By Jay Jones
One Click Sports News

It’s Civil War week! Can you feel the excitement? Huh? Huh?

OK. Maybe not quite yet.

But this week’s lineup on The Writer’s Block with The Register-Guard’s George Schroeder (9am - 10am, ESPN Radio KSCR 1320 AM “The Score”) should get both Duck and Beaver fans a little bit more prepared just about everyday this week.

Here’s what you can look forward to on The Writer’s Block this week:

Monday: George and I will be reviewing the Oregon State-Arizona game, looking forward to the Civil War, and talking to Oregon State head football coach Mike Riley.

Tuesday: George and The Register-Guard’s Rob Moseley will be talking Ducks and the Civil War.

Wednesday: George and I will be talking more Civil War, including a possible conversation with Oregon head football coach Mike Bellotti. We will also be giving away Oregon and Oregon State gear, compliments of Oregon Sports at The Gateway Mall.

Thursday: Thanksgiving. No show.

Friday: This isn’t for sure, but George and I are going to try to put together a show featuring nothing but Civil War talk, including replays of the interviews with Mike Riley and Mike Bellotti.

Duck fans, get all the latest Oregon sports news from Duck Sports News.

Beaver fans, get all the latest Oregon State sports news from Beaver Sports News.

Jay, here.

Earlier this evening, Duck Sports News was at the Civil War game in Corvallis.  And RW was on the baselines to snap a few photos.  Not surprisingly, the story of the game was the Maarty Leunen’s play.

Malik Hairston goes up for up for two of his six points.

Maarty Leunen drives to the basket.  Leunen was 8 of 10 from the field.

Leunen inbounds the ball.  In addition to 32 points, he grabbed three rebounds and made two assists.

Leunen was 9 of 12 from the free-throw line.

Leunen had a game-high 32 points and 35 minutes.

While this Duck looks alone, there were plenty of Duck fans to join him at Gill Coliseum.

LeKendric Longmire came off the bench to score 19 points.

We all know it’s going to be tough for Oregon to muster enough offense to defeat the Beavers on Saturday. Some have even wondered if the Ducks will manage to score another offensive touchdown in their final two games. I wonder that as well.

But I do think there’s a way to beat the Beavers. Here’s how we do it:

On first, second and third down we take a knee. Occasionally, when the defense grows tired of getting in the ready position and the D-Line stops getting down in the 3-point stance, we hand it off to Stewart or direct-snap it to Crenshaw.

We throw in a few trick plays to entertain the bowl officials in the press box: Just before snapping it, and the entire offense stops and stares at the sideline for another read, you direct snap it to Stewart who rumbles around the corner before the defense has a chance to know what’s going on (I pulled this one from my street football days as a kid, when you’d yell “car” to let everyone know there’s a car coming and to step off the street for a moment…but there really wasn’t a car. The oldest trick in the book).

On fourth down, we punt and try to pin the Beavers near the goal line. We do this in hopes of getting a safety and taking the lead (2-0 in the bottom of the 3rd sounds good to me).

We continue this throughout the game, just like a good chess match. I’d imagine this will be slightly more fun to watch than an Autzen halftime show, where some goof ball who’s never touched a football tries to throw one at some cardboard football player. But that’s up for discussion.

If we can’t manage taking them down in regulation, we take the excitement to overtime, tied at zero. (see: Civil War, 1983, where 33, 176 witnessed a zero-zero tie at Autzen). In overtime, much like hockey or soccer, we win the kick-off. But even that won’t be easy.

This is how we can beat the Beavers on Saturday.

-RW