Troy Dye

Travis Dye

Dru Mathis

It will be a matchup of Pac-12 Conference division leaders when the Oregon football team plays Saturday in Los Angeles.Fresh off a dramatic, final-play victory over Washington State, the Ducks are 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the Pac-12 as they prepare to play at Southern California on Saturday (5 p.m., FOX). Oregon has a comfortable lead in the Pac-12's North division, while the Trojans (5-3, 4-1) are tied with Utah atop the South division.On Monday, UO coachmet with local media to preview the game. Some notable subject matter:as the team keeps winning; Oregon takes a seven-game streak of victories into Saturday's showdown.After opening the season ranked No. 11 by The Associated Press, Oregon fell out of the top 15 — and out of any discussions regarding the College Football Playoff — following a season-opening loss to Auburn. But the Ducks are back up to No. 7 this week, and while most postseason projections have them slotted for a Rose Bowl matchup against Penn State, they're popping back up in discussions about contenders for the four playoff spots as well.In the social-media age, there's no way to completely shield the team from what coaches term "outside noise" such as that."That's always going to be the monster that we're faced with," Cristobal said. "I think you quickly acknowledge the fact that it's there, but you also acknowledge the fact that, OK, we're having success, we're climbing — but we're also climbing because other teams had some mishaps on Saturday."Indeed, among the teams Oregon moved ahead of this week were three that lost last week: Auburn, Oklahoma and Notre Dame. The Ducks don't want to suffer a similar fate."Our operation and our process is working because it's as simple as, this is the most important game of the year because it's the next game," Cristobal said. "We're not gonna stray from that; we can't stray from that. I don't know if anyone's good enough to stray from that. Maybe they are, but for us it's going to be about being where our feet are, and focusing on the task at hand."The Ducks should get a boost this week with news from Cristobal on Monday thatfor practice this week.suffered a broken thumb during Oregon's win at Washington on Oct. 19 and didn't play this past Saturday against Washington State.sat out the second half against the Cougars after an incident of helmet-to-helmet contact that saw a WSU defender ejected for targeting.Oregon had a walk-through Sunday evening and was off Monday, but Cristobal said both brothers were expected to return to action Tuesday."We feel those guys are healthy and will be ready to practice tomorrow," he said.Without for the WSU game, junior college transferat inside linebacker.Mathis didn't make his UO debut until the week before at Washington, playing on the kickoff return and kickoff coverage teams. He had three tackles against the Cougars on Saturday, sharing reps at WILL linebacker with redshirt freshmanThough special teams play helped Mathis break through and earn playing time at UW, his involvement in the kicking game was limited against WSU so he could focus on defense, Cristobal said."He did a nice job for his first college start," the coach added.Mathis had a tough assignment in his first UO start, given that the Ducks were facing the "Air Raid" offense employed by WSU coach Mike Leach.which include a reliance on short, accurate passes out of spread formations with an uptempo approach. USC's offensive coordinator is Graham Harrell, who played under Leach at Texas Tech and later was an assistant coach for him at Washington State.So far this season, USC is second in the Pac-12 to Washington State when it comes to the percentage of its total yardage gained via the pass. The Cougars produce 83.6 percent of their yardage through the air, and the Trojans produce 66.9 percent from passing the ball."They have their own flavor; their personnel use is different," Cristobal said in comparing USC with WSU. "… This time of year, when teams have played so many games, you see some overlapping concepts. At the same time, you have to make sure you work on the things that have been effective against you, because if not they'll show up again."The Ducks have more than two dozen players on their roster who hail from the greater southern California region.That means the chance to see family and friends at the team hotel Friday night, and to field requests for tickets to the game. Like the postseason projections, those can't distract from Oregon's preparations to play Saturday evening, Cristobal said."It's been addressed, (and) will continue to be addressed," he said. "Our guys are looking forward to playing on the road."