The road to the first ever college football playoff may not be as easy as the Oregon Ducks once imagined. After defeating the #7 Michigan State Spartans, the Ducks were hailed as the most complete team in the country. However, the 1-2 Washington State Cougars posed a bigger challenge than previously thought.

Washington State opened the game with a quick scoring drive, passing all over the Ducks. The Cougars passing attack was well known, but the Ducks could do nothing to stop it. On the offensive side, the Ducks allowed 5 sacks to Mariota in the first half alone, and the Ducks went in to the second half tied 21-21.

The Ducks were able to establish a lead and hold on in the second half, thanks primarily to their quarterback Marcus Mariota. Mariota threw more touchdown passes (5) than incompletions (4) and led his team to victory, 38-31. However, the question comes up, if Oregon struggled this much with a low Pac-12 team, how will they do when they have to face teams like Stanford or UCLA? Granted, because the Ducks are the #2 team in the country, they are constantly taking the best shots from each team. However, the Ducks need to be ready for that as the season wears on.

Oregon now knows that it will be have to careful with teams like Colorado, Utah and Oregon State left, all of which are capable of upsetting the Ducks, as Ted Miller of ESPN notes.

David Shaw on Pac-12 depth: “Every game is scary.” Pretty obvious Cal & Colorado are good enough to post big upsets.

— Ted Miller (@TedMillerRK) September 23, 2014