Masoli, Oregon show moxie

TUCSON, ARIZ. - Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli spins, he stutter-steps, he jukes, he chucks the ball. Touchdown!

Masoli is the master of improvisation, time and again pulling plays out of thin air. Saturday night, he helped the Ducks make their greatest escape yet this season and kept them chugging toward a Rose Bowl showdown with Ohio State.

“He’s just incredible,” Oregon running back LaMichael James said. “He never got down out there, even after a couple fumbles and interceptions. He just stayed poised and led us to the win.”

“The win” was a 44-41 double-overtime thriller over Arizona that kept the Ducks in the hunt to win the Pac-10 and play in the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1994 season.

“I’ve been in double-overtimes, triple-overtimes—that’s why I didn’t flinch. Our guys don’t flinch,” said Oregon coach Chip Kelly, whose team has scored at least 40 points in seven of its eight Pac-10 games, including each of its past five. “We’ve been in this situation before. We practice overtime situations, so it wasn’t a big deal.”

Oregon plays host to archrival Oregon State on Dec. 3 in their annual “Civil War” showdown. There will be added incentive this season: The winner goes to the Rose Bowl, where Oregon State hasn’t been since the 1964 season.

The Beavers could have advanced to Pasadena last season with a win over Oregon, but they got crushed 65-38.

As for Arizona, it will remain the only Pac-10 team to never have played in the “Granddaddy of Them All.” And after this crushing loss, the students clad in red may feel like they will be grandparents before it ever happens.

USC had won outright or shared the past seven Pac-10 titles. That dominance made the Pac-10 look like a one-trick-pony league. It has been a wide-open race this season, and it’s no coincidence that numerous national observers are saying the Pac-10, top to bottom, is the best league in the nation. At the least, most say it’s the second-best, behind the SEC.

Along with the fresh start this season, the league looks wide open in the future. USC isn’t going anywhere. Stanford and Arizona are on the rise. California, Oregon and Oregon State will remain formidable. And Washington and UCLA can be expected to get better under Steve Sarkisian and Rick Neuheisel, respectively.

Masoli’s performance Saturday night has the Ducks (9-2) in great position to head to Pasadena. Oregon trailed 24-14 early in the fourth quarter, and that’s when Masoli went to work. He ran for a 1-yard score, then engineered a drive that resulted in a field goal. Still, Oregon trailed 31-24. But Masoli was about to have his best moment yet, deftly leading the Ducks on a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a game-tying touchdown pass with six seconds left to make it 31-31.

“They’ve got a very good quarterback, and that is definitely what makes the difference,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said. “We just couldn’t stop them in the fourth quarter.”

Both teams scored touchdowns in the first overtime. In the second, Arizona (6-4) kicked a field goal, but the Ducks answered with a game-winning touchdown scored by Masoli on a 1-yard run.

Masoli was 26 of 45 passing for 283 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception. He also ran 16 times for 62 yards and three scores. That offset the great effort by Arizona quarterback Nick Foles, who completed 30 of 48 passes for 311 yards, with four touchdowns and an interception.

“We fell behind out there, but we just fought back and didn’t quit at all,” James said.

Because of that, Oregon has a chance to be the king in the new-look Pac-10.

Tom Dienhart is the national senior writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at dienhart@yahoo-inc.com.

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