EUGENE — Oregon’s moment of truth has arrived.

The Ducks looked every bit like a national contender in a 31-10 win against Michigan State on Friday night.

But the Spartans are in the early days of an institutional overhaul. Jonathan Smith has work for him in East Lansing. So the Ducks’ suffocating victory was less a statement than the launching pad for a long-dormant question.

“Finally,” Dan Lanning told reporters Friday evening, “you can talk about it. We’re finally here.”

Here we go…

Are the Ducks ready for Ohio State?

Will it be the Ducks?

Or the Bucks?

On Friday, Traeshon Holden received a pass while lying on his back. Jordan James pushed aside Spartan defenders to reach 166 yards. There’s an Aidan Chiles-shaped line in midfield after Jordan Burch repeatedly threw him to the grass.

Okay, one of them is slightly embellished.

But only a little.

The student section was empty at the start of the fourth quarter of Oregon’s Big Ten home opener. The Ducks nearly doubled Michigan State’s offensive output, to 477 yards to the Spartans’ 250. Fans poured out before Michigan State ever managed to score midway through the final period.

The Ducks followers were certainly willing to turn the page.

And why wouldn’t they be?

Next weekend presents one of the juiciest matchups in school history. The Ducks are No. 6 in the country and could be higher next week. The Buckeyes, assuming a win over Iowa on Saturday, will finish no worse than No. 3.

The matchup is not only a test of the 2024 Ducks and their ambitions to win a national championship, but also a test of what Lanning has built in his three years at Oregon. A test of his decision to settle in Eugene instead of using it as a stepping stone as his predecessors did.

A loss to the Buckeyes wouldn’t necessarily erase all of that. There could still be talk of a rematch in the Big Ten championship game. And the Ducks have a long life ahead of them in the Big Ten.

But a victory…

That would be the ultimate validation of Oregon’s trajectory. Of the hype that accompanied the Ducks’ move to the Big Ten.

So while the importance of a single game can easily be overstated, especially in the age of a twelve-team playoff, where a team can overcome virtually any stumbling block to still have a path to a national title, there is a weight here On. matchup.

Ohio State is allowing just 196.5 yards per game. Only Tennessee is stifling. The Buckeyes rank fourth in the nation at 48.5 points per game.

The Ducks are coming off a pair of dominant defensive performances. Over the last two weeks, Oregon has allowed just one offensive touchdown, and that didn’t come until the Ducks were in control of the game on Friday.

It was a common refrain in the press box Friday that the Ducks have really arrived in the Big Ten: winning games by running the ball and playing suffocating defense.

As Michigan State drove to the Ducks’ 2-yard line on the opening drive, defensive tackle Jamaree Caldwell stopped Chiles, the talented but raw quarterback who followed Smith to East Lansing, and forced a fumble that was recovered by Burch.

That fumble recovery was accompanied by 2 1/2 sacks for Burch, who was as dominant defensively as any Oregon player during Lanning’s tenure. The Spartans’ offensive line had no answers for Burch.

“He played with a lot of force,” Lanning praised.

When Dillon Gabriel faltered and threw a pair of baffling interceptions inside the 10-yard line in the first half (his second and third of the year), the Ducks defense forced two punts on a total of nine plays.

When Gabriel was down, the defense picked him up.

That was good enough against the Spartans. More will be needed against the Buckeyes.

The shine came off this Ducks team in the first two weeks of the season. Squeaking past Idaho and Boise State – no matter how good the Broncos are – doesn’t inspire much confidence.

But if you didn’t know those games had played out the way they did, and were only aware that over the next three weeks the Ducks had held Oregon State, UCLA and Michigan State to a combined 14, 13 and 10, you would you believe they were ready for the biggest test of their season.

Or at least as ready as they can be.

— Bill Oram is a sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.