nEUGENE — It’s been just two weeks since Chris Fowler called an Oregon game and the Ducks’ postseason prospects have changed greatly since that night in Tempe.

The ESPN/ABC college football play-by-play announcer, who along with Kirk Herbstreit will call Friday’s Pac-12 Championship Game (5 p.m., ABC) between No. 13 Oregon and No. 5 Utah shared his thoughts from the Ducks’ loss to Arizona State, what he’s seen from Justin Herbert the last two weeks, the battle in the trenches that will play a huge part in the conference title game and on what America really wants to see in the College Football Playoff field.

“That loss (by Oregon at Arizona State) obviously surprised us,” Fowler said during an interview on The James Crepea Show on Fox Sports Eugene Thursday. “We knew (Jayden) Daniels was good but I thought Oregon made him look great. I think they have their hands full against this Utah offense too. I’m going to be eager to see if they can respond.”

Prior to the ASU game, Fowler watched tape of Herbert completing 70.5 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions over four games. In the last two games, Herbert completed just 57.6 percent of his throws with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

“I think that he pressed,” Fowler said. "I think he was unable to shake off bad plays. Against Arizona State, I think that it compounded. He’s a pretty flat-line guy emotionally; sometimes you can’t tell what’s in his head. But I think the coaches believe he didn’t shake off mistakes and get back to business well enough and has to just play football.

“Now you wonder in this kind of a game: Underdog, that there’s not the playoff pressure on the line – that’s all on Utah’s side – will he come out and wing it and get the playmakers involved and play with some freedom? If he does that, that’s a serious challenge for Utah’s defense. ... I think you got to have better things from him and the offense for sure against the best defense that they’ve played. It’s right there with Auburn.”

Friday’s game will feature a battle of the Pac-12′s best offensive line in Oregon (10-2, 8-1 Pac-12) and its best defensive line in Utah (11-1, 8-1 Pac-12). The individual battles between Ducks tackles Penei Sewell and Calvin Throckmorton and Utes ends Bradlee Anae and Mika Tafua, and Utah defensive tackles Leki Fotu and John Penisi and Ducks guards Shane Lemieux and Dallas Warmck and center Jake Hanson will dictate much or Oregon’s success on offense or Utah’s ability to stop the Ducks and Fowler and Herbstreit plan to showcase those clashes.

“We’re going to focus on that area because we want to make people appreciate how good a player Penei Sewell is and Throckmorton and Hanson and Fotu and Anae and Tafua,” Fowler said. “Those are .. grown ass men. We do so many games where, ‘well we’re young up front, we got a couple of redshirt freshmen starting on the O-line.’ No, no these are veterans. Sewell’s a freak of nature no matter what class he is. He’s NFL-ready right now so you put him in there with all 22-23 (year-olds) and guys who are older even and it’s a war.”

With Oregon playing for the conference’s automatic bid to the Rose Bowl and Utah still vying for a spot in the College Football Playoff, Friday’s game has national implications. Fowler strongly disagreed with Paul Finebaum’s remarks that “the country does not want to see Utah in the College Football Playoff," saying his ESPN colleague is “dead wrong” in his view of the national audience’s desires for the four-team field.

“What America has wanted, and I hate to break this to the people in the SEC, is fresh blood,” Fowler said. "A celebration broke out when Alabama lost that (Iron Bowl) game; they just want Alabama out, they just want different teams in there. You want — we want geographic representation in the playoff.

“If you don’t think the people who present the playoff want fans in all regions engaged, then you understand nothing. You think we want four teams from the Southeast in the playoff? Are you kidding? We want teams from all regions, all conferences to be battling for the position and we’d like to have pretty regular representation in the bracket of different conferences. It would be good for the playoff to have LSU as fresh blood, to have a Pac-12 team in there or maybe Baylor pulls the upset and they go in there. People don’t want same old, same old. That’s where I think Paul is dead wrong.”

Listen to the full interview with Fowler below: