Seventeen days until the Ducks host Portland State, but that's not who they're playing against that weekend

 In last year's home opener against Big Sky opponent Eastern Washington, the Oregon defense began the game with three straight three and outs. Each time the offense took the ball down the field and scored, building a 21-0 lead. 

The fourth time the Eagles had the ball quarterback Gunner Talkington threw deep down the middle but overthrew his receiver. Christian Gonzalez caught it over his shoulder and returned it 11 yards to the EWU 44. Nine plays later Bucky Irving punched it in with a one-yard touchdown run and a 28-0 lead.

Four possessions, four scores. On defense, three three and outs and a turnover. About as perfect a start as a football team can have, a week after getting pummeled by defending national champion Georgia 49-3 in Atlanta.  

By halftime Oregon led 42-7. They would go on to win eight games in a row, ranked number six in the country by mid-November, a remarkable show of resilience for a team that had been badly embarrassed in Lanning's first game as a head coach.

A loss doesn't define you unless you let it. During that scintillating first half vs. EWU, the PAC-12 Network crew had Coach Lanning on a live mike. When the defense came off the field after another stop, he asked them, "Who are we playing today?"

About five players answered him, "The Ducks." Lanning beamed. They'd absorbed the lesson: in the early games of a developing season, the true opponent is yourselves and your own potential. 

When Oregon takes the field in 17 days against Portland State, the same standard applies. The Vikings will come into that game such big underdogs that Vegas won't take a bet on it, but that doesn't matter. Running up a big score, celebration dances, big plays--none of that matters. What a knowledgeable fan should be looking for is discipline, execution, communication and effort, signs that the Ducks are stacking up the kind of reps that will win in October and November.

Early season football is you versus yesterday. It's you versus the team you want to become. On Saturday September 2nd, Oregon opens against the Ducks.