There may have been early morning lightning flashes over Lake Michigan, but the Oregon Ducks were greeted with pleasant weather for their 9:00 am PT kickoff against the Northwest Wildcats.
Northwestern won the toss and deferred possession, and the Ducks started on their 25 after the touchback.
The Ducks were able to get a first down, but the drive stalled at midfield, forcing Oregon to punt. The Wildcats started their first drive of the game on their 10-yard line. Faced with 4th-and-one at midfield, NU
went for it and picked up the first down. After an illegal formation penalty, the Wildcats offense committed their first turnover of the day, when Bryce Boettcher intercepted a Preston Stone pass, giving the Ducks great field position on the NU 23-yard line. Oregon wasn’t about to waste this opportunity, and scored on a Jayden Limar 1-yard rush. The PAT was good, and Oregon led 7-0.
The Ducks had a bit of a special teams breakdown, when the ensuing kickoff was returned 39 yards and NU started on their own 45-yard line. The Oregon defense pushed the ‘Cats back to their 41, and NU punted, resulting in a touchback. The Ducks got in a play before the 1st quarter ended, with the score still 7-0.
The Ducks started on their own 25-yard line and drove the field in somewhat choppy fashion, as their pass game was not completely clicking. The drive stalled just outside of the red zone, and Atticus Sappington kicked a 42-yard field goal to take the game to a 10-0 Oregon lead.
NU’s next drive petered out again at midfield after Stone fumbled the ball when attempting to pass. He fell on his own fumble, but the ‘Cats could not make up the yards lost and punted on 4th and 23 on their own 35-yard line.
Oregon’s next drive started on their own 11-yard line. With 4:53 on the clock, the Ducks found their passing game and chewed up nearly all the time remaining in the half, culminating in a 24-yard TD pass to Kenyon Sadiq.
Northwestern took a knee to end the half with Oregon leading 17-0.
Dante Moore and the rest of the Ducks started slow, but he had his best drive just before the end of the half. After 30 minutes, Moore was 13-16 for 125 yards and one TD. Dakorien Moore led the five receivers that caught passes for positive yardage, with four receptions for 49 yards. The Ducks rushing attack was not very sharp in the first half, and Oregon only gained 69 yards.
Northwestern could only muster 22 total yards in the first half, to 194 total for the Ducks. 21 of those yards were in the air. As stout as the ‘Cats defense appeared to be, it was looking like a long day for NU.
NU started the 2nd half with possession of the ball on their 25-yard line. The ‘Cats had their best drive of the day, but on 3rd-and-1 at the Oregon 26-yard line, QB Preston Stone was sacked. NU’s attempt to convert on 4th-and-9 at Oregon’s 34-yard line was not successful, and the Wildcats turned the ball over on downs.
And just like that, after the media timeout, Dierre Hill Jr. rushed to the right and blew past the NU defense for a 66-yard touchdown.
The PAT brought the score to a 24-0 Oregon lead.
After a touchback, Northwestern began their best drive of the day. Preston Stone completed a wide-open 31-yard pass to get into Ducks territory, and NU pushed to the Oregon 32-yard line. But, as fate would appear to demand, they were doomed to fail when a deflected pass was intercepted by Jerry Mixon, who ran the ball to the NU 35-yard line.
It only took four plays for Jordon Davison to run up the middle for a 2-yard touchdown, and Oregon was up 31-0.
Northwestern again started at their 25-yard line. This time, they went 3-and-out, and Oregon began their next drive on their 28-yard line. After three plays, the third quarter ended with Oregon at midfield.
The Ducks opened up the fourth quarter with Dante Moore throwing his first interception of the season deep in NU territory, and the Wildcats started their drive on the 4-yard line.
Northwestern could not get anywhere, and turned the ball over on downs. Luke Moga came into the game under center. and when the Ducks were faced with 4th down on the NU 7-yard line, they opted for a field goal to make the score 34-0 with 11:32 left in the game.
On NU’s next drive, the Oregon defense gave up their second explosive pass of the day, and the ‘Cats were on the Oregon 9-yard line. At 4th-and-one, Northwestern finally punched the ball in to get a score, and we had a 34-7 ball game.
The Ducks started on their 25-yard line with 6:20 left in the game. They got to midfield, and that was as far as they would get, and Oregon punted, pinning NU on their nine-yard line with 3:01 left in the game.
After the two-minute timeout, NU picked up a 79-yard TD rush to make the score 34-14.
The Ducks started their final drive with 1:48 left in the game. After a couple of runs, the Ducks were content to take a knee and run out the clock.
Come back as we update with game stats and any interviews that we find!
Updated 12:13 pm PT
