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By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports Staff

Jim Harbaugh went into rather graphic detail describing a video making the rounds on the internet of a lion and alligator attacking a water buffalo. He used his hands and face to simulate the lion's nails ripping through flesh and gnawing on bone.

The video has a happy ending though, as the water buffalo survives the attack. Thus, he draws inspiration for Saturday's Pac-10 football confrontation between host Stanford and conference-leading Oregon, scheduled for a 12:41 p.m. kickoff (Comcast Sports Net Bay Area).

With a remaining schedule that includes the seventh-ranked Ducks, 12th-ranked USC, 23rd-ranked California and 19th-ranked Notre Dame, Stanford will have its hands full trying to gain that elusive sixth win to become bowl eligible.
No wonder Harbaugh feels like he's outnumbered.

"These are extraordinary circumstances and an opportunity for our football team to express itself," he said. "We're very aware of that opportunity."

The Cardinal (4-2, 5-3) has been here before; needing a win in one of its last three games in 2008 to reach win No. 6, but falling to Oregon, USC and Cal. Notre Dame beat Stanford in week six last year.

November has not been kind to Stanford in recent years. The Cardinal is 4-22 in such games (5-23 if early December games are counted) since the 2002 season.

Under Harbaugh, it's been 1-7 (2-8), though last year was the second time (with 2005) where a win in one of the final couple of games would have sent Stanford to a bowl game.

The Cardinal is still off to its best start since going 6-2 in 2001, and there's still some energy left over from the historic win over USC two years ago. But history remains against Stanford.

The Cardinal is 1-16 against nationally ranked opponents since beating then-No. 5 Oregon and then No.-4 UCLA in consecutive weeks in October of 2001.

"This is a huge opportunity for us if we want to take the next step," Stanford senior running back Toby Gerhart said. "We have a chance to beat the best team in the Pac-10. It feels like there's a greater commitment to watching film and the intensity on the practice field is a little better."

Gerhart, redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck and the offensive line will play an important role in Stanford's hopes of achieving its goal.

"I feel like we can run on them," Gerhart said, "and hopefully we can keep their offense off the field."

Oregon's offense has gone on a rampage since a season-opening 19-8 loss to Boise State. The Ducks have outscored their past seven opponents by a combined 277-118 margin and are averaging nearly 400 yards a game.

While Luck is the overall Pac-10 leader in pass efficiency, Oregon's Jeremiah Masoli leads the category in conference games only.
Gerhart is the overall Pac-10 leader in rushing, but the Ducks' LaMichael James is tops in conference competition.

"They are formidable across the board," Harbaugh said. "We have to be more focused and more prepared than we have in any other week this season. We have to do as many things right as we possibly can."

Oregon owns a seven-game winning streak against the Cardinal, its longest current streak against a conference opponent. The Ducks can match a single-season school record with their eighth straight victory.

Masoli, who will certainly become Oregon's top rushing quarterback in history, has local roots. He attended Serra High in San Mateo for three years before running afoul of the law. He was asked to leave school, and he moved to Hawaii with his family to continue his prep education.

Masoli took advantage of the fresh start, also using a grayshirt season, to make amends and refocus on football, which led him to San Francisco City College for a year before his transfer to Oregon.

"It's tough to stop him; we're going to try and slow him down," Harbaugh said. "He's as good a dual threat quarterback as there is in the country. He executes with tremendous precision in the option game."

The Ducks also run a no-huddle offense in addition to its extraordinary offensive skills. Talk about running a defense ragged.

"It's been trial and error trying to figure out how to play them the last couple of years," Stanford senior linebacker Clinton Snyder said. "This year I think we're going to try and simply things. You just have to be ready and in the right spot. We have to be on top of our game."

Which is why Stanford's offense is so important this week: keep the ball and let the defense rest.

"They love running down the field. We definitely want to control the ball," Luck said. "We are working hard on taking care of the ball. They feed off your mistakes and they don't give you second chances."

Thrown to the Ducks doesn't have near the same ring as Lions, so here's to the water buffalos of the world who survive natural selection.