For the 2nd straight year the game formerly known as the Civil War was played in September. Coming into the game both teams came in with questions but those questions were very different. For Oregon could they play a cleaner game than they did the week before against Northwestern and play a game to the Oregon standard. For Oregon State would they have any ounce of fight in them for the big rivalry game on their schedule after a very tough start to the season.
The Beavers won the toss and deferred
their choice to the 2nd half meaning the Ducks would get the ball first.
The Ducks wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as Jayden Limar hit an explosive run on the first play of the game to get the drive moving. After just missing Malik Benson on a deep shot the Ducks moved the ball down the field and capped off the drive with a Dante to Dakorien touchdown and it was 7-0 Ducks early.
The Beavers first possession went nowhere as the Duck defense stood up strong against the run and forced two incompletions to make the Beavers have to punt out of their forced and unorthodox punt formation. After bobbling the punt Gary Bryant Jr. returned the punt to the 33 yard line to get set-up the Ducks 2nd drive
After Dakorien Moore won another 1 on 1 battle down the field to get the drive started the Ducks would stall in no man’s land and were unsuccessful on 4th down from the Beavers 39 yard line turning the ball over to the Beavers at the 36 yard line.
The Beavers would then go on a clock draining methodical drive that was fueled by some explosive plays the Beavers were able to hit. Oregon State would then punch it in from the 1 yard line to tie the game near the end of the 1st quarter.
The Ducks next drive would see another Jayden Limar explosive run to get it started but once again the Ducks would stall thanks to some sloppy o-line play forcing the Ducks first punt of the game meaning the Beavers would get the ball with a chance to take the lead.
Thankfully after conceding one first down the Ducks defense would stifle the Beavers on the ground and force another short-snap punt from the Beavers which Gary Bryant Jr. had difficulty fielding for the 2nd time and would force the Ducks next drive to start inside their own 10 yard line.
Makhi Hughes would get the Ducks drive started with some tough runs up the middle to give the Ducks some breathing room but the Ducks quickly found themselves in 3rd and long again. Malik Benson would come to the rescue converting the 3rd and 8 and then catching an explosive pass on 2nd and 16 to move the Ducks into Beavers territory.
A play-action pass would see Kenyon Sadiq get wide open for the Touchdown to give the Ducks the lead again.
The Beavers next drive would be critical as there was 5:35 left in the 2nd quarter and Oregon State would be getting the ball to start the 2nd half. Oregon State was able to use their efficiency ground game to pick up a 1st down and milk the clock to the 2 minute warning. The Ducks defense would get the big stop on 3rd and 6 after Malik Murphy missed a wind open Trent Walker and instead threw elsewhere.
Nonetheless Dante Moore and the Duck offence had an opportunity in the 2 minute drill to add to their lead before half-time. On 1st Down Will Stein brought out one of his favorite calls for what I believe is the first time this year with the half back toss to the boundary to get the drive started but what really got Oregon into a position to score was a Dante Moore scramble for 28 yards followed by yet another one on one sideline shot to Dakorien Moore. From there the Ducks gave it to the goal line back Jordan Davison to punch it in and give Oregon their first 2 possession lead of the game and a little bit of breathing room headed into halftime.
After 30 minutes of play I thought the Ducks, and Dante Moore specifically, initially were making some of the same mistakes they were making last week on the lake but started to play cleaner as the half wore on. Meanwhile the Beavers had done an admirable job putting up a fight in the first half to make things at least a little frustrating for Oregon. The 2nd half would come down to Oregon eliminating mistakes and if the Beavers could continue to scratch and claw to at least keep the game competitive.
I also couldn’t remember a half of football were Oregon had thrown so many “F it, our WR can win that one on one”. Thankfully for Oregon Dakorien just kept winning those battles but I have to imagine that relying upon him in this manner was a strategic choice by Stein to avoid putting some of his other plays on tape for Penn State, but I will defer to Tristan on that suspicion.
Defensively I thought that aside from a handful of explosive runs on the Beaver touchdown drive the defense played much better against the run compared to the previous week against Northwestern. To make this a comfortable win for the Ducks the defense would need to keep that up in the 2nd half.
Charting success rates and explosive plays in excel as the game was unfolding had the Ducks at or near championship caliber in all 8 rate categories aside from an inability run explosively, with only 2 designed runs being explosives on 15 plays
The 2nd half got underway with the Beavers have the opportunity to make it a one possession game in the 2nd half and put pressure on the Ducks. Oregon State would go nowhere and couldn’t get anything going after Malik Murphy missed an open Beaver receiver when he was flushed from the pocket giving the Ducks the ball with a chance to really separate.
After a successful Dierre Hill run set the Ducks up well to convert, Gary Bryant Jr. slipped on a stop route that would have surely had him convert on 3rd down. No matter James Ferguson Reynolds decided to take the free 1st down the Beavers gave him on the called punt on 4th down.
That would allow the Ducks to continue marching into the red zone where Dante Moore would find Jeremiah McClellan in the end zone for J-Mac’s first career touchdown.
The Duck defense would force another 3 and out disrupting Murphy enough on 2 screen passes to prevent Oregon State from going anywhere and giving the Ducks the ball back.
Oregon would then go on an efficient drive back into the Oregon State red zone but was unable to punch it in this time. Atticus Sappington came on for his first field goal attempt against his former team and would put it up an through to give Oregon a 24 point lead.
For the 3rd straight drive Oregon State failed to pick up a first down as Malik Murphy continued to struggle, Oregon State even brought in the back-up Gabarri Johnson for a play to see if he could get anything going for the Beavers offence but he was unable to convert the 3rd and long after he scaled the pocket impressively.
The Autzen faithful would put together a great rendition of shout and the first play in the 4th quarter Makhi Hughes finally hit a designed explosive run, the very next play a play action pass would get Gary Bryant Jr. wide open for a long touchdown to put the Ducks up 38-7.
A 4th straight Beaver 3 and out had me wondering when the Beaver coaching staff would give Johnson a longer to look at QB to see if it could be an improvement on Murphy and the Ducks got the ball looking to return to the 40 point threshold.
Alas some Oregon penalties would stall the drive and James Ferguson Reynolds was brought in to punt for real this time and he uncorked a beautiful punt that the Ducks would down inside the Beaver 10 yard line.
The Beavers finally were able to pick up some 1st downs for the first time in the 2nd half but Bear Alexander was able to jump on a botched QB-RB exchange on a read option to give the Oregon defense their first takeaway of the day.
A check-down to Makhi Hughes would turn into an explosive play and put the Ducks on the door-step of scoring. The Duck offence couldn’t punch it in from a goal to go situation however and Oregon would settle for their second field goal of the game to make it 41-7 Oregon.
After the turnover Oregon State went back with Murphy for the next drive to finish the game and right back on schedule the Beavers would go 3 and out. Another blown up screen and a rare drop from Trent Walker and at this point I think if you wanted to give them the option Oregon State would have been fine calling the game with just over 4 minutes left.
To finish the game Oregon turned it over to Eugene local Brock Thomas to play against the in-state rival. A Da’Jaun Riggs sighting was nice to see as he would bounce a run to the outside for 20 yards and that would take the game to the 2 minute warning and effectively end the game.
The final team stats from the game where as follows:
- YPP Differential = +4.74 Oregon
- Net Success Rate = +26% Oregon
- Net Explosiveness Rate = +10% Oregon
Offensively I thought it was good but not great game for the Ducks considering the opponent. Dante was slightly off to start the game but found a really nice rhythm in the 2nd quarter. Running the ball the absence of designed explosive runs is noteworthy for me. Some of that I think was due to the offensive line that we have talked about at length here at addicted to quack but I also think had Noah Whittington played a couple of the 7-9 yard runs Oregon accumulated during the game would have been 15-20 yard runs with Whittington carrying the ball. Given his presence in warm-ups I suspect Noah will be ready for Penn State next week.
Defensively I thought that aside from one drive in the first half it was a perfect game. I don’t believe it was a great test for the defense but they did nearly everything I would hope for in a game like this.
