• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Portland St.-Oregon Preview

Sep 14, 2010 - 2:06 PM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Portland State (1-1) at No. 7 Oregon (2-0), 6:15 p.m. EDT

Oregon has had little trouble finding the end zone through two games. That likely won't change this weekend.

The fifth-ranked Ducks look to continue their offensive surge as they host Portland State of the Football Championship Subdivision on Saturday afternoon.

With a new quarterback and without the Pac-10's top returning rusher for the season opener, Oregon (2-0) has looked dominant while outscoring New Mexico and Tennessee 120-13.

Only Houston (122 points) has scored more points than the Ducks, whose 1,167 total yards are second to Nevada (1,184) among Football Bowl Subdivision teams. The defending Pac-10 champs have scored on offense, defense and special teams.

"What they do is they wear on you, they get you tired," Tennessee coach Derek Dooley said. "They've got special enough players to make you pay."

After a 72-0 win over New Mexico on Sept. 4, Oregon overcame a 13-3 second-quarter deficit to score 45 unanswered points in the final 33 minutes of a 48-13 win at Tennessee last Saturday.

"That's something we really pride ourselves on: our conditioning," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. "We felt like that would really be something we could hang our hat on."

That likely does not bode well for Portland State (1-1), which is 0-3 versus Oregon and given up an average of 442 yards and 43.5 points this season.

Facing their first ranked opponent since losing 55-12 at then-No. 25 Oregon in the schools' most recent 2006 meeting, the Vikings will try to contain running back LaMichael James.

James rushed for 134 yards on 16 carries at Tennessee in his return after serving a one-game suspension for an offseason misdemeanor harassment charge. James rushed for a Pac-10 freshman-record 1,546 yards in 2009.

However, Portland State needs to be concerned with more than James coming from Oregon's backfield.

After scoring five touchdowns while replacing James versus New Mexico, sophomore Kenjon Barner returned a punt 80 yards for a TD against the Volunteers.

Defensive back Cliff Harris returned two punts for touchdowns in the season opener and took an interception 76 yards for a score last weekend.

Junior quarterback Darron Thomas is 30 of 55 for 422 yards with four touchdowns through two games. The sophomore, who played five games as a freshman in 2008 before he redshirted last year, beat out Nate Costa as the replacement for Jeremiah Masoli after he was kicked off the team following several run-ins with the law earlier this year.

"The great thing about this team is they feed off each other," Kelly said.

Portland State will have the daunting task of preventing that from happening.

After falling 54-9 at Arizona State to open the season, the Vikings snapped a six-game skid with a 41-33 win at UC Davis last Saturday.

A receiver the last two seasons, junior Cory McCaffrey has moved to the backfield where he rushed for 116 of his team-leading 128 yards in the victory.

"He's very quick and has excellent acceleration. first-year Portland State coach Nigel Burton told the school's official website.

Quarterback Connor Kavanaugh has thrown for 324 yards and rushed for 64 this season.

Portland State is 0-9 versus Pac-10 opponents, and 2-26 against FBS schools.