Oregon looks like College Football Playoff team in blowout win vs. USC

The Oregon Ducks flexed their muscles by thrashing the USC Trojans in Los Angeles Saturday night, making Oregon look like a College Football Playoff team.

The Oregon Ducks went into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and absolutely dominated the USC Trojans. Oregon was expected to win on the road at USC, but not like this. It was one of those games that sent a statement to the rest of the college football world that USC needs some major help, but more importantly, Oregon has the making of a College Football Playoff team.

Oregon has now won eight games in a row after falling to the Auburn Tigers in a neutral-site affair back in Week 1 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Ducks are the class of the Pac-12 North and they will presumably meet another strong team in the Pac-12 South’s Utah Utes in the conference championship in Santa Clara in about a month. That game’s winner might make the Playoff.

Sure, whooping a downtrodden USC team in their stadium has been done before. But for Oregon to do it in the manner that the Ducks did spoke volumes. Quarterback Justin Herbert played like a top-five pick in the upcoming 2020 NFL Draft. The Ducks defense forced turnover after turnover. It was complete domination of USC and one that makes Oregon a serious Playoff contender.

For a while there, many thought that the Pac-12 was out of it in terms of sending a team to the Playoff. Well, as it turns out, this Power 5 conference has two teams that are alive for it in Oregon and Utah. The Utes aren’t a sexy football team by any means, but there is a lot to like about Mario Cristobal’s bunch up in Eugene. They’re a shining example of what Pac-12 football can be.

Oregon should get to Santa Clara at 11-1 (9-0) this season, as the Ducks’ last three games are against the Arizona Wildcats, at the Arizona State Sun Devils and home vs. the in-state rival Oregon State Beavers. If the Ducks presumably beat the Utes in Levi’s Stadium, then they could very well make the College Football Playoff. They’d be perfect in Pac-12 play and that matters.

See, Utah’s lone loss this season was to USC in Los Angeles, the same Trojans team that the Ducks wiped the floor with on Saturday night. Oregon’s loss was by six points to an Auburn team on a neutral-site. Unlike USC, Auburn will finish the year ranked and probably win eight or nine games. It’s not a great loss for the Ducks, but certainly better than what Utah is working with.

For now, Oregon is in the mix of about eight to 10 teams that have a legitimate shot at making the College Football Playoff. They’re not the favorites to be one of the four to make it, but somebody will mess up in the next month, as that’s always the case. Oregon likely won’t be tested until the Pac-12 Championship. If the Ducks win it, who’s to say they don’t make the Playoff?

For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.