As is often the case following a defeat, Oregon’s performance last Saturday at Arizona State left more questions than answers in the aftermath of their upset loss to the Sun Devils.

Who body snatched Justin Herbert? What happened to the Oregon secondary? Were the Ducks caught looking ahead?

These were the thoughts on the minds of many as the clock inside Sun Devil Stadium wound down to 0:00 and Oregon’s College Football Playoff hopes went up in smoke.

Some of those questions still hang over the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex as the Ducks now turn their focus to Oregon State and attempt to take a positive step forward with an opportunity to win a Pac-12 Championship and clinch a berth in the Rose Bowl still available to them.

As a weekend filled with holiday festivities inches closer and closer, WFOD takes a look at some of the biggest questions facing the Ducks as they prepare to face a resurgent Oregon State team this Saturday.

1. Where are the Ducks at mentally following the loss to Arizona State?

It could really be anywhere on the spectrum. Smart money would suggest that the Ducks will enter the game mentally prepared and focused on taking down an Oregon State team that is not playing like the Oregon State teams of two and three years ago. After all, that’s kind of been Oregon’s M.O. under Mario Cristobal when they’ve been faced with bouncing back after a disheartening loss. But last Saturday’s loss to Arizona State wasn’t quite like some of the close losses the Ducks have suffered in the past. This was a game in which Oregon was surprisingly listless for three and a half quarters before suddenly coming alive and nearly pulling off an incredible comeback win. Instead, the comeback bid fell short and the consequences for sputtering for the vast majority of the game ultimately costs the Ducks a shot at the College Football Playoff, and by extension, the national title.

That can be a tough pill to swallow, and it can leave a team with an empty feeling the likes of which this group hasn’t really experienced. Sure, the nature of the loss in the Stanford game last year was cruel and unusual, as was the loss to Auburn to begin the year, but neither loss actively prevented the Ducks from summiting the highest mountain the sport has to offer. How this team copes with that reality and moves forward will be fascinating to watch.

2. Can the Oregon secondary bounce back against a potent Beaver pass attack?

It’s been wild to witness the way the play of the Oregon secondary has dramatically ebbed and flowed over the course of the season. Through their first six games, the Ducks performed unequivocally as one of the best pass defenses in the entire country, limiting opponents over that span to just 160.1 yards passing per game, three touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. Since then, however, the secondary has been chewed up and spit out by a battery of opponents who haven’t flinched when attempting to throw into this defense. In their last five games, Oregon has surrendered an average of 299.8 yards passing per game, 12 touchdowns, and five interceptions. Yes, that’s nearly double the yards passing per game, quadruple the touchdowns, and less than half of the interceptions in one less game played compared to the marks over the first half of the season.

Of course, it’s important to note that the Ducks have faced some of the best passers the Pac-12 has to offer over these last five games in Washington’s Jacob Eason, Wazzu’s Anthony Gordon, USC’s Kedon Slovis, and Arizona State’s Jayden Daniels. Still, this is a staggering regression and a trend that is both concerning and absolutely counter to the narrative that had been established earlier this season. The job for the Oregon secondary doesn’t figure to get any easier this week as Jake Luton and a potent Oregon State passing attack comes to Eugene seeking bowl eligibility for the first time since 2013. The Ducks’ ability to not only hold up, but reverse the slide could provide a telling indication for how this game ultimately shakes out.

3. How will this senior class for Oregon be remembered?

Truthfully, much of this senior class’ legacy will be determined over the next couple of weeks. With a Pac-12 title and Rose Bowl berth on the line, Oregon’s 2019 senior class has an opportunity to go down in the annals of Oregon football as a group that helped engineer one of the most dramatic four-year turnarounds in the modern history of the program. However, even without capping off their careers with a trip to Pasadena, this 17-man senior class should be cherished and applauded for their remarkable resilience and belief in the program as chaos beyond the boundaries of the field managed to envelop the program over this group’s first two years in Eugene.

Should you need a reminder, this is a group that kicked off their careers with a dismal 4-8 record and the firing of a coaching staff that was responsible for bringing them to Oregon in the first place. From there, this group was asked to embrace a new staff and a new culture that promised to return Oregon to the elite level it had occupied only few years prior, only to have that head coach leave the program less than a year on the job for a place he determined to be more desirable. More staff changes ensued after Cristobal, a former assistant on Willie Taggart’s staff, was elevated to head coach full time days prior to Oregon’s Las Vegas Bowl loss to Boise State, capping off a 2017 season that was wrought with adversity and distraction. Things have largely stabilized since then, but the players who remained through the turmoil and upheaval proved themselves to be the bedrock and true stewards of this program.

Top Photo: Oregon QB Justin Herbert (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)