Ducks Alone At The Top

With a convincing win, and loses by Stanford and Arizona, the Ducks now find themselves as the only team undefeated in conference play with a 3-0 Pac-10 record going into the bye.

As expected, Nate Costa started in place of Jeremiah Masoli.  He was serviceable and mananged the game well, but was not spectacular.  He went 9 of 17 for 82 yards with a touchdown and an interception, each the first of his career.  But it was good enough.

The outcome was far from certain at halftime as Oregon trailed 3-0 off Forbath's 52 yard field goal.  It would be UCLA's only offensive points of the game.  Oregon wasted no time getting things together in the second half.  I had hoped Oregon would make some wise adjustments at the half and show more life on offense.

But Oregon's offense didn't get the first snap of the second half.....in a good way.  Kenjon Barner returned the second half kickoff 100 yards (according to the stats.....to me it looked like a 102 yard kickoff return) for a touchdown to put Oregon ahead for good.  But Oregon's furious 3rd quarter was just getting started.

On the next offensive play, Talmadge Jackson III intercepted Kevin Prince and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown to put the Ducks up 14-3 less than a minute into the second half.  Less than 3 minutes later Oregon turned a converted on a Kevin Prince fumble when Nate Costa hit Jeff Maehle on a screen pass for a 20 yard touchdown that was the only offensive touchdown of the game for either team.  It was Costa's first career touchdown pass and Maehle's first of the season.  Oregon led 21-3.

I knew the game was far from over though.  I was worried for good reason.  Late in the quarter, Nate Costa threw the ball from the back of his own end zone.  Akeem Ayers jumped and plucked the ball out of the air and managed to come down just inside the back of the endzone for UCLA's only touchdown.  But Oregon marched down the field and closed out the scoring with a 33 yard field goal.

UCLA did threaten twice in the fourth quarter.  Once Oregon stopped them on fourth down and then John Boyett intercepted his second pass of the year with just over 2 minutes to play to ice the game.

THE GOOD

Oregon's defense was stellar again.  The Ducks had a fantastic first half goal line stand as they stopped UCLA twice from the one yard line on third and fourth down.  The Ducks defense did not give up a touchdown and forced 3 turnovers, all in the second half. 

 In fact, with the exception of UCLA's first half field goal which came on a 64 yard drive that started at their own 1, all the scoring Oregon has allowed over the last 3 games have come off "drives" totaling minus 7 yards.  The field goal against California came off the opening kickoff fumble and totaled minus 8 yards. 

The only score allowed against the Cougers came on a one yard drive set up off a fumbled punt.  And the touchdown  today came off an interception in the endzone.  Great job by the defense, especially with the injuries.  True freshman Cliff Harris saw limited action in the game.  Oh, and LaMichael James rushed for 152 yards, his third 100 yard game of the season.  Kenjon Barner rushed for 50 yards (48 came on one rush) on four carries.

THE BAD

Nate Costa, as I said before, was adequete, but I'm glad he is not leading us for the rest of the season.  If he had too, he would improve.  Though the defense allowed only a field goal in the first half, UCLA did hold the ball for almost 20 of the first 30 minutes, and it wasn't because the Ducks were scoring on 1 minute drives.

Not really a negative, but on second and 10 from the 1 yard line (following the goal line stand) LaMichael James made two spin moves to escape (one in the endzone to avoid a safety) and raced to midfield before being tackled.  But had he cut to the right towards the sideline he probably would have scored on a record 99 yard run that would have been a highlight of the season.  Still, it was a great run and a great game by James. 

Enjoy the bye week Duck fans!