Painter offers Ducks different test.

Byline: Rob Moseley The Register-Guard

A year after its defining performance in the Midwest, the Oregon football team is heading back to Big Ten country looking to put a stamp on this latest season.

The Ducks take a No. 16 ranking and 2-0 record into Ross-Ade Stadium for a game against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PDT. Having played two still winless teams in Washington and Utah State, Oregon has its best chance yet to prove its merits, as the Ducks did last season in pasting Michigan 39-7 on the road.

Assuming UO quarterback Justin Roper stays healthy, this one figures to stay close enough to be his first full game of the season. Roper left the UW contest in the second quarter with a concussion, and he took just 45 of Oregon's 88 offensive snaps against the Aggies.

"I hope I don't have to play a full game the whole year," Roper said, before acknowledging that a series of blowout wins the rest of the season is unlikely. "But I would like to get that whole game in."

For at least the second time this season, Roper is only the second most prominent quarterback in the game, a scenario the Ducks never encountered last season with Dennis Dixon behind center. The Boilermakers will start fifth-year senior Curtis Painter, who has over 9,000 passing yards in his career and has made 33 straight starts, tying Arizona State's Rudy Carpenter for the longest active streak in the nation.

Painter is already in the Big Ten's career top 10 for attempts (1,297), completions (775), passing yards (9,049) and total offense (9,386). With 56 passing touchdowns, he needs five more to enter the top 10 in that category, as well.

"He's a tremendous passer," UO coach Mike Bellotti said. "He sees the field very well, is very strong and can shake off tacklers. Watching film, he sees the whole field. If somebody falls down somewhere, the ball's going to that (defender's man)."

Unlike Washington and Utah State, the Boilermakers employ a more traditional offense built around drop-back passing and power rushing. They do spread the field with laterals and screen passes, but Painter isn't the threat to run that Washington's Jake Locker was.

"He does have a good arm, and he can fit it in tight spots," UO linebacker Spencer Paysinger said. "So we're going to have to worry about getting our coverage down. Even though he's not going to scramble, he can beat us with his arm."

Painter had 286 yards and two touchdowns in Purdue's season-opening 42-10 win over Northern Colorado this past week. The Boilermakers provided some tension by leading just 21-0 entering the fourth quarter, against a Football Championship Subdivision team (formerly I-AA) that went 1-11 a year ago.

It was Purdue's first game without running back Jaycen Taylor, who injured his knee in fall camp, and the Boilermakers also played without fifth-year senior offensive tackle Sean Sester, who is expected to play against the Ducks after recovering from back soreness.

"It's just another team we've got to study and get ready for," UO cornerback Jairus Byrd said. "I think we're excited about it. It presents a new challenge."

The Ducks have an injured running back of their own, after Jeremiah Johnson dislocated his shoulder against the Aggies. He was cleared for non-contact situations in practice Monday but missed the workout attending to a family situation. Johnson is expected back today, Bellotti said.

Johnson and the UO offense will face a Purdue defense that is not unlike Oregon's. The Boilermakers play a 4-3 front with big tackles and smaller, speedy linebackers.

"They throw the ball a lot, so their defense has seen the pass," Roper said. "They'll know how to defend it. Obviously, I don't think they'll have seen a rushing game as strong as ours."

The Ducks enter this week fourth nationally in rushing at 332 yards per game. They sit atop the country in total offense at 592 yards per game, after setting a school record with 688 against the Aggies.

Both Bellotti in his teleconference Sunday night and center Max Unger on Monday mentioned Purdue's propensity to zone blitz. Unger said the Boilermakers blitzed about 30 percent of the time in their win over Northern Colorado; Utah State, by comparison, blitzed the Ducks 51 percent of the time, Unger said.

"They're a pretty standard Big Ten team," Unger said of the Boilermakers. "They play a distinct brand of football out there."

Unger also agreed with Bellotti that the Ducks this week can fall back only minimally on the Michigan experience last season. For the trip to Indiana, Oregon will try to keep its players on Pacific time, imposing a late curfew Friday night and later wake-up call Saturday morning.

This is only the second all-time meeting between the Ducks and Boilermakers, Purdue having won 13-7 in West Lafayette in 1979. Ross-Ade Stadium will be new territory for Oregon, but Bellotti said he won't put undue pressure on the Ducks entering their first road trip of the season.

"I don't want to put too much fear into them," Bellotti said. "It's more just an attitude of being aware of what's going to happen, being aware of the circumstances and surroundings, and then doing what we do and not letting those things affect our game plan or our execution of that game plan."

Oregon vs. Purdue

12:30 p.m., Saturday, Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, Ind. TV: ABC. Radio: KUGN-AM (590), KZEL-FM (96.1). More coverage at www.registerguard.com/blogs.