Willie Taggart's introduction as Oregon's coach last year came 12 days after the Ducks' first Civil War loss in nine years, and upon his Willamette Valley arrival, he discovered the sting from that loss was still fresh.



"I know all of them was ticked off when I got here," Taggart said Monday with the 121st Civil War, his first, looming Saturday. "You hear everybody was ticked off. Not just our players, but everybody. And considering it had been so long since that happened, that really just stays with you."



Taggart knows a motivational opportunity when he sees one. It's why he's shown his Ducks "lowlight" tapes from last year's 4-8 season to "remind them what that looked like and just try to remind them that taste they had in their mouth."



He added: "Unless you want that taste to continue, you've got to do something about it and we talked to them to do something here in Autzen Stadium, and send these seniors out the right way."



The Ducks (6-5, 3-5 Pac-12) are expected to do just that. Oddsmakers on Monday night listed UO as a 26-point favorite to beat Oregon State (1-10, 0-8). Both teams lost their starting quarterbacks to injury early in the season but only UO's has returned to the field since. Justin Herbert threw for a touchdown and ran for another in Saturday's 48-28 win against Arizona, his first game since Sept. 30.



Afterward, all the Ducks said Herbert's return energized the team, which is 4-1 in games he's finished and 1-4 in games he's missed.



"I think when you're the guy, you're 'the guy,' and you're the franchise and everyone see you as that, it's not just your offense, it's your entire football team that loses a little bit of themselves," Taggart said of the impact that a quarterback's injury can have. "I think what we saw on Saturday was an entire football team was excited to have Justin back out there and they all played that way."



Some UO coaches warned Herbert would be rusty after missing so many games due to a fractured collarbone, but other than a few missed reads, Taggart said, "for the most part I thought he was on." His 40-yard touchdown run, Taggart added, "was crazy."



Just as unexpected was the success Oregon's defense enjoyed in limiting quarterback Khalil Tate, who was the nation's second-best rusher entering Saturday, to 32 rushing yards. Arizona had scored 46.5 points per game against conference opponents in its last six games before the Ducks held it to 28.



Taggart intimated that number was a little deceiving due to a Herbert interception that gave UA a short field, and careless penalties that extended Wildcats drives. With 12 flags Saturday, UO is averaging nine per game this season, which is tied with South Florida -- Taggart's old team -- for the most in the 129-team Football Bowl Subdivision.



"Considering how explosive Arizona had been against everyone else, for our guys to hold them down like they did, I thought that was big-time," Taggart said. "Again, having a bye week, I thought Jim (Leavitt) and the defensive staff did a good job putting a simple game plan together so our guys can go out and play fast and use their athletic ability to help us against a good football team.



"By being simple our guys were a lot more disciplined in what they had to do and were in position to make those plays and that made a difference."

UO has allowed 29.9 points per game this season, its lowest average since 2014.



Scout-team quarterback Demetri Burch, a freshman receiver who was switched to quarterback to give UO depth upon Herbert's injury, was again praised by Taggart for preparing the defense for Tate's elusive running ability. That led to a question -- if he looked that good against Oregon's first-team defense in practice, could he have made the same impact in October, while Herbert recuperated and UO's offense struggled to produce points?



"After seeing him go against our defense last week I was like geez, if I had known that, maybe we could have (played him)," Taggart said. "He's one of those guys we have to find a way to put the ball in his hands because he's special with it. He showed all of us, there's no hiding him on this football team, they all know he can play and help."

Between the return of Herbert, Royce Freeman's four rushing touchdowns, a pair of 100-yard rushers and a defensive effort that allowed one touchdown in the final 39 minutes and 8 seconds, Saturday was the closest Taggart felt UO has come to playing to its full potential, if not for the dozen penalties.

Though he claimed to hear no talk of "revenge" this week, it goes without saying that the Ducks would relish playing a perfect game Saturday, in particular, one year after their heavily flawed performance in Corvallis.

"We have another opportunity to see if we can put it all together and play our best ball game," he said. "I challenged our guys and I look forward to them doing it. We got an opportunity against our rival to do that."



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com