Oregon vs. UCLA is sneakily the most intriguing college football game this weekend for many reasons. The Oregon Ducks are trying to regain their footing after a slow start, while the UCLA Bruins are proving their undefeated record is no fluke.

Oregon’s sluggish start shocked a lot of people. Losing star quarterback Dante Moore would have crushed almost any other team in the country. Instead, it became the rallying point this team desperately needed after a flat start.

Losing Dante Moore woke Oregon up

When Moore went down with the serious concussion he suffered against USC, it snapped the Ducks back into reality. They responded by winning a tough road game, which they hadn’t looked capable of a few weeks earlier.

Oregon also has a unique circumstance that few programs could replicate. Dylan Raiola, a former 5-star quarterback and two-year starter for Nebraska, was supposed to redshirt this season. Instead, he stepped in without the offense missing a beat.

Even more notable, Raiola made the Oregon offense look even smoother than it did with Moore, throwing for 289 yards and two touchdowns. That’s less a knock on Moore and more a sign of how quickly Raiola settled in.

UCLA is not a fake undefeated team

While the Ducks are looking for redemption, the Bruins are not a pretender. UCLA coach Bob Chesney has turned the program into something reminiscent of what his JMU predecessor Curt Cignetti built at Indiana.

The Bruins are fundamentally sound; they play extremely physically, and they run the ball as effectively as anyone. How they win matters as much as the record itself.

UCLA owns the No. 1 rushing offense in the country in EPA per rush. That’s a team imposing its will at the line of scrimmage and wearing opponents down.

The most glaring matchup in this game

This game will be defined by whether Oregon can slow down a UCLA rushing attack led by Wayne Knight. On paper, that is a major problem for the Ducks.

Oregon ranks 101st in the country in EPA per rush allowed. The Ducks also gave up 109 rushing yards to Drew Mestemaker, which shows how vulnerable this unit has been against the run.

Nico Iamaleava could do something similar for UCLA. If the Bruins can stay on schedule and keep Oregon’s defense on the field, they have the formula to pull off a win that would turn heads nationally.

The most important aspect of this game isn’t Raiola or Moore. It’s whether Oregon’s front can hold up against a physical team that knows exactly who it is.

My prediction for Oregon vs. UCLA

That said, I think Oregon wins this game. It feels like the Ducks are locking back in at the right time, and their performance against USC showed the tide is turning.

Adversity has a way of revealing what a team is made of, and Oregon responded the right way when it lost its starting quarterback. That kind of resilience doesn’t disappear in a week.

Still, the Ducks can’t afford to take UCLA lightly. If they play soft up front, Chesney’s group will punish them, because the Bruins’ rushing attack is good enough to expose any weakness Oregon brings into this game.