It doesn’t happen often, but the Mighty Ohio State Buckeyes lost a football game at home in the Horseshoe.
No. 12 Oregon traveled into Columbus, Ohio on Saturday and beat the third ranked Buckeyes 35-28 in front of an almost sold-out crowd. And what makes the Ducks win even more incredible, they did it without defensive stars DE Kayvon Thibodeaux, LB Justin Flowe and LB Dru Mathis.
HOW IT HAPPENED
At first glance, you knew the Oregon Ducks came to Columbus, not just to play well, but to win. The Ducks defense came out of the gate with a purpose and held the Buckeyes to a scoreless first quarter.
To begin the second quarter, Duck quarterback began with an 18 yard run which put the Oregon offense on the OSU 14 yard line. On the very next play, RB C.J. Verdell raced the 14 yards around the end for the games first score and a Duck 7-0 lead.
Midway through the 2nd, Buckeye QB C.J Stroud found receiver Garrett Williams for a 27 yard touchdown to knot the game at 7 with 8:42 left in the quarter. The tie didn’t last long. Just four minutes later, the Ducks would strike again. This time on a 14-yard pass play from Anthony Brown to Verdell giving the Ducks a 14-7 lead which they’d take into the halftime break.
After deferring the football to begin the game, Oregon began the second half with the ball and an opportunity to go up two scores. Which they did.
Just 90 seconds into the 3rd, C.J Verdell raced up the middle of the field 77 yards through the Ohio State defense to put the Ducks up 21-7. From that point forward, Ohio State would be chasing the Ducks for the remainder of the game.
Ohio State closed the gap to 21-14 just three minutes later at the 10:26 mark when Stroud found receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 26 yard hook-up.
The Ducks would strike back though. With 7:38 left in the 3rd, the Ducks put together a 7 play – 75 yard drive that ended with a 5 yard touchdown run by Travis Dye once again extending the Oregon lead by two scores at 28-14.
Dye ended the game with 8 carries for 43 yards while also grabbing 1 pass for 10 yards.
Heading into the final 15 minutes, the Ducks held their 28-14 lead but most knew that lead wouldn’t hold up.
The Buckeyes offense struck again two and a half minutes into the final quarter when Treveyon Henderson rushed for a 2 yard score up the middle to tighten the score to 28-21.
But the Ducks offense wasn’t done. Moments later at the 10:10 mark, the Ducks put together an impressive 6 play – 74 yard drive that was capped off by a nice 14 yard pass play from Brown to tight end Moliki Matavao giving Oregon a 35-21. Brown completed 17 of 35 passes for 235 yards and the one score.
With 7:55 remaining, and on a huge 4th and 6, the Buckeyes once again closed the gap to seven points, ( 35-28 ) when Stroud found Smith-Njigba on a 14 yard scoring toss across the middle once again forcing the Ducks to play to win, and not to lose.
After each team traded possessions. the Oregon defense stepped up on a key 3rd down forcing the Buckeyes into a 3rd and 18 which they couldn’t convert.
OSU would punt, but the Oregon offense couldn’t move the ball and punted back to the Buckeyes.
With 2:50 to play, and Stroud forced to throw downfield, Duck safety Verone McKinley intercepted the Buckeye quarterback to seal the win.
KEY PLAYERS
The Oregon defense as a whole gets credit here for stepping up without the services of Kayvon Thibodeaux, Dru Mathis and Justin Flowe.
The Ducks defense had a plan to stop the run, which they did, and to force Stroud into throwing the ball, which they did. Although Stroud completed 35 of 54 passes for 484 yards and 3 touchdowns, it wasn’t enough to outscore the Ducks. The Oregon defense also held both Buckeye ball carriers to less than 100 yards. Miyan Willams rushed for 77 yards on 14 carries and Treveyon Henderson rushed for 54 yards on 12 carries.
On the offensive side, Oregon QB Anthony Brown gets the MVP credit for the win.
Not only did Brown lead the Ducks to the win, but he also held his composure in a hostile environment and didn’t turn the ball over. Brown was a steady force in so many crucial situations where he could have crumbled and lost the game.
Brown ended the game with a passer rating of 124.1 and helped the Ducks gain a total of 505 yards. The Ducks were also 8 of 16 on 3rd downs and 1 of 1 on 4th down. And he wasn’t sacked one time in the game.
ONE FINAL THOUGHT
Coming out of the Fresno State game, the Oregon offensive line drew a lot of criticism with their up and down play. It wasn’t their best outing, but it was their first game of the season leaving a lot of room for improvement.
And they did.
On Saturday versus the Buckeyes, the Ducks O’line was superb not allowing a single sack, much less a knock down. Not only did they allow Brown time to find open receivers in key situations, they also opened sizable holes in the defense allowing the ducks to amass a total of 269 yards on 38 carries. They also opened lanes for 3 touchdowns.
They say teams improve the most from Game No. 1 to Game No. 2. That was certainly the case for this Oregon offensive line. What an incredible performance in one of the most hostile stadiums in college football.
WHO’S NEXT
Oregon returns to Autzen Stadium next Saturday to take on Stoney Brook. The game kicks off at 4:30 PST and is scheduled to be televised by the Pac-12 Network.