Oregon Dominates Cal 42-24 en Route to Seventh Straight Win
It was a slow start to Saturday's game in Berkeley. The Ducks won the toss and chose to defer to the second half.
Both offenses got off to slow starts and Bryan Addison wasted no time forcing a turnover, picking off Jack Plummer's second pass of the day. But the Ducks couldn't take advantage of the early momentum, as they ran the ball three times for just five total yards.
Cal put together a nice drive deep into Oregon territory, but Plummer's pass to tight end Keleki Latu was broken up by Steve Stephens in the end zone.
The Ducks had opportunities to put points up on the board multiple times in the opening quarter. Bo Nix's fourth-down pass to Troy Franklin in Cal territory was thrown behind him and Nix had a nice deep ball to a wide open Kris Hutson that would've been a touchdown, but he bobbled the ball and couldn't reel it in.
It was a snoozer of a first quarter and Cal led 3-0 at the end of one.
The second quarter was better for the Ducks, as Bo Nix put his team on the board with a touchdown run, one of two he'd have in the first half. Cal's only offense was essentially deep passes over the top of the defense and some intermediate runs from Jaydn Ott.
Trikweze Bridges hauled in the second interception of the day for the defense and DJ Johnson recorded two sacks in the first half as the pressure started to get home on what's been a mediocre Cal offensive line this season.
Nix tried to find Franklin on a quick pass deep in the red zone but it was picked off by the Cal secondary off the deflection on a bizarre play.
Hutson did a nice job bouncing back from his earlier drop and his three catches in the first half helped the offense move the ball down the field quickly. Noah Whittington had a strong first half doing a little bit of everything running, catching and blocking. Bucky Irving scored the last touchdown of the half, muscling through two defenders and extending over the goal line for six.
Chase Cota got banged up in the first quarter and did not return to the field in the first half. Lanning used a timeout to get one more shot at adding points in the first half and got the ball back with ten seconds to go.
Nix found Franklin over the middle for a chunk gain, but Franklin got shaken up and was down for a bit before walking off the field with his arms draped over the medical staff.
Nix's hail mary was picked off on the last play of the first half and Oregon led 21-10 at the half.
It was a fairly uneventful third quarter for both teams. Fortunately for the Ducks Franklin was back out with the offense to start the second half.
The offense scored in a hurry as Nix took advantage of a wide open middle of the field, finding Whittington for another touchdown. Cota was back on the Oregon sideline but was in street clothes after exiting the game in the first quarter.
Cal drove to just outside the red zone but Christian Gonzalez blocked the ensuing field goal and the Bears came up empty.
Moliki Matavao continued a strong day for the tight ends with two impressive catches to move the chains along with Franklin, but a fourth-down run from Jordan James came up short inside the five.
Oregon led 28-10 at the end of the third quarter.
Cal brought in their backup quarterback Kai Milner and the game was decided at that point. He threw a touchdown pass to Monroe Young with 7:38 left in the game, but the Ducks still had a healthy lead at 35-17.
Oregon extended its lead with another solid drive with more runs from Nix and an eight-play, 75-yard drive that was capped off by a touchdown pass to Patrick Herbert, the first of his college career to make it 42-17 Oregon with just 3:16 to go.
The Ducks brought in the backups and defensive back Khamari Terrell fell down, which resulted in a long touchdown for Justin Richard Baker, to make it 42-24.
Nix took a knee on the ensuing drive and Oregon stayed perfect in Pac-12 play.
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