QUICKIE RECAP
At the end of the first half No. 14 Oregon ( 10-4 ) went to the locker room down 30-3 to Oklahoma ( 11-2 ) and appeared destined for another Utah style thrashing.
But over the final thirty minutes of play, the Ducks came to life and showed their mettle scoring four touchdowns to make it respectable and certainly within reach with six minutes to play.
However, it simply wasn’t meant to be as the depleted Ducks defense couldn’t make stops when it mattered most and ended up losing to interim coach Bob Stoops and the Sooners 47-32 in front of more than 59,000 fans at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Simply put, Oregon got pummeled in the first half. There’s no other way around that.
The Ducks opened the game with incredible energy on both sides of the football, but once again made crucial errors at critical times and lost any momentum they had gained.
The Ducks offense scored just 3 points in the first half on a Camden Lewis 24 yard field goal and limped into the halftime locker room down 30-3. It appeared to be Utah 3.0.
The Ducks came into the second half ready to prove to their fans and the national television audience they weren’t the patsy’s they looked to be in the first half.
The Ducks outscored the Sooners 29-17 in the second half and looked poised to make an actual run at winning the game, but they couldn’t get closer than 15 points at 47-32 with 6:46 to play in the game.
At that point, Oregon QB Anthony Brown found freshman receiver Troy Franklin on a go route connecting with him on a 30 yard score. Franklin, one of the fabulous three freshmen receivers caught 4 balls for 65 yards and his single score.
With all of the momentum, Oregon tried an on-side kick hoping to continue their scoring run, but the kick failed and the Ducks couldn’t get any closer.
In the third quarter, Brown also connected on scoring throws with Dont’e Thornton and Kris Hutson. AB connected with Thornton on a beautiful 66 yard pass play down the sideline in single coverage where Thornton simply outran the corner on his side.
Later in the quarter with :56 seconds to play, Brown again used the long ball to find Kris Hutson on a 34 yard scoring play giving Hutson his second touchdown of the season and first of the game.
Midway through the 4th quarter, Brown found Franklin on his 30 yard score to pull the Ducks to 47-32 and that’s as close as they could get.
“These guys, they’re special” said Oregon interim head coach Bryan McClendon after the game.
“They’re a special group of guys. They’re a special group of men. And I just loved the group we had. I said it every time I got in front of a mic, I wouldn’t rather go into this fight with any other group.”
And while the Ducks could have very easily folded their tent and gone home, they held together after the break and played more cohesive football.
But they simply didn’t have the weapons on defense to make the stops when they needed them.
“That’s not what we do” explained McClendon when asked about his team’s effort in the second half and not giving up.
“That’s about as simple of an answer as I can give you. That’s not what we do. There is nothing — we feel like there’s nothing that we can’t overcome as a group, regardless of who’s here, regardless of who’s there, regardless of next man up, regardless of what deficit, what situation, what turnover. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything that’s going to stop us from going out there and giving our all.”
MOST VALUABLE PLAY / PLAYER
Travis Dye was the easy choice in this category. Dye used his speed and gritty running style to rack up 153 yards on 18 carries with one score. Dye also surpassed the 3,000 yard mark in rushing yards to become just the fifth player in Oregon history to reach that mark.