ESPN analysts discuss how Week 1 Georgia loss affects Oregon's College Football Playoff chances

As well as Oregon has been playing of late, it still faces an uphill battle to make the College Football Playoff. After suffering a 49-3 blowout in the season opener to Georgia, the Ducks have reeled off six straight wins, including this past week against No. 9 UCLA.

But that Week 1 loss is a massive blemish to their resume, and could ultimately be what keeps them out when the field is selected in December. That’s the take Kirk Herbstreit took on ESPN’s College Football Playoff: Top 25 show Tuesday, saying the Oregon’s chances are slim even if it manages to win out.

“As we sit here right now, it’s hard to imagine just because of how badly they were beaten,” Herbstreit said. “Now, with that being said, I don’t know if anybody that day could’ve performed and beaten that Georgia team. Defending national champs, in Atlanta, got momentum early and never looked back. They were anxious to prove to everybody that they could still play football despite losing all those players to the NFL. Oregon ran into a buzzsaw.

“For Dan Lanning to recover from that as a first-time head coach and have his team playing the way they look right now, that’d be one of those games you’d love to see on a neutral field. Georgia maybe still beats ’em, but right now the way Bo Nix is playing, I don’t know if there’s a more improved quarterback than Bo Nix from where he was the last three or four years.”

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After throwing for just 173 yards and two interceptions against the Bulldogs, Nix has 1,636 yards, 17 touchdowns and just one interception over the past six games.

David Pollack responded to Herbstreit by also shouting out Nix’s turnaround, saying that if it continues the Ducks could still have a shot. He mentioned a Nov. 19 matchup against Utah as a pivotal game, as well as the Pac-12 championship should Oregon make it, but added it’s not just if the Ducks can win those games, but how.

“The only way I could ever see (Oregon making the Playoff) is they’re gonna need help and they’re gonna need people to lose,” Pollack said. “They’re gonna need to hit people in the face with a rake. They’re gonna need to destroy everybody in their path and keep continuing, win the Pac-12 and beat the mess out of everybody they face. Obviously, they’ll have some great showdowns in the future and some chance to prove that. If they do that versus Utah, they do that in the Pac-12 championship game, maybe that starts to come into play. But it sure feels like 46 is gonna be really hard to overcome.”

Lastly, Joey Galloway weighed in, pointing out that Oregon’s Week 3 win against BYU doesn’t appear as strong now as it did then. For that reason, he agrees with Pollack that the matchups against Utah and in the Pac-12 championship, as well as losses from other teams, will be crucial in determining whether Oregon gets in the College Football Playoff.

“The BYU win (is) not looking as good at it did earlier in the year,” Galloway said. “BYU being a ranked win on their resume, now BYU is 4-4. So that hurts their chances. They do get Utah at home later in the season. They have to make a statement in that game. Unfortunately, they don’t play USC in the regular season, but whoever they would face in the Pac-12 championship game, they have to make a statement. Oregon’s gonna need a whole lot of eyeball test at the end to overcome what they won’t have on their schedule.”

The first College Football Playoff rankings will be announced next Tuesday on ESPN. Oregon will hope to send a message before then when it takes on California at 12:30 p.m. PT on Saturday.