EUGENE, Ore. -- Less than two weeks after facing the toughest Pac-12 defense, the Oregon Ducks’ offense will now face the trickiest defense in the Pac-12.

Arizona State’s defense has been -- as Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost put it on Tuesday -- boom or bust this season when it comes to its defensive pressures.

The boom has come from safety Jordan Simone and a trio of linebackers (Christian Sam, Antonio Longino and DJ Calhoun), who have recorded 13.5 of the Sun Devils’ 23 sacks this season (tied-ninth nationally).

“Blitz-heavy is an understatement,” Frost said. “These guys blitz not just one extra guy, but two extra guys a bunch of the time. … They try to create chaos and they take away the easy things so that hopefully your quarterback is standing back there and they can get to him.”

But the bust comes during those plays in which the Sun Devils haven’t effectively gotten to opposing quarterbacks, leaving gaps in their defense which teams have taken advantage of. Through seven games Arizona State has given up 38 plays of 20-plus yards (97th nationally).

It leaves for a fairly inconsistent defense that has either been very opportunistic (see: UCLA) or terribly porous (see: Texas A&M). And because of that Frost knows that his offense will need to be patient.

“There are going to be some series they win, when they’re going to be aggressive and gamble,” Frost said. “They’re going to make their share of plays. We just have to hit on our share of plays, too, and hopefully when we hit on our share of plays, they’re big plays.”

And it’ll be possible for the Ducks to hit on those big plays on Thursday night. Despite the juggling quarterback situation Oregon has actually continued to bust out big plays with a good amount of consistency this season.

Oregon has recorded 42 plays of 20-plus yards through seven games (tied-28th nationally), which is more than Stanford and UCLA, whose offenses have gotten much more ink recently.

Surprisingly, it’s not many fewer than in recent seasons when the Ducks were running more tempo offense with Marcus Mariota running the offense. In 2014 and 2012, through seven games Oregon had recorded 47 and 40 plays of 20-plus yards, respectively. In 2013 the Ducks were rolling, racking up an FBS-best 66 plays of 20-plus yards through seven games.

But with the juggling done and Vernon Adams Jr. as the Ducks’ quarterback for as long as he stays healthy, Oregon will get back to its roots and hope that the offense begins to roll the way it hoped it would this entire season.

Adams makes the Ducks’ offense more well-rounded and forces defenses -- because of his ability to extend plays -- to rethink how much pressure they really want to send (chances are Arizona State coach Todd Graham will pay little heed to this warning).

“Any time we’re balanced we’re a better team,” Frost said. “There for a while we felt like our best chance was to run it a bunch. … But if we can make throws downfield it loosens everything up.”

And Frost is hoping that might loosen up the Sun Devils’ blitz, too.