Defense continues to be Utahs strength under coach Kyle Whittingham.The No. 11 Utes, who host downtrodden Oregon on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network), are second in the nation in interceptions and No. 1 in takeaways after last weeks 49-26 victory at Arizona State.Utah (8-2, 5-2 Pac-12) controls its destiny in the Pac-12 South race but has to beat the Ducks and then win at division-leading Colorado on Nov. 26 to advance to the conference championship game.All of our focus, all of our attention, is on the Ducks this week, Whittingham said.There is not a chance we will be looking past those guys. Not a chance at all. Theyre very talented on offense. I mean, theyre Oregon. They have had some struggles on defense this year, but offensively, theyre scoring points, theyre moving the ball. Theyve got firepower.Fair enough. Oregon (3-7, 1-6) does average 37.1 points per game but will not qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2004 and it is second-to-last nationally in scoring defense, yielding 43.5 points per game.The Ducks are coming off a 52-27 loss to Stanford.Fourth-year coach Mark Helfrich, who guided the program to the national championship game in the 2014 season, acknowledged it has been a difficult season.Yeah the frustrations are different, he said.Theres always the segment of the team thats frustrated, whether thats a role or a position. Theres always something. This is different. Its not any fun. Not having a ton of fun, which is something you have to squeeze out of it at this point and play to their competitiveness and play to all those aspects of why theyre here.Utah has 25 takeaways and also leads the nation in net punting (45.3 yards per game). The Utes have picked off 17 passes. They are fifth nationally in sacks with 35, including 11 versus Arizona State.Coverage in the secondary was very good. If you can cover for that extra second, second-and-a-half, then the pass rush can show up, Whittingham said.A lot of the sacks were due to very good coverage in the back end, and a lot of them were due to the pass rush just getting on the quarterback quickly. It was a combination. That is how you play great pass defense.Utah will now take aim at Oregon freshman quarterback Justin Herbert, who took over as the starter in the sixth week. He has thrown for 1,432 yards and 15 scores while rushing for 122 yards and a touchdown, providing hope for the future.No question he cares a lot, Helfrich said.Last week, Utah defensive end Hunter Dimick rewrote some of Utahs single-game records with five sacks, 37 sack yards lost, and 6.5 tackles for loss. He also reached 27 career sacks, trying the school mark set by John Frank from 1996-99.Dimick is tied for the national lead with 12 sacks.Offensively, Utah running back Joe Williams, who retired from football for about a month at the start of the season, has made a significant mark in the past four games, rushing for 864 yards in that span, including a school-record 332 against UCLA. The Utes are third in the Pac-12 in rushing, averaging 212.9 yards a game.Quarterback Troy Williams had the best game of his career last week against Arizona States porous pass defense. Williams had a career-high 296 yards on 21-of-37 passing, with a career-best four touchdown passes.The ground or air method should work against Oregon.The Ducks rank 11th in the conference by allowing 255.9 rushing yards per game. Things might get worse as defensive lineman Austin Maloata, one of the teams top run-stoppers, was kicked off the team Sunday after an arrest.Oregon had allowed six consecutive Pac-12 teams to throw for 300 yards before Stanford, last in the league in passing, put up only 258 last week -- which was nearly double its season average.Utah enters the weekend in third place in the Pac-12 South, a game behind Colorado (6-1) and a half-game behind USC (6-2). The Utes already have a win over the Trojans. By winning out, Utah would, at worst, be in a tiebreaker situation in which it would hold the edge in all scenarios.Utah beat Oregon 62-20 last season in Eugene.All three phases seemed to click in that game, Whittingham said. It was almost flawless execution on offense from start to finish. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Jersey . Mickelson barely made the cut but had the best round of the day with nine birdies and an eagle coupled with two bogeys to sit two shots behind leader Craig Lee of Scotland. 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The CFLs leading rusher kept adding to his gaudy numbers this season and scored the winning touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The New Westminster, B.C., native plowed three yards into the end zone for the last score of a heated, see-saw battle between the two teams with the best records in the CFL. The end of an international season brings thoughts on what has been achieved and what challenges next lie ahead. For Andrew Strauss, the director of cricket who spent Friday and Saturday appraising all of Englands centrally and incrementally contracted players at Loughborough, there is plenty to ponder on both counts.At the forefront is the situation regarding the limited-overs captain, Eoin Morgan, and the likelihood that he will not tour Bangladesh for the one-day series. Unless Strauss powers of negotiation have worked unexpectedly in allaying Morgans concerns, there does not appear much chance of changing his mind. Final confirmation is expected Sunday evening.No Morgan, who turned 30 on Saturday, would mean a new one-day captain would be needed for the three matches in Bangladesh. Jos Buttler, as vice-captain, would head the list - he has led England once before, in a T20 against Pakistan - although, given his workload as wicketkeeper, longer-term Joe Root could be the likelier successor to Morgan when a permanent change is made.Players have been assured that pulling out of the tour will not be held against them, but Strauss could not guarantee an open door straight back if others take their chance. If the player given a place by Morgans absence - Jonny Bairstow or Ben Duckett, for example - enjoys a prolific series against Bangladesh there will be a challenging situation for Strauss and the England selectors, although it seems highly unlikely that Morgan will not be Englands captain at the Champions Trophy. That could be the time it is considered whether he is the man to lead England all the way to the 2019 World Cup.Beyond the difficulties presented by the Bangladesh tour, Strauss remit is also to keep thinking ahead. With that in mind, and the proximity of two major global one-day events in three years, there are likely to be some changes to Englands central contracts system when the new cohort are confirmed at the end of the September.Since Strauss was appointed last May his mantra has been the importance of treating limited-overs cricket seriously. Led by the coaching staff, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace, plus Morgans captaincy, Englands white-ball cricket has often been spectacular in the last 18 months.That is likely to be reflected in the updated contracts system, which could give greater weighting to white-ball performances while an increased number of deals could be handed out in order to include one-day specialists ahead of the Champions Trophy; the likes of Jason Roy, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett and David Willey could benefiit.ddddddddddddMorgan holds one of the current 11 central contracts as does Buttler who has been a limited-overs specialist for much of the last 12 months.Ian Bell is also in the current batch but will lose his barring an unlikely recall for the winter tours. Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes, two of Englands major successes in Test cricket this season, will be in line for significant central contracts having only been on incremental deals for 2015-16.Ive spoken a lot about taking white-ball cricket more seriously and creating a balance between the formats, Strauss said. I dont think our central contracts system as it stands does that and weve been working on a creating a system that reflects that better.There is also a focus on the coaching staff as well as the players. There will be rotation among coaches this winter with Andy Hurry, the U-19 head coach, Paul Collingwood, Graham Thorpe and Steve Rhodes all having spells with the senior side.We understand how demanding touring non-stop is and how important it is for the support staff to be fresh but its also a way of introucing people to the environment, Strauss said. What we are trying to do with our coaching staff is ensure they are working up and down the programme from U-19s up to the England team.In terms of the selection process there will not be changes in the immediate future. There appeared to be tensions earlier this season when a majority of the selectors, led by medical advice, overruled Bayliss and Alastair Cooks desire to have James Anderson available for the first Test against Pakistan after he had suffered a shoulder injury in the lead-up to the series.Strauss, who has attended most selection meetings this season but does not have a vote, said he remains happy with the panel headed by James Whitaker which includes Mick Newell and Angus Fraser as well as Bayliss. Strauss focus continues to be making the vast amount of information collected on players used more effectively in selection.In terms of the personalities, I think its working well, Strauss said. The selection process has worked really well in the time Ive been there. For me the real focus is the information we give the people making the decisions. Better use of technology, analysis, making it easier to tap into the huge amount of data we have on computers.The final names those selectors come up with for Bangladesh and India, which will be announced on Friday, will no doubt provoke much debate. ' ' '