One of five returning defensive starters from the Cal football team that went into Autzen Stadium in 2007 and outlasted Oregon in a 31-24 heartstopper, safety Marcus Ezeff said something during Tuesday's media luncheon that should be enough to jolt those tickers back to life.

"(The Ducks offense is) doing exactly the same thing as last year," Ezeff said. "But they might be doing it even better."

Hold on a second.

Better than the No. 1 offense in the Pac-10 last season? Better than the unit that featured a backfield of two Heisman candidates in Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart?

Better than the offense that averaged 467.5 yards and 38.2 points a game in 2007?

This 2008 Oregon offense isn't running with its preseason No. 1 at quarterback. In fact, the Ducks don't even have their second option taking starting snaps.

Jeremiah Masoli entered this season buried on the depth chart behind Nate Costa and Justin Roper. And yet there he was in Oregon's first game of the season, running the spread offense in the wake of Costa's season-ending knee surgery and Roper's concussion.

It just doesn't seem possible that this year's team could be taking over where Dixon and Stewart left off and running their offense better.

That is, until you look at the numbers, and realize that they show Ezeff is completely right.

Boo.

Through eight games this year, Oregon-behind Masoli and tailbacks Jeremiah Johnson and LeGarrette Blount-is averaging 475 yards and 41.5 points per contest. Their rushing numbers are up by 25 yards per game. They've already scored 44 touchdowns.

And the scariest part, at least for the Cal defense, is how many different weapons the Ducks have in their ground attack.

Blount and Johnson split carries virtually right down the middle. Bears coach Jeff Tedford described Masoli as "like another running back, back there playing quarterback."

Five times the Ducks have rushed for over 300 yards this season. In two of those games, they didn't have a 100-yard rusher.

What does all this mean in the context of this weekend?

When the Ducks and Bears finally do meet again in a game that isn't quite as hyped as last season's-but that will determine the postseason fate of one of these one-conference-loss teams-something's got to give.

Cal has punished the running game for the most part this year, putting the clamps on Javon Ringer-who now leads the nation in rushing yards-and allowing only one 100-yard rusher in Arizona's Keola Antolin.

Linebacker Anthony Felder said that he sometimes lost the diminutive Antolin amongst his offensive linemen right as Arizona's tailback hit the hole.

Saturday, that won't be a problem.

Nobody's going to be losing the 5-foot-10, 205-pound Johnson or the 6-foot-2 Blount unless they decide to slip into the Oregon Duck suit. And the Ducks' spread doesn't lend itself to running between the tackles anyway.

This game is going to be about speed, and whether Cal has enough of it.

Starting Michael Mohamed at outside linebacker should be a significant help to that cause. But the 3-4 as a whole, and especially the corps that it's designed for, is going to be faced with its toughest test of the season in Oregon's east-to-west ground attack.

Right now, it doesn't look like the Bears can win in a shootout. It'll be up to the defense to uphold its new reputation as a run-stopper.

The outcome of this game, and with it Cal's shot at the Rose Bowl, is riding on it.

Tags: CAL FOOTBALL