Oregon Ducks: Top 10 Defeats of the Past Decade - Part II

Onward!

7. 2006: OREGON 25 – CAL 45

With the Cal, USC, and ASU games in 2007 receiving national attention in a completely different stratosphere as Duck fans are accustomed to, it’s easy to forget that just a season before, the Oregon—Cal match-up received almost as much hype as the Cal—Oregon match-up in 2007.

Both games matched-up top  15 teams, both games were broadcast on ABC, and both games were perceived to be a knock-out round to see which team was going to challenge USC for the title.

Of course, Game Day was missing for the 2006 tilt…so let’s emphasize almost here.

What really gets to me about this loss is how Dennis Dixon’s season went straight down the toilet after it.  Dixon was starting to get attention on a national scale as a top tier QB after his performance against Oklahoma, but then he ran into a 16^th ranked Golden Bear team.

This Cal team seemed to know every play, every audible, every decision that Dixon was going to make.  He finished 20-36 for 236 yards and three picks on the day, including his first pass of the game. He was never the same the rest of 2006.

Lots of people blame Gary Crowton for Dixon’s 2006 performance. I think we can blame Jeff Tedford as well (and his spies).

Of course, it wasn’t just Dixon that tanked. The entire team gave up on the season after it was obvious a Pac-10 title wasn’t there to fight for anymore. 

In my mind, the 2006 season can be summed up in two games.  Oregon 24 – Cal 45 and Oregon 8 – BYU 38. One game is really just an extension of the other.

Oh, there was also that interesting Oregon win versus Oklahoma…but that’s another story (mu ha ha ha).

You may not remember:  Jonathan Stewart sucked too. He ran for 25 yards on 18 carries. There was absolutely no excuse for Snoop not to run for at least 1,000 in 2006, but he didn’t. 

I’ll go ahead and put another heaping pile of blame on Mr. Crowton. Take that Gary! You go win your national championship somewhere else!

6. 2007: CAL 31 – OREGON 24.

NO CAM NO! DON’T DO IT! DON’T STICK OUT THE FOOTBA….. AH #@$%. GOD @#$@ PI#$%#$ OF *&$.

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