It was a clear, crisp and lovely fall afternoon in Eugene yesterday as the Ducks held on to defeat the U.S.C. Trojans 24-17. The "biggest" game in the history of Autzen Stadium (at least until this weekend, when the undefeated Arizona State Sun Devils roll into town, the first ever clash of Top 5 teams here).
The bottom line of the game is that Oregon converted the turnovers they created from U.S.C. into touchdowns, while the Trojans could manage but three points on two early Oregon turnovers deep in their own territory. The first Oregon turnover came on the opening kickoff, when Andre Crenshaw was blasted at the 21 yard line; the Oregon defense then showed the caliber of play that they brought to the game on this series, holding the Trojans, on a 4th and 1 call at the 12 yard line, to a one yard loss.
The other turnover came very early in the second quarter, when a punt from Greg Woidneck careened around the field and struck a Duck in the back of the leg, which the Trojans recovered at the 33 yard line of Oregon. From my vantage point, we could see returned Aaron Pflugrad yelling and pointing at his blockers to get out of the way, but with as loud as Autzen was yesterday (up to 127 decibels according to a story in today's Register-Guard), it was understandably hard to hear everything that was going on around. On this series, the Trojans got a couple of first downs and actually had a goal-to-go series, but the defense buckled down again and held the Trojans to a field goal.
Those two critical series were the reasons why Oregon won the game, and even though the stats ledger shows that the total yardage measure was won by the Trojans, they got about a third of those yards in the last five minutes. Oregon's offense, on the day, performed most consistently over the game, and those scoring drives enabled the ball-control offense to take a large chunk of time off of the game clock.
Other memorable plays that stuck in my mind: Walter Thurmond III shedding a block quickly and upending a Trojan receiver, after the reception, for no gain in front of the Oregon bench; Oregon tackle Geoff Schwartz showing decent hands on an option toss from quarterback Dennis Dixon for a three yard gain (obviously not a designed play, I would think, but the crowd was initially stunned at first, and then roared its approval), and the critical 3rd and 17 yard reception the Pflugrad made at the start of the fourth quarter as the Duck drove the field en route to the touchdown that would make it 24-10 with about 11 and a half minutes left in the game. The Ducks defense was also able to get fairly substantial pressure on Trojan quarterback Mark Sanchez, and while they weren't always able to get to him, it certainly disrupted the timing of the Trojan offense; however, Sanchez is a mobile type who turned these plays into something other than tackles for loss.
Dixon had a great game directing the offense, apart from the odd series that led to the Ducks second quarter field goal, a series in which he and receiver Jaison Williams didn't appear to be on the same page as far as positioning on the field went. With the injuries to the Oregon wide receivers, the focus of defenses on Williams as a downfield threat has led to the emergence of tight end Ed Dickson as a viable threat over the middle of the field, one more weapon in the Ducks offensive arsenal. I'm also amazed at how confident and sure-handed that Pflugrad has shown himself to be, especially when returning punts. Andiel Brown sprained an ankle on the first punt return of the game, not to return, but Pflugrad has shown a knack for snatching the ball cleanly whilst able to take a hit (he got popped pretty good one time in front of us).
And of course, how could we not mention the two critical interceptions that Matthew Harper made, the first that snuffed a Trojan drive that might've tied the score at 17 late in the third quarter, and of course the final one, where he slid up in front of Fred Davis to seal the hard fought victory. Of course, the students rushed the field before the game was officially over but that was a small moment of inconvenience on such a glorious day.
The Trojan fans we met were great, big kudos to the Trojan defense, running back Jonathan Stewart got his 103 yards, on 25 carries, absolutely earning everything he made. I can't say that if the two teams played again that Oregon would win, but I can say that it would be as lively and engaging as this one was, with the winner coming down to who made the least amount of mistakes. Fight on Trojans, especially this week against the Beavers!
It was nice to see that the Washington Post sent a writer to cover the game, his story is HERE along with a NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE, while the ESPN story is HERE. Also, it certainly doesn't hurt the Ducks when the news is out today that ESPN GAME DAY WILL ONCE AGAIN BE HERE. It's never too early to be loud and proud, as well as being a little bit drunk at 7 a.m. , judging from the evidence on hand last month. Gotta love college football and the craziness that goes with it. Go Ducks!!!!
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