Big time in “The Big House”

Originally Posted on Daily Emerald via UWIRE

Oregon fans spent the first half of the 2024 season telling Big Ten foes not to judge Autzen Stadium by its size. Now, it’s their turn. Can you underestimate one of the most challenging away trips in a sport?

The Ducks benefit this year from a relatively benign away schedule. Saturday in Los Angeles. A Friday night in West Lafayette. And one more Saturday in Ann Arbor. They likely won’t face a ranked opponent on its home field this year, and yet this weekend’s matchup with Michigan is potentially the most worrying game left on the Ducks’ schedule. It is a challenge that they’ll savor.

Dan Lanning made that very clear after last Saturday’s victory over Illinois.

“That’s what you sign up for when you’re in the Big Ten,” Lanning said. “But traveling there, right? You have the ability to handle travel and go play in a tough environment. It’s going to be a fun challenge for our team.”

The Big House is no joke. Nearly double Autzen’s capacity, it’s an offense-affecting, quarterback-baffling, envy-of-all mire. Oregon can’t afford to get lost.

Part of that will be early explosive plays. If, like the Ducks did in Week 8, the offense can find itself the offensive eruption that won it the last two games, it’ll be a success.

“[Explosive plays are] the biggest indicator of wins in college football, outside of takeaways, right?” Dan Lanning posited in his postgame press conference last weekend. 

The Ducks found those explosives against Purdue in Week 7, and quieted a rowdy 57,463 Boilermakers. It was a 49-yard pass that found a streaking Evan Stewart on first-and-10. Two drives later, it was second-string tight end Kenyon Sadiq for 39 yards on second-and-1. Both drives led to first-half touchdowns.

For the Wolverines, the home-field advantage is obvious. Michigan is 4-1 at home this year with a +24 point differential — its one loss came in Week 2 to a then-No. 3 ranked Texas Longhorns squad. It’s 0-2 on the road, with a -24 differential. What is regularly one of the most renowned defenses in the country benefits too: On the road, they allow 150.5 rushing yards per game. In Ann Arbor, they give up just 84.8.

It’s obvious why. The Big House holds 107,601 fans. When the No. 1 team in the country comes to town, every one of those seats will be full. For a team that needs every possible advantage to overcome the indelible momentum that the Ducks carry cross-country, the crowd could be the largest.

It hasn’t been an issue for Oregon this year. For its first year in the Big Ten, it’s been an easier go-around. There’s no trip to Happy Valley, nor one to the Shoe in Columbus. The Huskies come to Eugene in the final week of the regular season. Michigan and a Week 12 trip to Camp Randall and Wisconsin are the only true away matchups that remain.

“We were working on the silent snap (in practice),” offensive lineman Nishad Strother said on Tuesday, “but we’ll see how it goes. We thought that Utah was going to be super loud last year as well, so maybe we can just go out there and quiet the crowd early.”

When the Ducks walk into the largest stadium in North America on Saturday afternoon, it’ll be with an express goal: to keep it quiet. It’ll be good practice for a potential postseason run that could include several neutral-site games far from Eugene. Just the Rose and Fiesta Bowls are west of the Rocky Mountains; Each of the remaining second, third and fourth-round games, plus a potential Big Ten Championship game will mean a cross-country trip.

The opportunity isn’t what it seemed in Week 1. Michigan is unranked, teetering above .500 and not any inch the force it was in last year’s undefeated season. But The Big House is The Big House. Michigan is Michigan — physical, but offensively inefficient. Oregon just has to be Oregon.

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