With the way reporters keep asking Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti about his team's second-half swoon against national champion USC two weeks ago, it might be easy to overlook the Ducks' 24-point victory over Stanford Saturday.
No. 25 Oregon also upended a Fresno State team, which was ranked 23rd on the road not so long ago.
In the point-happy Pac-10, Oregon's 35.8 points per game might land them in the bottom half of the conference leaders, but senior Kellen Clemens has presented problems for many teams he has faced this season.
"Kellen's numbers have always matched up very well with Joey Harrington or Akili [Smith] or some of the other great quarterbacks we've had," Bellotti said. "This is a different offense now. He's involved in every play both run or pass."
Under first-year offensive coordinator Gary Crowton the Ducks have shifted to a spread offense which Bellotti hopes will one day be Oregon's trademark.
"I wish we were scoring more points, but we are averaging more yards per game," Bellotti said. "We are moving in a direction away from our traditional offense into more of a spread option look."
Clemens has flourished since Growton opened up the offense.
The 6-foot-2-inch passer has been one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the conference and is on pace to throw for more than 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns.
Clemens committed his first interception of the season after 160 attempts Saturday in the Ducks 44-20 win over the Cardinal.
"He's off to a great start this year," Bellotti said. "This offense was made for Kellen Clemens or he was made for the offense."
So far Clemens has had the most success dishing the ball off to Demetrius Williams 33 times this year for five scores. In addition to Williams, 15 other Ducks have gotten involved in the passing game this year.
"He's more comfortable in the shotgun, more comfortable with the run-pass option more often than not," Bellotti said of Clemens who connected with 11 receivers last week. "He sees the field better, and I think overall he fits within the offense better."
While Clemens might not posses blinding speed he leads Pac-10 quarterbacks in rushing yardage and is second to ASU junior Sam Keller in total offensive production.
His ability to scramble has helped the Ducks convert nearly 47 percent of their third downs this season.
Defensively, however, Oregon might have to compromise its philosophy Saturday when the Ducks take on ASU's aerial attack.
So far this season Oregon has played to stop the run and stacked the line with eight or nine players in the box.
This week Bellotti said he feels confident his team will stand up to a Sun Devil offense that has scorched its way to more than 550 yards per game.
"We've played on our heels for the last two and a half weeks," Bellotti said, adding the defense seemed to settle in against Stanford last week.
"It really proved we can be a dominant team in this conference," he said.
A big key to shutting down Keller and senior wideout Derek Hagan will be the play of senior cornerback Aaron Gipson.
"My secondary should be solid," Bellotti said. "Aaron Gipson has just been a veteran of the cornerback position."
Gipson leads the conference with four interceptions on the year, and after Keller's shaky performance against USC, one or two picks could be enough to swing the balance of the game into the Duck's favor.
Reach the reporter at mark.saxon@asu.edu.
