Verdell said the Ducks drew some added motivation from talk of Utah’s supposed greater physicality.

“Definitely put a little chip on our shoulders,” Verdell said. “We try not to focus on the outside noise too much. Hearing they’re the most physical team in the pac 12 made us want to come out here and work even harder.”

Oregon wasn’t intimidated at all by Utah and the hype. They stood up and basically said let’s see about that and then put a game plan in place that worked. It was awesome!