Two years after the Ducks' rise, the fall is painful.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

TEMPE, Ariz. - The Oregon football team has a bye next weekend, and you're tempted to suggest that BYE could put up at least 50 on the Ducks and hold them to two touchdowns.

OK, not funny, but neither is the Oregon football season much fun anymore.

The Ducks were pounded by previously struggling Arizona State, 59-14 in Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and before the Sun Devils' last touchdown - a 1-yard plunge with 26 seconds left - the debate on the Arizona State sideline was what would be least insulting to Oregon, to punch in that last score or take a knee.

How sad is that?

Less than two years ago, the Ducks won a Fiesta Bowl here to finish No. 2 in the nation. Just three seasons ago, one of their most dramatic victories, the double-overtime classic, came here. It's not that long ago; it only seems like forever. How quickly fortunes can change in college football.

What a mess the Ducks are right now. Such a mess that you can look at the remaining five games and figure they'll be underdogs in at least four of them and could lose them all.

(My, isn't TBS looking forward to televising that Oregon-Washington game on Nov. 1 after the Huskies lost Saturday to Nevada? They say you can throw out the records when the Ducks and Huskies play, and by then both teams might want to do that.)

The Ducks can't score - 14, 13 and now 14 offensive points in their last three games. They can't stop anyone from scoring, having allowed an unprecedented 114 points in their last two Pac-10 games. They don't make plays in the clutch, offensively or defensively; they converted only 5-of-13 third downs Saturday, while ASU converted 11-of-15.

They don't even play smart, as evidenced by nine penalties for 97 yards.

Their season has become a train wreck, with so many cars piled on the tracks that you can't see straight.

Offense, defense, special teams - with the Ducks within 10 in the third quarter, Daryl Lightfoot returned the ensuing kickoff 67 yards to set up another Arizona State touchdown - Oregon's doing nothing well.

Saturday, the Ducks were clearly ready to give the quarterback job to sophomore Kellen Clemens; senior Jason Fife's inability to rally the troops at Utah, to claim the job himself, could have been his Last Hurrah. So Clemens threw interceptions on his first two passes, the Ducks were down 14-0 just like that, and in came Fife.

How desperate are the Ducks? For a time in the first half on Saturday, Oregon - this school known for passing, for producing quarterbacks - got what offense it could with Fife running the option. It was as if Oregon lacked confidence in its own identity.

How desperate are the Ducks? One of the things they'll study in the coming week, coach Mike Bellotti said, is whether it would be worth bringing quarterback Johnny DuRocher out of a redshirt year with seven games gone in his true freshman season.

The bet here is that they won't, unless they're convinced that Kellen Clemens isn't a long-term answer, and it's too early to make that decision.

He's hit a bad patch, but that can happen to sophomore quarterbacks. Sure, getting better play out of that position would help, but Oregon's problems go beyond that.

Look at it this way: Two years ago, the Ducks had Joey Harrington at quarterback, and now they are forced to play the guy who's struggling the least.

Two years ago, the Ducks had two NFL guys, Maurice Morris and Onterrio Smith, at tailback; Saturday, they were relegated to looking at the 80 yards gained by Terrence Whitehead in a 45-point loss as a bright spot.

Two years ago, they had Rashad Bauman and Steve Smith at the corners, and Keenan Howry at wide receiver and Justin Peelle at tight end. Playmakers, all of them.

The sad conclusion, with this group, is that what you see - if you're not looking away in horror - is what you get. That the combination of youth, injuries and the inevitable decline from some exceptional talents have all added up to produce a team that just isn't very good - or, at least, isn't ready yet for prime time, the Michigan win notwithstanding.

The Ducks, of course, won't look at it that way, and they can't.

They'll use the bye week to figure out how to get better; to correct mistakes so they can be the best they can be, whatever that is; to make other changes, possibly "some drastic," Bellotti said.

"I put equal pressure on my players and my coaches," Bellotti said. "I think we're all in this together. It's our job as coaches ... to put the players in position to have success, and to communicate and teach. We're to be evaluated by the product we put on the field."

Less than two years ago, on this same field, that product was Oregon's best ever. How far away that seems now.