s name as starter. The Huskies had eight sacks last weekend ag

With a quarterback controversy as a backdrop, Oregon is preparing for a daunting Washington team that proved its mettle on a national stage against Stanford.Could the Ducks 12-game winning streak against the Huskies be coming to an end?The rivalry game with the No. 5 Huskies couldnt come at a worse time for Oregon, which is reeling from a three-game losing streak. The Ducks (2-3, 0-2) are coming off a 51-33 loss to Washington State in Pullman.Amid questions about coach Mark Helfrichs job security and the changes to the defense installed by new coordinator Brady Hoke comes uncertainty about the Ducks starting quarterback.Dakota Prukop has started in all five of Oregons games thus far, throwing for 1,173 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions.He completed 14 of 22 passes for 132 yards and one interception against the Cougars. The week before, he threw an interception in the end zone on the final drive of Oregons 41-38 loss at Autzen Stadium to Colorado.Freshman Justin Herbert came in for the final series against Washington State, marching the team 85 yards and capping the drive with a 4-yard run for a touchdown.Herbert has appeared in two games, completing three of five passes for 70 yards. But he turned heads against the Cougars when he led that final drive.A local prospect out of Sheldon High School in Eugene, Herbert worked his way up the depth chart in fall camp. He beat out Terry Wilson and Travis Jonsen for the backup job.Helfrich did not name a starter Thursday, his last media availability before the game. But he said the team had clarity after a good week of practice.Were going to put the best guy out there, at that and every other position, to help us win this game, he said.Despite reports that Herbert was starting against the Huskies, offensive coordinator Matt Lubick told reporters a day earlier that no decision had been made. Prukop is listed ahead of Herbert on the depth chart released at the start of the week.Its something we evaluate every day, Lubick said. When we figure it out, you guys will know.Washington, meanwhile, is coming off a statement-making 44-6 victory at home over the Cardinal last Friday night to move atop the Pac-12 North standings. The Huskies have not been ranked this high in the AP Top 25 since the end of the 2000 season, when they won the Rose Bowl.Washington poses problems for whomever the Ducks name as starter. The Huskies had eight sacks last weekend against Stanford. Theyre ranked No. 15 nationally for total defense, allowing opponents just about 299 yards a game. And theyve allowed an average of just 12.8 points a game.The biggest problem weve had, to be honest, is simulating their defense, Helfrich said. To get those guys to play their hearts out on the scout team has been a huge deal.Head coach Chris Petersen seemed unconcerned by the apparent disarray among the Ducks.I think everybody always overinflates everything, on both ways, he said. Thats what I think. I think that they played some hard-fought games that they had chances to win down at the end and for whatever reason just didnt do it. That can affect momentum one way or another. And I think they played Washington State, who is a hard team to play, really well. In the fourth quarter, it got away a little bit.The last time Washington won at Autzen Stadium was in 2002, when the Huskies defeated the No. 23 Ducks 42-14 and then drew the ire of the fans by dancing on the O at midfield. 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Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In the span of a few hours Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs went from controlling the AFC West and taking care of a playoff spot to watching the Oakland Raiders take everything instead.The Chiefs, who have already beaten the Raiders twice, were leading Tennessee 17-7 in the second half at frosty, frigid Arrowhead Stadium. But an offense that inexplicably went conservative down the stretch and a defense that finally cracked allowed the Titans to rally for a 19-17 victory.When the Raiders beat San Diego later in the afternoon, it was Oakland that had improved to 11-3, moved atop the division and clinched its first playoff berth since the 2002 season -- and the Chiefs who were 10-4, in second place and with their own postseason fate still in the balance.Everything we want is still right there ahead of us, Chiefs wide receiver Jeremy Maclin said. We just need to go out, get back to the film room, get back to practice, correct our mistakes and learn from them.There were plenty of mistakes to learn from, beginning with two scoreless red-zone trips, another poor day of third-down conversions and an offense that went into a shell at halftime. It was the third straight week they failed to score an offensive touchdown in the second half.We were awful on third down and we didnt capitalize in the red zone, Maclin said. We could have put the game away much, much earlier, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves.The loss was damaging on several fronts for Kansas City, but most importantly when it comes to playoff positioning. The Chiefs own the tiebreaker over the Raiders by virtue of their head-to-head wins, but they are now a full game behind their division rivals in the standings. That means the Chiefs dropped from the No. 2 seed in the AFC, which would have meant a first-round bye and at least one home game, to the No. 5 seed and a first-round game on the road.You can sit here and point fingers, you can do all that stuff that bad teams do, or you can fix the problems. So weve got to make sure we do that, Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. Were still in good position. Weve got a good football team cominng in here.dddddddddddd We need to have a good week of practice. Thats what is real. I have enough trust in this team that well do that.That team coming in will be the Denver Broncos, who are in desperation mode of their own after a loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday. The Chiefs play them at Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas night.By then, theyll know what has transpired Saturday in Oaklands game against Indianapolis.The Chiefs dont plan to be scoreboard-watching, though, because what happens in that game doesnt much matter to them if they dont take care of Denver. And if they cant right their wrongs from a disheartening loss to Tennessee, the same fate is liable to befall them next Sunday.That means better execution on third down. Better play-calling across the board. Better everything when the Chiefs get inside the 20-yard line, the scoring zone that has given them fits all season.We have to get it figured out, said Alex Smith, who threw an interception in the end zone early in the second half when the Chiefs had a chance to essentially put the game away.I mean, its easy to say (the Chiefs got conservative) when things dont go well, he said. Certainly we were not in a rhythm at all. We did not get anything going. We were pretty stagnant in the second half, so its easy to say when things are not going well. Youve got to look at it and get better.Smith paused for a second before putting everything into perspective.This time of year, these are all huge games, he said, and the littlest things make big differences.Game notes Reid said Monday he had talked to TE Travis Kelce, who was critical of what he considered to be overly conservative second-half play-calling Sunday. He wants to be the guy who gets the ball and wins the game for you, and Im all for that, Reid said. He was the first one to come to me and say it didnt come out the way he really wanted it to. He just wants to be the guy who makes the play.---For more coverage: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '