Games that play out like this one are very hard to watch at home, but the Ducks rallied from a 20-3 first half deficit to force the Boilermakers to overtime. Once there, the Oregon defense stymied the Purdue attack as it had done for most of the last three quarters of the game, and LaGarrette Blount ran in for a three-yard touchdown to give the Ducks the hard fought victory.
The Ducks found themselves in a hole quickly as Kory Sheets ran 80 yards down the right sideline, in front of the Purdue bench, for the score. The second Purdue touchdown came via the oddity of a receiving team failing to cover a kick off after a score; the swirling wind had the kick falling at the Oregon 22 yard line, whereupon it was recovered by Purdue. The touchdown that soon followed at the beginning of the second quarter gave the home side that 20-3 lead, and it became apparent that a lot of hard work was going to be necessary if the Ducks wanted the win.
After that, the Ducks defense played very well indeed, limiting the yards that Purdue could manage, but the Ducks offense sputtered for the most part, with a number of dropped passes killing potential scoring drives. (Purdue receivers had a case of the "dropsies" as well). There were a number of turnovers as well that ended drives, with Oregon unfortunately leading in that stat at 4-3.
It took a spectacular 87 yard punt return by Jairus Byrd toward the end of the third quarter to spark the Ducks, drawing them to 20-13. On their next possession, Blount had a 72 yard run that set up the tying touchdown at the end of the quarter, and Duck fans all across the country were wondering just what crazy thing would happen next. All that did happen was that the teams traded a field goal with each other, although Purdue's Chris Summers did miss a 44 yard attempt into the wind as time wound down to send the game into overtime.
The bad news is that quarterback Justin Roper had suffered a partially torn medial collateral ligament toward the end of regulation time, and it seems he's likely to miss 2-4 weeks at a minimum. Boise State is up this Saturday at Autzen, and I have no doubt that the Broncos would like nothing better than to notch a road victory at a Pac-10 stadium to make their season, the Oregon coaching ties by some of the Bronco staff notwithstanding. I'll be on hand once again to cheer the team on, this time with my nephew from Corvallis, who became a Duck fan just because he couldn't stand the Beaver fans in his town.
R-G STORY
ESPN RECAP
One of the drawbacks to attending Duck games is that, with the travel times factored in, I tend to miss a number of interesting matchups. I started Saturday viewing Cal at Maryland, watching the Bears SLEEPWALK FOR MUCH OF THE GAME, then some of OKLAHOMA'S SLAUGHTER OF WASHINGTON, to be topped off with a liberal dose of OHIO STATE V. USC, and the tense finishes of ARIZONA AT NEW MEXICO and upset of UNLV OVER ARIZONA STATE, as the Rebels blocked a potential tying field goal in overtime to seal the unlikely win. The pained look of Dennis Erickson on the sidelines as the reality of what had just happened was priceless indeed. Oh yeah, there were look-ins at the intriguing WISCONSIN AT FRESNO STATE late game as well, with the Bulldogs giving the visiting Badgers all that they could handle. There was some baseball viewing in there as well, but by the end of the day, I had grown a bit weary from watching all of those games. I was glad that I don't really watch the NFL on Sunday though; I do need some time on the weekend to get something done.
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