By LLOYD PASEMAN/For The Herald — In Saturday’s Washington State game, the Ducks played well for three-quarters of the game—minus a second-quarter meltdown—before a nighttime crowd of 52,327 that was on the edge of their seats for much of the fourth quarter as the Ducks saw a 10-point third quarter lead shrink to seven points, rebound to 14 points with about six minutes left in the fourth quarter, grow to 21 points lead with two minutes remaining, then shrink again to a final 14 points with a Cougar score with nine seconds left in the game.
The performance was another example of the kind of unevenness that has marked Duck victories this season against Fresno State, Ohio State, California, UCLA and Washington and caused some Duck observers to question again Oregon’s exceptionally high rankings in the AP, USA Today and CFP polls.
Register-Guard reporter Chris Hansen said, “Like many of Oregon’s victories, Saturday’s win felt like it could’ve been locked up a little earlier than it was.”
The Oregonian’s Ken Goe called it “another ragged effort… Maybe the best news for Oregon’s College Football Playoff hopes is that the game was played after most of the country had gone to bed [it was a 7:30 p.m. start, 10:30 p.m. on the East Coast]. That 14-point margin of victory will look a lot better in the statistical recap than it did as it unfolded.”
Credit the Cougars, however. They began the season 1-3 and lost head coach Nick Rolovich and four of his assistants after they were fired for defying a state public employees’ COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Defensive coordinator Jake Dickert was named acting head coach. He replaced the four fired assistants, took the reins Oct. 18 and led the Cougars to an upset 34-21 win over then 5-2 Arizona State prior to playing Oregon.
With Saturday’s win, the Ducks extended their home winning streak to 18 games, the third-longest active streak in the country, have now won 14 consecutive Pac-12 games at Autzen and improved to 21-1 at home under head coach Mario Cristobal.
In his post-game meeting with reporters, Cristobal said, “I think we’re just scratching the surface, I think this team is just getting better and better every single week in a lot of different areas, and a lot of different phases. The sky is the limit.”
The “sky” presumably, being the Ducks’ first national championship.
Despite the win, Oregon was unable to clinch the Pac-12 North Division title because Oregon State beat Stanford 35-14 to quality for the Beavers’ first bowl game since 2013.
Oregon is atop the North Division at 6-1 but OSU and WSU sit in second place at 4-3 each with a mathematical chance of one or both teams ending the season at 6-3. Because of that, if Oregon were to lose its next two games—against Utah this coming Saturday and against OSU on Nov. 27—there would be a two-way or possibly a three-way tie for the North Division title.
The Utes are leading the South Division, also with a 6-1 record, and there’s a chance of a rematch after this week’s Oregon-Utah game if the two teams meet in the Pac-12 conference championship game on Dec. 3 in Las Vegas.
Utah lost to OSU on Oct. 23, 42-34, and has two non-conference losses in road games early in the season to Brigham Young 26-17 and to San Diego State 33-31 in overtime. Oregon is 9-1 for the season, with its lone loss, 31-24 in overtime, coming Oct. 2 at Stanford.
In the weekly Associated Press poll, Oregon moved up Sunday to No. 4 from No. 5 last week while Alabama jumped Cincinnati to number No. 2 behind Georgia. Oklahoma dropped eight spots to No. 12 after losing for the first time this season, 27-14 to Baylor.
Ohio State, whom Oregon beat 35-28 on Sept. 11 in Columbus, is ranked No. 5 in the new poll. It is also 9-1 on the season. Cincinnati remained unbeaten after winning at South Florida 45-28 on Friday night.
In the USA Today coaches’ poll, Ohio State remains No. 4 ahead of Oregon in the No. 5 spot, with Georgia, Alabama and Cincinnati in the Nos. 1 through 3 positions.
More importantly, the College Football Playoff rankings—which will decide Dec. 5 which four teams will play in the national championship semifinals on Dec. 31, with the winners playing for the national championship on Jan. 10—has Oregon ranked No. 3 behind Georgia and Alabama and ahead of No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Cincinnati. The next CFP ranking will be announced at 4 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.
USA Today opined on Sunday, “Oregon will stay in the top four of the committee rankings. Ahead for the Ducks are two expected games against Utah. The first will be next week in Salt Lake City and a second in the Pac-12 title game, barring something strange happening. It seems doubtful Oregon can pull off the sweep.”
The Good
Senior QB Anthony Brown
In what may have been his best game at Oregon to date, Brown finished with one TD passing and one TD rushing. He had 135 yards in the air and a game-leading 123 yards on the ground on 17 carries, both career bests for the sixth-year senior.
The only drive Oregon didn’t score on in the second half ended with the ball being stripped from Brown as he tried to force his way into the end zone after a nine-yard run about five minutes into the fourth quarter.
Officials reviewed the play because it was unclear whether Brown still had control of the ball as he fell across the goal line but the fumble call was upheld. Brown told The Register-Guard that he felt like he crossed the goal line well ahead of the ball was pulled from his grasp.
The Cougar who recovered the fumble returned the ball to the 50-yard line and with about two minutes left in the game, WSU kicked a 34-yard FG, cutting the Ducks’ lead to seven points.
Brown’s performance at home this season has been exceptional. He’s completed 70 percent of his 143 pass attempts for 1,214 yards and nine TDs, with no interceptions in the six home games. Meanwhile, he’s also rushed for 303 yards and four TDs.
Cristobal said after the game, “Anthony used every bit of everything he has to make it a reality.”
The Oregon offense
With 306 rushing yards gained against the Cougars, the Ducks now have two consecutive weeks over 300 yards, having run for 329 yards in their 26-16 victory over Washington. They added 135 yards passing Saturday, for a total offense of 441 yards.
Junior RB Travis Dye
Dye netted 88 yards on 18 carries Saturday with one TD and caught six passes for 25 yards and a TD. His performance was marred only by a rare fumble with about nine minutes to go in the second quarter that was recovered by the Cougars on the Oregon 46-yard line and resulted in WSU’s first TD about two minutes later. The Cougars were leading the nation in forced fumbles with 13 going into Saturday’s game.
With 2,748 rushing yards, Dye is 11 yards away from replacing Sean Burwell in seventh place on Oregon’s all-time rushing list. His career-high 908 rushing yards this year is just 92 yards away from his first 1,000-yard rushing season.
Freshman RB Byron Cardwell
Cardwell had all three of Oregon’s runs of 20 yards or more and netted 98 rushing yards and scored two TDs.
Against Colorado on Oct. 30, he led the Ducks in rushing with 127 yards and a TD, then gained 55 yards on 16 carries against Washington the following week.
He’s shown a knack for allowing his blocks to develop and has averaged nearly nine yards per carry over the last three games.
Sophomore defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux
Thibodeaux made six tackles and two sacks, all solo. It was the second time this year and fifth time in his career that he’s had multiple sacks in a game. Dickert called him “the best player in America.”
Sophomore safety Verone McKinley III
He grabbed his Pac-12 leading fifth interception of the season and had eight tackles. He is two interceptions away from cracking Oregon’s all-time top 10 interceptions list.
Sophomore cornerback Mykael Wright
Wright had three kickoff returns for a total of 117 yards. His 56-yard return on the opening kickoff of the second half set up a short Oregon scoring drive that put Oregon ahead for good. It was the longest return for Wright since his 98-yard TD return against Oregon State in 2019.
The Oregon defense
WSU is primarily a passing team—59 percent of their plays Saturday were passes—but the Duck defense was still impressive in holding the Cougars to 93 rushing yards on 25 carries, including 58 yards on their two final drives of the game with Oregon leading by two TDs.
Sophomore QB Jayden de Laura completed 55 percent of his passes but was sacked three times and hurried four times by the Ducks. During the second half, especially, Thibodeaux and other Oregon pass rushers rarely gave him time to set his feet before he had to throw.
The Cougars got 233 of their 371 yards of offense in the first half and were held to three points in the second half until scoring the final TD with nine seconds left in the game.
Sophomore kicker Camden Lewis
All seven of Lewis’ kickoffs put the Cougars inside their own 30-yard line. And his 22-yard FG in the third quarter makes him 10 for 10 on attempts this season.
The Bad
The disastrous second quarter
Oregon started the quarter leading 14-0. On their first drive the Ducks ran three rushing plays, completed two passes and threw one incomplete pass. They punted on fourth and eight.
On their second drive after a WSU punt, they ran one rushing play during which Dye fumbled the ball. The fumble was recovered by the Cougars at the Oregon 46-yard line and WSU scored about two minutes later, making it 14-7.
On their third drive the Ducks ran one rushing play and completed one pass but Brown was sacked and they had to punt on fourth and 10.
About four and a half minutes later, Cougar QB Jayden de Laura rushed for a one-yard TD with 11 seconds left on the clock. Halftime score, 14-14.
It was hard to believe I was watching the No. 3 team in the nation.
WSU’s stars shine
De Laura was 20 of 36 for 280 yards passing with two TDs and two interceptions and ran in the Cougars’ last-second TD in the first half. Redshirt senior WR Travell Harris made eight catches for 109 yards—a season high—and a TD. Graduate student linebacker Jahad Woods had 12 tackles; he’s the one who forced Dye to fumble the ball at the Oregon 46-yard line early in the second quarter.
WR Johnny Johnson III’s injury
Johnson left the game with an apparent right ankle/foot injury with less than four minutes to go in the third quarter. Cristobal said after the game that the injury was being evaluated. Johnson is the Ducks’ second-leading receiver this season, right behind Dye, with 25 catches for 311 yards.
The Ugly
The missing first minutes of the game
The Cougars appeared to score on the second play of the game on a 70-yard catch and run by Calvin Jackson Jr. but the TD was called back after a review showed he stepped out of bounds at the Oregon seven-yard line. On the next play de Laura ran seven yards and dove into the end zone trying to score but fumbled the ball for a touchback.
WSU’s near-TD was an inauspicious start to a critical game for the Ducks.
Many viewers who were trying to watch the game on ESPN missed the first 20 minutes or so because the Ole Miss-Texas A&M game ran past the Oregon-Washington State kickoff time. It was at least the third time this season that the end of an earlier game has overlapped the start of a Duck game on TV.
ESPN finally posted a notice at the bottom of the screen telling viewers that the Duck-Cougar game was being shown on “ESPN News or ESPN App.” We tried the app first but it didn’t have the game, which we then found on ESPN News, one of the network’s lesser-known channels, about four minutes into the first quarter.
Next Up
No. 3 Oregon will meet No. 24 Utah at 4:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC-TV. The Ducks can clinch the Pac-12 North Division championship and secure a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game with a win over the Utes or an Oregon State loss to Arizona State. It will be Oregon’s third appearance on ABC this season.
Lloyd Paseman is a graduate of Crow High School and the University of Oregon. He was an all-state B League quarterback in his senior year in high school when his team, the Cougars, finished 6-1 on the season. He’s lived all but two years of his life in Lane County, with two years out for U.S. Army service, and retired from The Register-Guard as a local news editor after nearly 40 years. Paseman’s analysis is provided as a service for the many Duck fans in Highway 58 communities who can no longer find such expert commentary in their local print newspapers.
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