There's no need to tell Oregon Ducks players like Tyler Dorsey about the wild start to the Pac-12.

They're watching.

"Every game is going down to the wire. We checked them all out," said Dorsey, Oregon's freshman guard. "We got to be prepared for a 40-minute fight every game. Every team has a chance to win it this year."

The Pac-12 is generally deep, but after a week and a half, the conference seems like it may have more depth than it has had in years, which puts further emphasis on the one glaring weakness of Oregon as the Ducks prepare to face Utah and Colorado on the road.

Oregon is great at home, but these Ducks are struggling to fly away from the confines of Matthew Knight Arena.

The Ducks (13-3, 2-1 Pac-12) are 11-0 at home. It's at home where Oregon beat No. 22 Baylor. It's at home where they beat Cal and Stanford.

But away from home, the Ducks are 2-3. They beat Navy on neutral turf in Hawaii and they won at Alabama. But this season's three glaring losses have come in Vegas against a UNLV team that just fired its coach, at Boise State and, most recently, at Oregon State to begin Pac-12 play.

At home, the Ducks average 79 points per game and 64 points against. On the road? The offense drops off to 68 per game and the defense allows 68.

And when things are so close in the conference, Oregon players know they can't exchange a plus-15 differential at home for an even one on the road.

"We haven't been doing a good job of preparing ourselves for road trips," senior Elgin Cook said. "These two games will have hostile environments. We don't want to come out flat and get down. We have to come out firing and establish our tempo and our game."

The best way to do that, Cook said, is on defense. The Ducks have been markedly better on the defensive end of the floor this season compared to last year and Cook said it's the easiest thing to try to translate on the road. So far this year, Oregon's 65.2 points allowed per game ranks No. 1 in the Pac-12 -- five points better than Oregon's No. 10-ranked defense a year ago. Cook said having experienced players back from last year's team means the Ducks can game plan more on the defensive end instead of focusing on fundamentals. It doesn't hurt that the Ducks are taller and more athletic than they were a year ago.

"We have a lot of athletes," Cook said. "If I do get beat off the dribble, I don't have to foul or come from behind and swat the ball. We have rim protectors back there. If I get beat, Jordan (Bell) has my back. If Tyler gets beat, I have his back."

Cook is the only player on Oregon's roster who has done the mountain swing through Utah and Colorado, a trip that many considered to be one of the hardest trips in the conference. The Ducks are at Utah on Thursday and will fly to Colorado for Sunday's tilt against the Buffaloes.

Since 2013, Utah (12-4, 1-2) has won 44 of 47 home games. All three losses have come against top 10 teams and the Utes are averaging nearly 13,000 fans per home contest. Colorado (12-4, 1-2) is 80-15 at home over the last six years.

"It's on the road, and we've had a couple environments that have been pretty good and these two will be pretty good," Dana Altman said. "Everyone needs a win and you have to protect your home court, so I'm sure it will be pretty lively at both spots."

To counteract, Dorsey said the Ducks need to match the home court energy. They have a tendency of coming out flat on the road, pitting themselves up against a big deficit early. It wasn't acceptable in the nonconference portion of the schedule, Dorsey said, and it certainly won't fly this year in the Pac-12.

"We got to figure out how to win on the road because lately we haven't come out with the effort we need at the beginning," Dorsey said. "Those are big games on the road and we need them."

-- Tyson Alger

talger@oregonian.com

@tysonalger