Ducks defense loses a little intensity as the Red Wolves mount an 11-play, 57-yard field goal drive. Some teachable moments for Monday.

Oregon offense has been unstoppable. Almost flawless execution besides an early sack when no one picked up on a stunt, and one dropped pass.

It will be a bit of a challenge to get their attention on Monday, but Kelly has excelled at teaching the process.

Business-like execution by the first team offense is the highlight of the first quarter. Mariota looks dazzling, 13/14 to start the game to a variety of targets. Good to see successful throws to Josh Huff, Keanon Lowe, Colt Lyerla. Great touch on the ball.

Defense is swarming, and special teams stuff three kickoffs inside the 20 despite the new kickoff rule. Alonso starts the game with two tackles for loss.

Aplin completing nearly all of his passes but nearly all of them are sideways. Cross the 50 for the first time at the 12 second mark.

Superficial measures never go far enough. Fans expect perfection and an unbroken chain of three and outs, and analysts compare everything to SEC, where one quarterback in ten can throw and every other weekend the opponent is helpless and punchless, Troy State or Mississippi.

Statistics tell their own damn lies. Oregon's defense will always be underrated, as long as the measures are yards allowed and time of possession. The Ducks are 34-6 in their last 40 scoring 46 points a game. Offensively, that's shock and awe efficiency. Defensively, that's a lot of extra possessions and plays, and to combat that, Nick Aliotti and his staff do a tremendous job of developing their depth and preparing for the future, playing the number twos and number threes in rotation.

The Ducks probably lead the country in an unkept stat, "Meaningless Yards Allowed." Think back to last year. Against UCLA in the PAC-12 title game, the Bruins put together a 15-play, 94-yard touchdown drive that consumed 5:22 on the clock. Impressive, right? Not really. The drive gobbled up a huge chunk of the fourth quarter, and UCLA was trailing 49-24. The drive, put together against a heavily-rotated Duck defense, constituted more than a quarter of their output for the whole game, and all it did was guarantee they'd lose. 

It happens a lot with the Webfoots defense. They lose battles to win wars, but it goes way beyond, "bend but don't break," an expression that Aliotti hates. Over the last four years Oregon has forced more turnovers than any school except Oklahoma State. They turn in performances like the championship game, where they double up an opponent and hold them to 243 yards when the game is close, then flex to protect a league. Against Cal earlier in the year they frustrated the Bears offense for three quarters. In the fourth Cal put together drives of 38, 64, and 39 yards. In the first two they turned the ball over on downs, the equivalent of an extra turnover. The last one, 8 plays and 3 first downs, ended when time ran out. The result? No points,  but on the stat sheet the Ducks "mediocre" defense gave up 29 plays and 141 yards in the quarter. While winning 43-15.

Photo: This season look for the Duck defense to swarm like zombies in a science fiction movie, only lots, lots faster (dailybruin.com photo).

Don't sleep on Arkansas State.

In fact, don't sleep on anyone. Even Tennessee Tech is the only chance that week to see the Ducks play college football, and for the players, it's the only chance to develop timing, rhythm, cohesion and execution. Opponents don't matter. The process and the progress do.

But Gus Malzahn's Red Wolves are a bigger challenge than casual fans might assume. For one, they have Malzahn, the former architect of the Auburn offense in Cam Newton's Heisman and National Championship season. ASU has big-time aspirations and a solid resume. Last season they were 10-3 and 8-0 in the Sun Belt Conference. They played Illinois tough to begin the year before losing 33-15, and lost to #13 Virginia Tech by just 26-7. They weren't blown out by anybody, and they return senior quarterback Ryan Aplin, who threw for 3588 yards and 19 touchdowns (plus 16 interceptions) and five of his six top receivers. Alpin's a dual threat, also ASU's leading rusher with 588 yards and 10 tds. This season he'll be joined in the backfield by Tennessee transfer David Oku and sophomore Frankie Jackson, 355 yards last year, 4.0 yards a carry.

What kind of fan base do we want to be?

With great success, the temptation grows great to become arrogant, spoiled, entitled and belligerent.

The fans at some schools even boo and criticize their own players from the stands, forgetting three things: 1) the players they're booing and carping at are 18 to 22 years old, 2) their parents may be two or three rows away, and 3) highly sought after four and five-star recruits are attending the game on recruiting visits.

10 days till Duck football. Practicing behind barbed wire and closed doors, the only impression fans get of the team's progress is in interviews and sound bites. Tomorrow is the last scrimmage of fall camp, a key one for evaluating players, especially in closely-watched position battles like quarterback. On Friday they announce the depth chart. Saturday begins the week of preparation for the first opponent, Gus Malzahn and Arkansas State.

At the beginning and end of every season ESPN's PAC-12 blogger Ted Miller compiles a list of the top 25 players in the conference. His current list is up to #14, and so far it includes just one Duck, John Boyett at #16. It's an interesting list, but it's reduckulous that the three-time conference champions rarely appear on it. Either the Oregon coaching staff are miracle workers, or several Oregon players are seriously undervalued by the SEC-loving, Trojan-apologizing brain trust at ESPN.

We thought it would be fun to compile a list of the top 25 Ducks, realizing that it's a team game and every player is important:

It's tough playing cornerback at Oregon. The blistering pace and productivity of the Oregon offense demands that opponents throw early and often to catch up. The Ducks play a blitzing and aggressive style of defense with a strong commitment to stopping the run, so cornerbacks are often on an island, guarding taller and faster receivers one on one. And the PAC-12 is loaded with marquee pass catchers, including Marquise Lee of USC and Marquess Wilson of Washington State. In all, five or six of the best in the country play in the conference, a list that has to include SC's Robert Woods and Cal's Keenan Allen.

Last year redshirt freshmen Terrance Mitchell and Troy Hill and true freshman Ifo Ekpre-Olomu were thrown into the deep end of the shark tank due to the off-field problems of Cliff Harris. The Ducks won 12 games, their third straight conference championship and a Rose Bowl, but the three suffered a few bite marks in the neoprene. Opponents averaged 247 yards per game passing last year but only 25 tds (by comparison, the run-first Ducks had 39). A few times, the three youngsters were burned for some highlight film days: