Nebraska is better than Oregon right now. I’m never certain on anything—range of outcomes and all that—but I’m as close on this as I get. Here, in week seven of this college football season, Nebraska has a better football team than Oregon.
The line on this game doesn’t say it. Most of the power ratings don’t. But I believe it.
Which, of course, doesn’t mean the Huskers will leave Eugene with a win Saturday night.1 Oregon, with what has to be one of the most expensive rosters in the sport, has its playoff hopes hanging by a thread. If the Ducks lose those hopes are dead, and, relative to expectation, the season is over.
Even with last week’s loss to Indiana, Nebraska can think about making the playoff which was unthinkable three months ago. If the Huskers lose, they might still have a better chance at the playoff than Oregon, but making it isn’t the baseline in Lincoln the way it was in Eugene. Nebraska is fighting to prove it can be playoff caliber, whether it makes it or not. Oregon already was, and is now confronting that, this year, it might not be.
Edge green or edge red in that scenario? Who knows? You could make compelling arguments either way when it comes to motivation and momentum. Let’s look instead to the advantages and disadvantages these teams have put on tape and on paper so far.
