Oregon Ducks Survive an On-Track Collision With the Purdue Boilermakers

In their first real test of the season, the Oregon Ducks left West Lafayette, IA with a double-overtime victory over the Purdue Boilermakers. Oregon may have only won the contest by six points, but if one looks specifically at the second half of the game, one would see that this game was not as close as the score dictates.

Oregon came into this game ready to run the ball down the Boilermakers' steam pipe, and expected Purdue to use their passing game to stay in the game. In the first half, however, the complete opposite happened. On the first drive of the game, Purdue's RB Kory Sheets broke free from Oregon defenders for an 80 yard touchdown run. This left the "Gang-Green" defense at a loss for words, as the Ducks had held opposing teams to 2.2 ypc.

Oregon bounced back with a 23 yard Field Goal from PK (insert Preacher's Kid joke here) Matt Evensen, who is on the Groza Award watch list. But things quickly got out of hand in the first half, as a Justin Roper interception and poorly-called muffed kickoff catch led to two straight Purdue field goals from their PK Chris Summers. Kory Sheets' two yard touchdown run, added to the first half shock that plagued the Ducks. Matt Evensen was the lone bright spot on the team, as he ended the first half with a 21 yard field goal, with the score Purdue 20, Oregon 6 going into halftime.

This was certainly not what the Ducks were expecting. What could the Oregon coaching staff find as a scapegoat to blame their first half performance on? Was it the fierce winds that the Ducks were throwing against, the grass field that they were playing on, the lack of sleep prior to the game? None of these were used. Try using the Ducks themselves as the scapegoat. Coach Mike Bellotti told ESPN reporters at halftime that "Everything that Purdue has gotten, we have given to them. Both turnovers that we committed lead to field goals, and our defensive backs could not tackle Sheets on his two touchdown runs. I feel that we are coming out of halftime with much more focus, but we must concentrate on making the plays, before looking for extra yards."

Looks like Bellotti's assumption was correct, as Oregon flat out dominated in the second half, scoring 13 unanswered points to tie up the game in the third quarter at 20 all, then taking the lead on a field goal, which Summers promptly answered back to with a field goal of his own. With the opportunity to win the game in the final two seconds, Summers pushed the game winning field goal attempt wide left, and the game went to overtime.

Oregon started out overtime with an overthrown touchdown pass by Justin Roper, who left the game with a knee injury; we do not know the extension of the injury, but from the looks of it, it is probably a sprain, as ligament tests hinted negative on an ACL tear. Matt Evensen kicked a field goal, but Summers tied it up at 29 all, and sent the game to double overtime.

Then, Oregon's defense proved its worth, by stuffing the Purdue offense, and after Summers' missed field goal attempt, LaGarrette Blount scored the game winning touchdown, and ended the game with a 32-26 victory for the Ducks.

What can we say about the Ducks performance today? Well, in all honesty, Justin Roper did not play very smart football today, as evidenced by his 20 of 48 passing for 197 yards and no touchdowns with two interceptions. Roper also made six rushing attempts for 40 yards. So all in all, he contributed 237 yards of total offense to his teams 503 yards. So, Roper equated to roughly 47 percent of his team's offense today. That is not bad for a young, inexperienced quarterback, but after seeing Roper play much better football in the two weeks prior to today's game, it is a little disappointing to have seen Roper play stupidly.

What do I mean by saying he played stupidly? Well, Roper displayed poor decision making in the game. He threaded passes in between coverages that could have easily been picked off, but luckily weren't, but Roper also was basically attending a birthday party in the first half; he was handing out presents to the Purdue defense.

Roper also made some poor decisions when he was under pressure in the pocket. For instance, he tried to pitch the ball to a teammate when he was being sacked, which resulted in a fumble, and handover of possession.

One thing that really perplexed me about Roper today, was the way he threw the football. It was almost like he was shooting a basketball, rather than throwing a football. This lead to dropped passes, interceptions, and tipped balls.

The four turnovers committed by Oregon were unacceptable today. All but one turnover led to Purdue scores. Mindless penalties also plagued the Ducks today. Holding, pass interference, offsides, illegal procedure, all these penalties are the easiest to avoid. All it takes is some thought on the players part.

Dropped passes also made this game difficult for the Ducks to win. If a ball hits a receiver in the hands, they should catch it. When you are going to school for free to play football, they expect you to make those catches. Now I know that sometimes receivers are clobbered as soon as they get the ball, but there are simply no excuses for the dropped passes today, as all of them were simply dropped.

So what does this mean for Oregon. Well first, the good news. They are still undefeated, and survived their first test of the season. The bad news, there are still some major kinks that need to be worked out. Justin Roper needs to mature, and quick, if he wants to carry this team to victory against the cream of the crop of the Pac-10; USC, Arizona State, Cal.

What about Justin Roper? Who will take over for him if he misses a significant amount of games due to his knee injury? My guess is that Chip Kelly will still use the platoon system of Jeremiah Masoli and Chris Harper.

Chris Harper's situation is very intriguing. He is the most mobile, and dangerous quarterback on this team. He averages a first down per pass, but his throws aren't exactly the prettiest ones we've been accustomed to seeing from former Oregon quarterbacks. Still, Harper can get the job done.

My bet goes to Chris Harper as the one who will earn the most playing time, if indeed Roper is lost for the season, or most. Keep in mind that Harper is only a freshman, and still needs work on his passing game. Still we know what he is capable of. If Roper is gone for a significant amount of time due to his knee injury, than Harper will get a load of valuable playing time and experience.

In three years, we could be looking at the next Dennis Dixon or Tim Tebow.

If indeed Roper is done for, than Harper is the key to the team's success this season.