Oregon @ Virginia preview

No. 3 Oregon takes its high-powered offense on the road to Virginia on Saturday, the farthest east the Ducks have played since a 1977 trip to Georgia. The Ducks, who have never played an ACC team during the regular season, own the nation's longest road win streak at 15 games. The Ducks had eight touchdown drives last less than two minutes and racked up a school-record 772 yards against Nicholls State last week in Mark Helfrich's debut as head coach.

The Cavaliers got a taste of an up-tempo offense last week as BYU gained 362 yards on 93 plays. Oregon and BYU each averaged 16.7 seconds per play last Saturday, but the Ducks' speed still is unlike anything first-year Virginia defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta has seen. "The plays are similar, everybody runs the similar plays ... out of the spread offense," Tenuta said during this week's conference call. "There's a lot of similarities based on that aspect, but as far as the speed factor is concerned, in the last few years, no."

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC, ESPN2. LINE: Oregon -21.5.

ABOUT OREGON (1-0): Junior De'Anthony Thomas rushed for 128 yards on a career-high 18 carries in his debut as the Ducks' feature back and quarterback Marcus Mariota added 113 yards as Oregon totaled 500 on the ground. The Ducks, ranked in the top three in scoring offense for three years in a row, recorded a dozen plays of more than 25 yards in the 66-3 win against Nicholls State. Oregon recorded six sacks in the win and coaches were impressed with freshman linebacker Torrodney Prevot (five tackles, one sack, one forced fumble) in his debut.

ABOUT VIRGINIA (1-0): Sophomore David Watford went 18-of-32 for 114 yards in his first career start and the Cavaliers scored on two short drives. Junior free safety Anthony Harris, the ACC's Defensive Back of the Week, set up both touchdowns with a blocked punt and an interception. Virginia had three sacks and a turnover against BYU after recording just 17 and 12 in 2012.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Virginia is 2-17-1 all-time against top-five teams, including a 2-6-1 mark at home.

2. Oregon is 3-0 (beating Michigan in 2007, Purdue in 2008 and Tennessee in 2010) when playing in the Eastern Time Zone since 2000.

3. Ducks junior TE Colt Lyerla (6-5, 250 pounds) rushed for a fourth-quarter touchdown last week, prompting coaches to consider using him in short-yardage or late-game situations.

PREDICTION: Oregon 45, Virginia 13