About Oregon football: What can we really say? As Sports Illustrated pointed out, the two teams would hardly consider themselves rivals — Stanford cares more about Cal and USC, while Oregon saves its loathing for Oregon State and Washington. Yet, as last Thursday’s game against the Ducks proved once again, it is Stanford and Oregon that have singlehandedly done more to cannibalize the Pac-12’s national championship hopes than anyone else in the conference.

For four consecutive years now, one of the two has derailed the other’s national championship dreams. Oregon is technically still in the hunt, but with the Ducks no longer in control of their destiny, the national championship game must seem far away. Having lost multiple title shots at the hands of the Ducks in recent years, Stanford’s sympathy must be rather limited.

Let’s look at how the Cardinal pounded the Ducks, with reference to my “Keys to the Game” preview last week. Put simply, Stanford exceeded even my wildest expectations. Stanford’s defense held the Ducks to just 312 yards of offense and Oregon needed a spectacularly fluky run of special teams luck just to make the score respectable. Here is my mea culpa to the Stanford offense: The Cardinal punted only once all night.

I’ve heard a lot of snark since the game about how Oregon’s offense can’t play with the big boys, and I think that’s profoundly untrue. Stanford stomped a good team. Now, there are certainly elements of Oregon’s scheme that I’m not comfortable with. The Ducks space their offensive line to widen running lanes, which also makes it easier for defenders to get into the backfield. Marcus Mariota can throw the ball, but his efficiency is built upon run game misdirection and play-action passing; as the numbers showed, he’s not close to being an effective drop-back passer, and his performance on Thursday may have cost him eight figures in next year’s NFL Draft. Against teams that can stop the run like Stanford, Mariota doesn’t totally wilt, but he’s no Heisman contender.

But just because Oregon has issues throwing the ball, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have good plays. Elements of its passing game can be found in any pro-style offense. Would Oregon be better if Mariota could throw the ball like Andrew Luck? Sure, but what team wouldn’t?

Schematically — a few quibbles aside — Oregon plays pretty darn sound football. The option offense it practices is often denounced as gimmicky and the last resort of a talentless team (a la Navy and Georgia Tech), but Tom Osborne’s late ‘90s option teams at Nebraska are universally revered. Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost won a national championship running the option at Nebraska. He knows that the option is no barrier to success.

There is no special “Oregon blueprint,” just as there was no special “Stanford blueprint” when Oregon knocked Stanford out of the national title hunt twice in a row. Stanford got the benefit of the doubt because it played pro-style ball; distrust, more than anything else, is the price Oregon pays for running the spread.

My keys to stopping Oregon would work just as well against Alabama or Texas A&M or Ohio State. Can you stop the run without putting a safety in the box? Great, you always want to do that. Can you contain in the run game, prevent quarterback scrambles and defend seams in zone coverage? Super! Win field position? Of course. Blow up the offensive line? I’ll take that any day of the week.

Covering its own bases, Oregon — famously tight-lipped about injuries — said after the game that Mariota had been playing on a banged-up knee. The vaunted Hawaiian didn’t look elite, but it wasn’t as though he couldn’t run; he flashed serious wheels on a fourth-and-8 first down scramble late in the third quarter, and Stanford never dared to crash down on the zone read to force Mariota to run.

Stanford outplayed Oregon. That’s the story. Stanford didn’t beat Oregon because it solved Oregon’s scheme. Stanford didn’t beat Oregon because Mariota was hobbled. Stanford beat Oregon because it was better.

The so-called “right way to play football” is not set in stone. The “right way” is whatever way wins football games with the resources at hand. For Stanford, the right way is a mauling yet creative pro-style attack. For Oregon, the solution is something different, but it’s still a perfectly good one. Disdaining Oregon’s style of football isn’t just insulting to Oregon. It’s positively demeaning to what Stanford achieved on Thursday night.

Oregon should recruit and develop bigger, better players. That much is clear. But flawed teams can still win national championships, as 2010 Auburn proved. Can the Ducks win a national championship as is? Certainly, and if a couple breaks had gone their way the past few years they’d be challenging for their third title game appearance in four years and at least their second national title. Would it help if the Ducks got better linemen or elite pocket passers with speed? Sure, but those don’t grow on trees. Neither, for that matter, does success.

Winston Shi is having difficulties moving on from the epic Oregon win and can’t think of much else. Remind him that the season isn’t over yet and the Card still has more on its plate at wshi94 ‘at’ stanford.edu.