The Herald’s weekly Duck football commentary: Who are these guys? Oregon 52, Colorado 29

By LLOYD PASEMAN/For The Herald — Have the Ducks finally gotten their act together? Are they the team that shocked the college football world on Sept. 11 by defeating the always-mighty Ohio State Buckeyes at their home field in Columbus by a score of 35-28?

Or are they the team that squeezed by Fresno State and California, by seven points each, nearly gave away a three-point win to UCLA in the final three minutes, and lost to Stanford—a team that is now 3-5 on the season—31-24 in overtime on Oct. 2?

Never mind the 48-7 non-conference drubbing of Stony Brook, a New York-based second-tier football program, nor the 41-19 thrashing of hapless Arizona, which is winless after eight games this year.

The questions come after Oregon played its most complete game of the 2021 season, other than its win over Ohio State, by downing the Colorado Buffaloes 52-29 on Saturday at Autzen Stadium.

It was the most points the 7-1 Ducks have scored against an opponent so far this season and it brought back memories of some of the wins in Oregon’s seven most-successful football seasons that saw the Ducks finally rise to national prominence: 2019 (12-2), 2014 (13-2), 2013 (11-2), 2012 (12-1), 2011 (12-2), 2010 (12-1) and 2001 (11-1).

In those seven seasons, the Ducks won three Rose Bowl games, two Fiesta Bowl games and one Alamo Bowl game, and participated in—but lost—two national championship games, in 2014 to Ohio State and in 2010 to Auburn.

The win extended Oregon’s home winning streak to 17 games—the third-longest active streak in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. Only Clemson, with 30, and Cincinnati, with 24, have longer win streaks at home.

It also was Oregon’s 20th victory at Autzen Stadium under head coach Mario Cristobal, against a single home loss to Stanford in 2018. That score was 38-31 in overtime.

Before anyone gets too excited, it must be noted that Colorado was, on paper, far from being the Ducks’ strongest opponent this season.

Saturday’s win was the seventh time the Buffaloes have lost to the Ducks in their last eight meetings. It was Colorado’s sixth loss this year against two wins—over Northern Colorado in the first non-conference game of the season and against Arizona—although the Buffaloes didn’t play like a two-win team on Saturday.

Coming into the game, Colorado ranked last nationally in total offense (238 yards per game) and first downs (14 per game), 127th out of 130 teams in passing offense and 125th in scoring offense.

Their quarterback, J.T. Shrout, was felled by a serious knee injury in fall camp and their All-America linebacker, Nate Landman, suffered a soft-tissue injury in a humiliating 26-3 loss to California the week before and wasn’t able to play Saturday.

California held freshman QB Brenden Lewis to 69 yards passing and no TDs and sacked him six times.

But the Buffaloes were a different team against the Ducks. Lewis completed 25 of 33 pass attempts for 224 yards and three TDs with no interceptions. He was frequently chased out of the pocket but scampered well and was sacked only once.

Freshman WR Brenden Rice caught five passes for 102 yards and one TD, carried the ball eight times for 17 yards, and had five kickoff returns for 162 yards, a total of 281 all-purpose yards.
The Buffaloes also rang up 117 yards rushing and scored one rushing TD on 30 carries, and were four-for-four on fourth-down conversion attempts—two of which resulted in TDs—after starting the game one-for-eight on the season.

The Good

The offense

Oregon scored TDs on its first four drives Saturday, kicked a FG on its fifth drive, and then added TDs on their next two drives. Freshman QB Ty Thompson threw an interception in the fourth quarter in the only drive that didn’t produce a score, and the Ducks finished with another TD on their final drive.

The offense finished with a season-high 568 yards of total offense, surpassing the 500-yard mark for the second time this season (they gained 505 yards against Ohio State). They had 256 net yards rushing, 312 net yards passing, four rushing TDs and three passing TDs, made seven of 10 third-down conversion attempts and succeeded on their only fourth-down conversion, in the second quarter.

Earlier in the season Cristobal frequently touted the Ducks’ rushing game, which was given priority over Oregon’s traditional passing game. But he and offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead seem to have come to the conclusion that Oregon needs a more balanced offense, a shift that was given more urgency after junior star RB CJ Verdell was lost for the season when he suffered a leg injury in the loss to Stanford.

On Saturday the Ducks ran the ball 36 times and made 36 passing attempts. For the season, rushing attempts still outnumber passing attempts, 306 to 241, but the Oregon offense is slowly beginning to look less predictable.

Senior QB Anthony Brown

Criticized in games since Ohio State for his inconsistent passing and sometimes questionable decision-making on the field, Brown had one of the best games of his five-year career.

He started with nine-for-nine passing for 100 yards and a TD. By the end of the game he’d completed 25 of 31 passes for a career-high 307 yards and three TDs. A few of the completions weren’t pretty but they got the job done.

It was the first time Brown had surpassed 300 yards passing as a Duck, and only his second career game with 300-plus passing yards. He also added 38 rushing yards on seven carries to finish with 345 yards of total offense.

Junior RB Travis Dye

Dye rushed 13 times for 47 yards and two TDs while catching five passes for a season-high 75 yards and a score, a 10-yard catch that was his first receiving TD of the season. He remains fifth on the UO’s career rushing list with 3,105 yards, ahead of Jonathan Stewart and behind Derek Loville’s 3,296 yards.

Sophomore WR Devon Williams

He led the team in receiving for the second straight game, making five catches for a season-high 95 yards and a TD, his first of the season. The TD came on a 25-yard reception in the third quarter after Williams was flagged for holding, a penalty that nullified a 22-yard TD run by Brown. Williams made a spectacular 24-yard reception near the end of the first half in which he used all of his 6-foot-5 height to make a grab that set up the Ducks’ FG on the final play of the first half.

Sophomore kicker Camden Lewis

He kicked the 27-yard FG at the end of the first half and is now eight-for-eight for the year, with his longest being a 49-yard kick against California.

First career TDs

Freshman RB Byron Cardwell had his first career 100-yard rushing game, carrying the ball seven times for 127 yards and a TD in the first quarter on a 34-yard run. Four of his rushes were for at least 20 yards.

Freshman RB Seven McGee scored his first TD on a one-yard rush in the fourth quarter. He carried the ball five times for 20 yards and added 21 receiving yards on three catches.

Freshman WR Troy Franklin caught two passes for 44 yards and a TD in the second quarter, a 28-yard reception that extended Oregon’s lead to 21-0.

Penalties

Oregon committed just five penalties, including none in the first half, for a loss of 40 yards.

The Not So Good

The Duck defense held Colorado to 22 yards of total offense in the first quarter but allowed some big plays as the game progressed. Colorado entered Saturday’s game with the worst offense in the FBS—averaging 238 yards per game—but gained 341 yards against Oregon.

Part of the problem was that the defense couldn’t seem to maintain its pressure on the QB; Lewis wasn’t sacked until about halfway through the fourth quarter.

The Bad

Senior WR Johnny Johnson III

Johnson, Oregon’s leading receiver with 21 receptions for 255 yards and a TD, will miss the first half of Saturday’s Washington game in Seattle after being disqualified for targeting on a third-quarter kickoff. He caught three passes for 10 yards against Colorado, taking over sole possession of 10th place in UO history with 135 career receptions.

Injuries

Junior center Alex Forsyth missed his fourth straight game due to back spasms; he’s being replaced by former Sheldon High standout Ryan Walk, a junior.

Sophomore safety Steve Stephens IV left the game with a soft tissue injury to his right leg during the first quarter while on punt return coverage.

Freshman backup safety Daymon David suffered a right shoulder injury after making a tackle during the third quarter but Cristobal said after the game that David was “fine.”

Putting on a prettier face for the CFP?

After Colorado scored its third TD in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter, cutting the Ducks’ lead to 24 points, Cristobal replaced Brown with freshman QB Ty Thompson, who was entering only his third game as a Duck. He took over for six plays, taking Oregon 29 yards from its own 25-yard line to Colorado’s 46-yard line, before he was intercepted. Nine plays and 65 yards later, the Buffaloes scored again and passed for a two-point PAT, reducing the Ducks’ lead to 16 points.

Oregon took the ensuing kickoff back to Colorado’s 46-yard line and Brown re-entered the game, taking the Ducks down to the Buffaloes’ nine-yard line, where he completed a TD pass that was nullified when junior center

Ryan Walk ventured too far downfield and was flagged for being an ineligible receiver, moving the ball back five yards.

Brown tried to run the ball into the end zone on the next play from the 14-yard line but was stopped for a three-yard gain. He passed to McGee on the next play but McGee fumbled the ball after the catch and Oregon recovered the fumble at the one-yard line. On the next play, McGee ran the ball into the end zone with 50 seconds left on the clock. Lewis kicked the PAT, making the final score 52 to 29.

There were six minutes left in the game when Oregon started its final drive with Brown back at the helm. The Ducks were leading by two TDs with no guarantee that Colorado was going to get another chance to score even one TD (five of Oregon’s previous eight drives took more than three minutes each, and three of those five ate up more than four minutes each). Pulling Thompson and re-inserting Brown mostly looked like an attempt by Cristobal to pad the Ducks’ margin of victory.

In previous games this season the sideline views of Cristobal during the games have mostly made him appear calm and watchful (except when the officials made a call he didn’t agree with). On Saturday, however, he often appeared to be agitated and maybe even a bit anxious on the sidelines.

The coach clearly wants the Ducks to win out with four games still to go to the end of the regular season so they’ll have a shot at being chosen to play in the College Football Playoff in January. That poll’s first rankings will be announced Tuesday.

As of Saturday night, four of the teams in the top eight in The Associated Press college football rankings remain undefeated after eight games. They are Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma and Michigan State, which defeated rival Michigan on Saturday, 37-33 and moved into fifth place in Sunday’s latest poll.

Ohio State remains in sixth place in the poll and Oregon is still seventh-ranked, even though it defeated the Buckeyes on Sept. 11. Michigan dropped to ninth and Notre Dame and undefeated Wake Forest entered the poll in eighth and tenth place, respectively.

Oregon, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State are now each 7-1 on the season. The two teams that were at the bottom of the past week’s Top 10—Iowa and Ole Miss—both lost Saturday, making them each now 6-2 on the season.
Asked by a reporter after the game how Thompson responded to the “conversation” to pull him and put Brown back in, Cristobal replied, ‘Well, there’s really no conversation to be had. All the sudden, we let a lot of guys play [backup players such as Thompson and freshman RBs Cardwell, Seven and Trey Benson], and it’s a 16-point game. I want to make sure it’s a three-score game,” meaning he wanted to finish the game ahead of Colorado by at least 18, and preferably 21, points.

Was that an effort to make a stronger impression with the CFP selection committee? And, if so, was it really worth undercutting a young player who could be the Ducks’ starting QB next season? Watching the game at home on TV and seeing Brown back in the game in the apparent hope that Oregon could squeeze out one more TD for appearance’s sake seemed a bit like a desperation move.

Whatever the case, Oregon is likely facing some stiff challenges in its four remaining Pac-12 games. It travels to Seattle on Saturday to play the Huskies, hosts Washington State the week after at Autzen Stadium, flies to Salt Lake City on Nov. 20 to play the Utah Utes, and wraps up the regular season the Saturday after Thanksgiving at home against Oregon State.

Washington has lost to Michigan, UCLA, Oregon State and lowly Montana so far this season, and beat Arizona and California by single digits. Its only solid win was a 52-3 trouncing of Arkansas State on Sept. 18. However, like Oregon’s annual contest vs. Oregon State, any Ducks-Huskies tussle can yield surprises.

The Cougars at WSU have played nine games and won five, including a three-point win over Stanford, who so far have given the Ducks their only loss. All but WSU’s easy win over Portland State were victories by 15 points or less, and their only really bad loss was to USC, 45-14. They lost to Utah by 11 points, to Utah State by three points and to BYU by two points.

Utah has decisive wins over Weber State and USC, close wins over Washington State and Arizona State, and beat UCLA by 20 points (Oregon defeated the Bruins by three points in the final three minutes of play in Pasadena on Oct. 23).

And, finally, there are the pesky Beavers, who have five wins to three losses, having beat Hawaii, Idaho, USC (by 18 points), Washington and Utah, and lost to Purdue, Washington State and California.

The Ducks have beat the Beavers eight times in the past 10 seasons, but one of those victories was by a single point in Eugene in 2013. And OSU won last year’s game in Corvallis 41-38. Over the 10 years, though, Oregon has bested the Beavers by an average of 25 points in its eight wins.

By the time the Ducks and Beavers meet in Eugene, Oregon could be 10-1 on the season—or they could be 7-4, depending on what happens over the next three weeks.

Whatever happens, Oregon appears to be slated for at least one of the country’s premier bowl games, and possibly a spot in the four-team CFP. Its number of wins—and its point margins of wins or defeats—will determine its post-season fate.

Next up

And speaking of TV coverage of Duck games, Fox did the same thing Saturday that ABC did for the UCLA game, which was to move the start of Oregon’s game to an alternate channel while it finished showing the end of the Michigan-Michigan State game.

ABC moved the entire first quarter of the UCLA game to its ESPN app, then joined the Oregon-UCLA game in the second quarter after Penn State and Illinois finished their historic nine-overtime game.

On Saturday, Fox ran an announcement on the screen saying the start of the Colorado game was being shown on its FS2 sister channel. They joined the Oregon-Colorado game about five minutes into the first quarter.

Someday one would hope that the people who schedule sporting events for TV would stop overlapping the games they telecast. They’ve presumably decided that it’s better to force viewers to seek out and switch to alternate channels than it is to have to fill gaps between contests.

The Ducks will take on the Washington Huskies at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Seattle. The game will be telecast on ABC-TV.

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.