No. 4 Oregon Ducks Soundly Defeat Washington in Rivalry Game
They had us in the first half, not going to lie.
The No. 4 Oregon Ducks (8-1, 5-1) went into Seattle and exited Husky Stadium the winners of 15 of the last 17 matchups thanks to a 26-16 victory.
With the win, the Ducks are one game closer to threepeating as Pac-12 Champions. Oregon holds a one-game lead over Washington State for first place in the Pac-12 North with both teams meeting at Autzen Stadium next Saturday evening.
Here's how the Ducks took care of business after overcoming a rough beginning.
The game got off to a disastrous start as Anthony Brown threw an atrocious interception that Huskies linebacker Carson Bruener who returned the ball to the Oregon six-yard line. Two rushing plays later, Washington led 7-0.
Oregon responded with a drive aided by two 15-yard personal foul penalties on Washington, but a throw to Devon Williams 10-yards short of the sticks set up a 46-yard Camden Lewis field goal attempt, which was good. 7-3 Washington.
The Huskies went three-and-out on its next drive but the ball was downed at the one-yard line. Oregon called a run play to avoid a safety but Travis Dye got tackled inside his own end zone giving Washington two additional points. The call stood after a replay review.
Washington and Oregon would trade punts back-and-forth with the Huskies tremendous punting winning the battle of field position. Then Dylan Morris threw into triple coverage and got intercepted by Jordan Happle early in the second quarter, but the Ducks failed to capitalize going three-and-out.
Facing a 4th-and-short on the verge of its own redzone, the Ducks defense forced a turnover on downs due to great backfield pressure from Brandon Dorlus and Jeffrey Bassa to give Oregon the ball. One play later, Brown hit Jaylen Redd for a 22-yard gain up the seam to flip the field but the Ducks weren't satisfied.
On first down just outside the red zone, Anthony Brown rolled to his left on a play which normally goes to the tight end, but it was covered. Instead, Brown throws it to Williams in the middle of the end zone to take a 10-9 lead with 5:08 left in the half.
Oregon would later get the ball back and run out all but a handful of seconds of the half with ultra-conservative play calling.
To open the second half, the Ducks forced another three-and-out and Oregon went to work with a six-play, 69-yard drive capped by a two-yard touchdown run from Brown. Travis Dye had a 45-yard carry on 3rd-and-1 to set up first-and-goal. 17-9 Oregon.
Later, Oregon forced another three-and-out for Washington, thanks to two Huskies self-inflicted penalties, Washington punted the ball from its own end zone. Mycah Pittman returned the punt to the UW 22-yard line setting up great field position.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Dye rushed to the right side for a 19-yard touchdown to give Oregon a 24-9 lead.
But Washington responded with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive of its own to regain just an eight-point deficit.
Oregon would milk the clock from 8:43 down to 2:14 thanks to a 15-play, 43-yard drive resulting in a punt to the UW 10.
At one point, Dye had ran to inside the five-yard line setting up a first-and-goal but an Alex Forsyth unnecessary roughness penalty made it first-and-20 instead. An additional facemask penalty on Pittman set up a 2nd-and-33, where Brown threw the ball away after presumingly not seeing Johnny Johnson III open for an easy touchdown downfield.
With the ball down eight points with 2:14 remaining, Washington went three-and-out again before a botched snap on the punt resulted in an Oregon safety.
Oregon leaves with a 26-16 win for the 15th win in 17 meetings against Washington.
Next, Oregon hosts Washington State at Autzen Stadium on Saturday, November 13th at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.
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