The Oregon Ducks' vaunted defense has finally started to look like many expected before the season started, but they got dealt an incredibly tough injury blow over the past week. On Wednesday afternoon, head coach Dan Lanning revealed that starting safety Aaron Flowers will miss the "foreseeable future" after undergoing surgery for an undisclosed injury.

"He's going to be done for the foreseeable future," Lanning said of Flowers during his press conference on Wednesday. "(It's) something he tried to tough out. You know, credit to him. Sometimes you can play through that, but you're probably not going to play as well. But it's one of those ones where it made sense to get it repaired for him."

Flowers has been a big piece of the Ducks' defense so far this year, racking up 17 tackles and one pass breakup playing alongside Minnesota transfer Koi Perich. While Oregon's defensive unit struggled early in the year, they have seen a lot of improvement over the past few games, particularly in Week 6 against the UCLA Bruins, where they gave up just 17 points and forced a pair of turnovers.

Without Flowers on the field, there's a good chance that the Ducks turn to a veteran player like Peyton Woodyard, but we could also see more of true freshman Jett Washington, who is a former 5-star well known as the nephew of the late NBA icon Kobe Bryant.