By LLOYD PASEMAN/For The Herald — Anyone who watched the Ducks’ messy first half against visiting Stony Brook University on Saturday will likely scratch their head over Sunday’s new Associated Press Top 25 poll, which moved the Ducks up to No. 3 in the national rankings behind Alabama and Georgia but ahead of Oklahoma.
The Sooners squeezed by Nebraska 23-16 Saturday after the Cornhuskers failed to score with 57 seconds left in the game.
Oregon is the only Pac-12 team that remains undefeated three weeks into the season, with three wins, the same as the other top-ranked schools.
Ohio State, which infamously lost to the Ducks 35-28 at home on Sept. 11, dropped one notch to No. 10 in the AP poll and to No. 12 in the USA Today coaches’ poll, which still has Oregon ranked No. 4 behind Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma.
UCLA — the only other Pac-12 team in the top 25 — is No. 24 in both polls after losing to Fresno State on Saturday, 40-37 (whom the Ducks defeated Sept. 4, 31-24). The Bulldogs are ranked No. 22 in the AP poll and No. 25 in the coaches’ poll.
Stony Brook is a Football Championship Series team, which is a notch below the NCAA’s top-level Football Bowl Series, in which the Ducks compete. The Seawolves started the season with a 68-49 record over the past 10 years and are now 1-2 this year. They are nowhere close to being a football power, which they acknowledge, but agreed four years ago to fly from Long Island, N.Y., to Eugene to play the Ducks for the first time, in exchange for a chance to play an FBS team, and to receive a $625,000 guarantee.
Like other FBS teams, Oregon often pays less-talented teams to come play them in non-conference competition at the start of each season to help prepare for its conference opponents and to pad its win column to improve the chances of getting into a high-quality post-season bowl game. Sometimes the strategy will backfire for a school, most famously when tiny Appalachian State (fewer than 20,000 students) beat mighty Michigan (more than 46,000 students) by two points in a 2017 nonconference game.
That didn’t happen in Eugene on Saturday, but the Ducks had a slim 10-point lead over Stony Brook going into the third quarter.
So why the No. 3 (and No. 4) ranking? I suspect part of the reason is that most of the country’s football writers didn’t bother to watch Saturday’s game, thinking it would be a blowout—which it ultimately was, thanks to some tough second-half play by some Duck reserves, including a bunch of talented freshmen.
Also, the game was shown on the Pac-12 Network, which isn’t as readily available around the country as, say, ESPN, Fox or one of the main broadcast networks.
It will be interesting to see if Oregon can sustain its rankings as the season progresses to conference play this coming weekend. The Arizona Wildcats, who have now lost 15 straight games, will meet the Ducks at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Autzen Stadium. The game will be shown on ESPN.
(Saturday’s attendance, by the way, was 42,782, about 79 percent of the stadium’s 54,000-seat capacity).
The Good
The second half
Oregon outscored Stony Brook 31-0 in the second half. The Seawolves ran up 191 yards of offense in the first half but managed just 80 yards in the second half (the Ducks had 242 in the first half and 194 in the second).
Thanks to that second-half effort, Oregon easily won its 28th straight nonconference home game, the second-longest active streak in the country. And they have now won 14 games in a row in Autzen Stadium and are 17-1 at home under head coach Mario Cristobal.
The Ducks had no turnovers for the second straight game and 17 of their 48 points came from Stony Brook turnovers, including three interceptions.
Verone McKinley III
Two of those three interceptions, by sophomore safety Verone McKinley III, kept Stony Brook from scoring again. The third pick was by junior safety Bennett Williams, which set up a rushing TD by RB Travis Dye. Cristobal said McKinley “epitomizes our culture. He just doesn’t stop.”
Travis Dye
Oregon’s companion RB to CJ Verdell led the team with 87 rushing yards and a score on Saturday, plus a four-yard pass reception. Dye now has 2,812 career rushing yards, good for seventh place in program history.
Camden Lewis
The sophomore’s status as the Ducks’ No. 1 kicker was in question after he was replaced by Henry Katleman for making only one of four FG attempts during the 2020 season.
That questionable status seems to have been cleared up, however, based on Lewis’ performance against Stony Brook. He began the scoring Saturday with a 40-yard FG, kicked a 35-yard FG early in the fourth quarter and made all six of his extra-point attempts, keeping him perfect for the season on PATs.
Plus, five of his nine kickoffs Saturday were touchbacks preventing kick returns by the Seawolves.
In response to a question after the game, Cristobal told reporters, “If there’s a 50-yarder, we will attempt it.” Consider that high praise for Lewis.
Tom Snee
The Ducks’ lanky sophomore punter, who is from Australia, again went about his business quietly and efficiently on Saturday, pinning Stony Brook inside the 20-yard line on all three of his punts. One of the kicks was for 51 yards, his third of the season for 50 yards or more.
The freshmen
Probably one of the most positive aspects of Saturday’s game was that it gave Cristobal an opportunity to get some of his freshman talent onto the field, although part of the reason for that was because there were so many veteran Ducks who didn’t play due to injuries, including more than half a dozen members of the defense.
Twelve more freshmen saw playing time, bringing to 39 the number who have made their college debuts this season.
On offense, QB Ty Thompson took over for the injured Anthony Brown to start the second half, and Jay Butterfield relieved Thompson with about seven minutes left in the game. Thompson completed 6 of 9 passes for 82 yards and two TDs and Butterfield 2 of 3 for 22 yards.
Cristobal complimented Thompson after the game, saying, “I thought Ty was very cool. He didn’t flinch at all. I’ve seen sometimes quarterbacks turn when you tap them on the shoulder and their eyes get big. That wasn’t the case with him at all.”
Thompson, from Gilbert, Ariz., is the Ducks’ first five-star recruit at QB. He was recruited by 17 other schools but chose Oregon. On his second possession he threw a TD pass to freshman TE Terrance Ferguson, Thompson’s and Ferguson’s first career TD.
Then he capped his night with a one-play scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter when true freshman Dont’e Thornton caught a pass and ran 54 yards for the TD, making the score 41-7. It was Thornton’s first career reception and TD and the Ducks’ longest pass play of the season.
Meanwhile, three freshmen RBs got their first collegiate carries on Saturday: Trey Benson, Byron Caldwell and Seven McGee. Cardwell and Benson each carried the ball three times for 17 and 11 yards, respectively, and McGee had two carries for eight yards. Benson scored his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard rush that ended the game.
The weather
Saturday’s much-awaited and greatly welcomed rainfall — breaking a wearying three-month drought — set a record for the date. A total of 1.48 inches fell at the Eugene Airport, surpassing last year’s record for Sept. 18 of 1.14 inches.
The rain was accompanied by a lightning strike that prompted a 40-minute delay in the kickoff. Current NCAA policy requires that play be suspended for 30 minutes if there is lightning within eight miles of a stadium, and additional delays for any subsequent strikes.
Oddly, though, once the late-afternoon downpour subsided, the skies mostly cleared and Saturday’s football game got underway with no further rain.
COVID-19 infections declining
On Sept. 4, more than 43,000 fans showed up for the Ducks’ season opener at Autzen Stadium against Fresno State. Some people, including yours truly, were concerned that having that many people sitting and standing close together for four hours or more might produce a COVID-19 “superspreader” event.
As of Sunday, Lane County has reported a total of 23,939 COVID-19 infections, and 246 residents have died from the highly transmissible disease.
The UO is requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for admission to the stadium, and “face coverings” are required on the premises “except when actively eating or drinking.”
TV pictures of the fans in the stadium made it abundantly clear that the vast majority of those in attendance were ignoring the mask requirement. The same situation occurred during Saturday’s game, except that members of the UO marching band were wearing masks unless they were playing wind instruments.
I’m somewhat surprised, but pleased, to be able to report that thus far no spike in new COVID-19 infections has been reported in Lane County, and in fact the numbers have eased slightly. As of Sept. 19, the seven-day rolling average was 153 new cases per day. There were 1,070 new infections reported in the past week. That’s still too many, of course, and health experts’ recommended precautions, including getting vaccinated and wearing masks in public, still should be observed until the pandemic has passed.
The Bad
Anthony Brown’s and other injuries
Brown was sacked twice as the first half came to close, once at the Oregon 48-yard line for a loss of nine yards and again at the Duck 39-yard line for a loss of six yards. As time expired, the TV cameras showed him slowly walking to the locker room, helmet off and head down, appearing to grimace. He didn’t return for the second half and wasn’t seen on the sidelines.
Cristobal said after the game that Brown, who was blindsided on one of the sacks, “took a pretty good shot . . . We were just making sure he was OK.” He said the coaching staff expects Brown to be ready to play against Arizona on Saturday.
Brown, who was 14 of 18 passing for 159 yards Saturday and scored one passing TD and ran for another, was leading the Pac-12 in total offense (529 yards) going into the Stony Brook game.
Cristobal also said he expects most of the defensive players who missed Saturday’s game to be back for the Arizona game or for the Stanford game the following week
Pass defense
Oregon ranked 127th nationally in pass defense going into Saturday’s game, averaging 391 yards after giving up 484 passing yards to Ohio State.
Stony Brook QB Tyquell Fields was 10 for 23 for 131 yards passing, with three interceptions, which was an improvement. But his completions averaged 13 yards each, and it wasn’t unusual to see a Seawolves receiver catch the ball with three or four Duck defenders surrounding him but not making any contact until after the ball was caught.
UO defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter explained the Ducks’ pass defense this way: “We thought if we could keep it in front and make them go the long, hard way that we would have a better chance to win the football game. I think for the most part we did that. We didn’t let them get the ball thrown over our heads.”
That sounds like an unsettling echo of former defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti’s “prevent” pass defense, which came back to bite Oregon in the backside a number of times during Aliotti’s tenure at Oregon (1999-2013).
The Ugly
The Ducks’ first half
Oregon came into Saturday’s game as a 41-point favorite. But at the end of the second quarter, they were leading the Seawolves by only 10 points and the offensive stats were disturbingly similar: net yards rushing 83 to Stony Brook’s 82, net yards passing 159 to 109, and total offense 242 yards to 191.
It was enough to prompt Cristobal to be unusually critical in his post-game press conference. “There were some bright spots in the first half, but not really enough,” he told reporters. “We need to take more control of a game like that earlier on.”
In his meeting with reporters, Stony Brook head coach Chuck Priore opined, “I thought we gave them a pretty good scare in the first half.”
Speaking for the players, RB Travis Dye summed it up: “We weren’t satisfied with this.”
Neither were we, Travis.
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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