Arbuckle. The two connected 11 times for 150 yards and two touchdowns last week. Georgia State is coming in with momentum that they’ve never had before in a season, especially since they are now leading the Sun Belt Conference.
However, Oregon is coming into the game with no momentum at all. There is nothing Oregon can really feed from that would bring any type of momentum into this game against a team that is listed in the Bottom 10.
Georgia State has nothing to lose coming into this game. Nothing is scarier than a team coming into a football game with no restraints or fears. They are expected to lose this game to an elite program.
Oregon, on the other hand, has a lot to lose in this game. They lose this game, and they can kiss their chances of getting into the College Football Playoff goodbye.
Not knowing who the starting quarterback is, the consequences of losing this game, and coming into the game with no momentum smells like a recipe for disaster for the Oregon Ducks.