Oregon 44, Arizona 41 (Overtime). I suspect that if you'd given Arizona the broad script of this game, the Wildcats probably would have taken it. The Ducks passed more than they ran, with Jeremiah Masoli's somewhat unpredictable arm launching a career-high 45 attempts; they went six straight possessions in the second and third quarters with no points and only a single first down; and 'Zona ripped off 17 unanswered points over the same span for a double-digit lead early in the fourth quarter. Under most circumstances, that's a winning script.

Whatever remained of the 'one-dimensional' charge against Masoli, though, flitted harmlessly away on the Ducks' two fourth quarter touchdown drives, on which he was 12-for-18 for 111 yards, converted a pair of third-down runs and connected on a do-or-die pass to move the sticks on fourth down just two plays before drilling the tying touchdown to Ed Dickson with six seconds on the clock. In overtime, he lobbed his third touchdown pass under pressure in the first frame and set up his own number on the winning run by firing a 23-yard strike to Dickson on the first snap of the second. Roughly half of Masoli's 345 total yards came in the fourth quarter and in overtime, and to all the other arrows in quiver, you can now add "clutch" after the first fourth quarter comeback of the season.

Still, that won't do much for him if it doesn't carry over in two weeks, when the Ducks get Oregon State in Eugene for the de facto, winner-take-all Pac-10 Championship game for an automatic trip to the Rose Bowl, one of the most improbable sentences typed in this or any other season. Even in their cozy, raucous home lair, the Ducks are guaranteed of nothing in the Civil War, but there's no questioning their resiliency after a night like this: Arizona was out with daggers to take the leap forward into the conference's elite, and plenty of would-be contenders -- UCLA in 2005, Cal in '06, Oregon itself in '07 -- have bitten the dust in Tucson against lesser Wildcat outfits than this one under Mike Stoops' watch. The Ducks come out licking some wounds in their secondary after being stung for 311 yards and four touchdowns by 'Zona quarterback Nick Foles, but this seemed like the kind of game only a Rose Bowl-worthy team comes out of at all.