SEATTLE (AP)—Oregon again got the spark it needed from its special teams and defense with blocked punts, fake field goals and interceptions.
The 12th-ranked Ducks also got their offense rolling, too.
Just in time for a Pac-10 showdown with Southern California on Halloween night in Eugene.
Jeremiah Masoli returned from a knee injury to run for two scores, Oregon blocked a punt for a touchdown and used a fake field goal to set up another TD, and the Ducks overwhelmed border rival Washington 43-19 on Saturday.
“This is a true team. It’s not an offense, it’s not a defense, it’s not just one aspect of it,” Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. “It’s everyone contributing … That punt you saw us start to gain some confidence and we started flying around and when we start flying it kind of gets into a frenzy mode and it’s a neat thing to be around.”
Oregon’s corralled Washington quarterback Jake Locker, forced three turnovers and kept the Huskies out of the end zone until the fourth quarter.
Oregon’s special teams came up with momentum-shifting plays on Rory Cavaille’s blocked punt for a touchdown and Nate Costa’s fake field goal for a first down that led to another Oregon score.
And most important, Masoli got Oregon’s offense zooming in the second half after it needed a kickoff return and interception return for touchdowns two weeks ago against UCLA when Masoli was out with an injured right knee.
“It did take a couple of series to get my feet under me. You can tell the difference when you haven’t played and you have a bye week,” Masoli said. “We were a little rusty but great teams respond.”
Oregon extended its dominance of Washington to six straight—longest in the history of the series—and like the previous five this one wasn’t close. All six wins have been by more than 20 points.
Masoli kept Washington’s defense guessing all day. Run, pass or pitch—they all worked.
And the frantic speed of Oregon’s offense exposed Washington’s lack of defensive depth.
Masoli completed 14 of 22 throws for 157 yards and a touchdown. He also added TD runs of 1 and 3 yards as part of his 54 yards rushing.
LaMichael James, Oregon’s workhorse since LeGarrette Blount’s suspension, rushed for 154 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 56-yard TD sprint in the fourth quarter to cap this Oregon party.
“Sometimes I thought I had the ball and then I’d see (Masoli) around the other side. That’s the big thing, misdirection is key,” James said.
While Oregon’s offense found its rhythm, Locker and the Huskies could never solve Oregon’s mix of blitzes and pressures. Locker was sacked four times and completed 23 of 44 for 266 and two interceptions. Chris Polk had 104 yards rushing for Washington.
“We really had some opportunities, especially early in the ball game and then coming out of halftime to change the complexion of the game, maybe get the game going in our favor more and we weren’t able to capitalize,” Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said.
Coming off a crushing 24-17 loss at Arizona State last Saturday, Washington (3-5, 2-3) didn’t show much resiliency.
The Huskies’ crippling mistakes didn’t help, and the first was the most damaging.
Washington led 3-0 early in the second quarter and lined up to punt. The Ducks overloaded the right side of the line, allowing Cavaille to come free and block Will Mahan’s punt. The ensuing scrum dribbled the ball into the end zone where Tyrell Irvin recovered for the touchdown. While Washington’s defense was getting set for the extra point, Costa ran in for the 2-point conversion and a 8-3 lead.
“I thought the gap was closed so I kind of just turned my shoulder and it opened right up and saw the ball right there and put my hand out and good things happened,” Cavaille said.
Washington tried to answer and quickly drove to the Oregon 4, but on fourth-and-goal at the 2 Locker rolled out but couldn’t find anyone and his toss was intercepted by Javes Lewis.
Masoli then led a crushing drive, aided by Costa’s 7-yard run off a faked field goal, and capped by the quarterback’s 1-yard run.
Oregon scored on its first three drives of the second half and led 36-6.
“That’s one of the aspects about our offense is that we come at you so fast you don’t even have time to think, call plays, know what you are doing,” Masoli said.
Head to Head - Week 8
| Team | Total Yds | Pass Yds | Rush Yds | First Downs | 3rdD% | Pen./Yds | Turnovers | Time of Poss. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | 416 | 157 | 259 | 19 | 41.7% | 9/88 | 1 | 26:25 |
| Washington | 395 | 266 | 129 | 23 | 43.8% | 5/50 | 3 | 33:35 |
261 Comments
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Actually that is false. Autzen holds the record for loudest stadium in the country for all sporting events. set in 2007 USC game 127db look it up.
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Think about it greg t.: Ducks won, Washington lost. Game over. There are to be no more comments.
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Simple facts: One end of the stadium is open and there is a track around the field. How can anyone take a stadium seriously with a track around the field. That is so bush league high school.
The stadium the loudest? Not when it is half empty by halftime of most games as it surely was when I looked around last Saturday.
The stadium is garbage, I went to many Seahawks games there as a season ticket holder and it was awful, and they don't sell beers, even for pro games.
UW really needs to look into playing games at Seahawks Stadium like the University of Miami does at Landshark Stadium in Miami. Here in DC, Georgetown plays almost all their college hoops games at the Verizon Center (home of the Washington Wizards) with incredible financial and critical success.
Dawg, some of your comments come close to making sense but talking up Huskie Stadium and your fans at live games have been a joke in recent years.
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you can brag about Autzen being "one of the loudest" stadiums in the country ..... Husky Stadium IS the loudest stadium in the country. FACT ..... not opinion.
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And Oregon owned you. Period.
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I was at Husky stadium saturday and although quite scenic and expansive, it's a hole. Those are arguably the worst seats and bathrooms, etc. that I have experienced....don't get me wrong, the experience and crowds were awesome, but give me a break.
I strongly suggest you going to Autzen stadium as you previously mentioned. It's certainly not huge by any means, but consistently one of the loudest in the PAC-10 and some say country. I will refrain from ripping you apart on almost everything you say on here. Washington is a tremendous school, but you are an idiot. The ducks are better than the huskies...period. I heard they bark for Sark, but all I saw was a bunch of arrogant @#$%s with their tail between their legs.
Go Ducks!
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As for your obsession with the spelling thing, you've just entirely missed the point. I've corrected ONE person here ONCE. That's it. The fact that our self-proclaimed "expert" cannot spell a simple name correctly was something I knew would get all the way under his skin and eat him alive. Had Dawgdick been anything approaching a decent human being, I wouldn't have even brought it up.
At this point, it is YOU who keeps bringing this up, over and over. Let it go, man.
Again: two-day-old game story. We're wasting our time here.
Go ahead and get the last word in; I'm moving on.
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I'll be honest: I'm not even sure where we're at any longer. This looks like a two-day-old game story being kept alive only for the sheer joy of mocking jobless @#$%s like Dawgweenie. It's probably time to let it die.
Besides, all anyone needs to do is look at the headline: "No. 12 Ducks toy with Washington in 43-19 victory"
That pretty much says it all.
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If you wrote a book, you would put me to sleep just reading the cover.
Anyway Duke, let's try and keep it fun here and not be a human spell check master. I love college football and that is the only reason I am here. Have fun kid!
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If I was still back in my newspaper days, I probably would have divided it in two; it's a bit long for a newspaper sentence. Had I been writing for an academic paper or something similar, I would have been more careful with the attribution, as it could be argued that the final "he" is incorrectly attributed to the coach instead of the idiot in question.
Is that enough for you? Do you want to keep going with this? It's fine with me if you want to keep bringing a knife to a gun-fight.
As far as the unemployment line goes, you'll have to ask your mom. She was about fifth in line when I passed it this morning on my way to work.
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As a sidebar, how does everyone think Washington will do this week against "bye"? I think they've got a pretty good shot; "bye" never seems to win these sorts of games. If Locklear stays healthy, I think the Huskies will win by 7 to 10.
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Hey, Dawgdick! Spell "Harbaugh"! LOL!
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Oregon would have gone to the Rose Bowl in 2001 had there been a separate NC game like there is now, but the BC$ was still doing the round-robin thing with the major bowls, and the Rose Bowl was tapped for NC duty that year. Nevertheless, in 2001 the Pac-10 conference winner went to their designated bowl game and won it, so it was a surrogate "Rose Bowl" of sorts.
If I'm wrong here, chew on me all you want, but while Dawgmeat is admittedly not a Duck fan (his UW pedigree guarantees that) he may know Duck football inside and out simply by following one of Sun Tzu's principles, "know thy enemy". He comes across a little harsh, but I also suspect that if a Big 10 loudmouth or SEC homer throws down against a Pac-10 team on one of these threads, he'll defend the Pac-10 honorably. Speaking of the SEC, some of their threads are absolutely comical: bungling no-class, no edu-ma-cacion blog versions of Jerry Springer, they'd need at least 32 people posting to get a full set of teeth.
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oh well ..... lol.
agree to your other point ..... rivals are not meant to tongue kiss ....... we are meant to crack on each other. you seem to be able to handle my flipping you crap and i can handle you flipping me crap. thats half the fun of this stuff.
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as for owning an Oregon sweatshirt .... never. ill probably end up with their jersey at some point though. i collect jerseys, and my one rule is i cant own the jersey until i have been to the teams home stadium. i plan on going to a game at Autzen at some point .... and when i do ill buy an Oregon jersey. ill never wear it. ive got a lot of jerseys that i have never worn .... just hanging there in my closet. my Huskies jerseys though ..... they get a work out every single week.
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