EUGENE, Ore. -- Call it the "If only ..." game.

As in, "If only they had gone for the touchdown instead of settling for a field goal." "If only one of the three field goals had been touchdowns." Or, "If only there had been an extra tackle or just one more reception."

	Maurice Morris will lead Oregon's ground attack against Wisconsin.

"We could have won," Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said about his team's 27-23 loss to Wisconsin in last year's season opener. "Had any of those things happened, I have to think they could have at least made a big difference."

And had Oregon won the game, the Ducks would likely have been undefeated heading into the Civil War game against Oregon State. Then, just maybe, they would have had enough incentive to beat the Beavers.

If that scenario had happened, we'd be talking about how the Ducks played for (and won or lost) the national championship.

Reality has not been forgotten.

"We're definitely looking for revenge," said Oregon's most famous billboard model, quarterback Joey Harrington. "We let one get away last year. We had countless opportunities to score, especially in the red zone."

As a starter, Harrington has never lost at Autzen Stadium. And, in fact, Oregon has won 20 straight games at home, the second-longest active streak in the country. The last home loss was Oct. 4, 1997.

The buzz over Saturday's game has been building in Eugene since January -- ever since the Ducks beat Texas 35-30 in the Holiday Bowl.

"The minute that game was over," Bellotti said, "we knew who we opened the season with. We knew who knocked us out of the Rose Bowl. And the reality that we get a chance to play that team again, at our place, is certainly a positive motivating factor."

Positive motivating factor? More like a reason to come out swinging.

"It's definitely something I've been thinking about all spring and summer," said Oregon cornerback Steve Smith. "A lot of us want the payback."

	“	We knew who knocked us out of the Rose Bowl. And the reality that we get a chance to play (Wisconsin) again, at our place, is certainly a positive motivating factor. ”
		— Oregon coach Mike Bellotti

Wisconsin fans are buoyed by the belief that the Ducks sneaked into Madison last season, and the Badgers didn't have a clue how tough of a challenge they would pose. This year things are different. The Ducks are no longer a mystery.

They have lost any element of surprise. The last shred was lost when the school erected giant billboards of Harrington in New York, running back Maurice Morris alongside the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and cornerback Rashad Bauman on the Bay Bridge, which links Oakland and San Francisco.

You might as well paint big red targets on all of them.

But the Ducks say the mystery was actually lost last season after they beat UCLA and Washington. No longer the underdogs, they say, they struggled through overtime wins against Arizona State and Washington State before beating Cal heading into the Oregon State game.

It's just that nobody outside the Pac-10 was paying attention. Suddenly, the Civil War became a big game, and Oregon choked.

If only they had been undefeated.

"It might have been enough," Harrington said.

Being the front-runner was such a novelty at the time. But Harrington says they have adjusted. The Ducks had all offseason to realize they were going to be ranked in the top 10 and have gotten used to the swagger they put on after beating the Longhorns.

"We now know what to expect," Harrington said. "We know how to play as the favorite."

If Harrington is to live up to his hype (tough to do when the hype is a $250,000, 10-story high billboard in the country's biggest city), he must not only know how to play as the favorite, but also win as the favorite. In the Ducks' two losses last season (Wisconsin and Oregon State), Harrington was terrible, turning the ball over a total of nine times. He attributed the problem to a hitch in his release, something he said he corrected over the summer.

Harrington is smart, if not especially mobile, and believes in his corps of receivers. He also believes in Morris, who gained 1,016 yards last season and has had a spectacular fall camp.

However, the Badgers will bring a new challenge this season -- a four-receiver spread offense. The attack is designed either to work effectively or to cause confusion, allowing them to ram the ball up the middle. In last week's 26-17 win over Virginia, redshirt freshman Anthony Davis rushed 24 times for 147 yards.

"They do certain things to keep you honest on defense," Bellotti said. "But when push comes to shove, we're going to be concerned first with the two-tight-end running game."

The Badgers were planning on running a two-quarterback system, but starter Brooks Bollinger was injured last week and is not expected to play. That leaves the job to Jim Sorgi, who might have won the starting job outright anyway after going 5-of-11 passing for 150 yards.

"We know Oregon is ranked and hasn't lost at home in a long time," Sorgi said. "We've just got to play solid football, fundamentally sound. If we do that, I think we have a chance to beat pretty much anybody."

That's probably true. But the Ducks believe that, too. And anyway, most people -- at least most people in Eugene -- aren't staring at Xs and Os, matchups or who's fundamentally sound and who's not. Saturday's game is about emotion, about pride, about showing the country that last season was not a fluke.

It's not only the season opener for a team that brought life back into its program and its city last season, but a chance to prove that the Ducks probably should have won that game last year.