(GAME STORY) OREGON RALLIES LATE TO STUN NORTH CAROLINA 28-27 IN A CLASSIC HOLIDAY BOWL – Bo Nix Finds Chase Cota With 19 Seconds Left For The Go Ahead Win

It was in the bag the entire time.

All right, maybe not. Oregon was down 24-14 with a little more than eight minutes to go and it looked bleak. Bo Nix wasn’t himself. He couldn’t find open receivers down the field. North Carolina was stacking the box to stop the run.

A 10-point deficit felt like it was a 30-point deficit.

But then the clouds parted, the sun shined down onto Petco Park and the real Bo Nix returned from the heavens to lead Oregon on two scoring drives late in the fourth quarter and Oregon stunned North Carolina 28-27 in the Holiday Bowl.

The Ducks end the season 10-3 and now will go into the offseason on a huge high.

Oregon should be a Top 10 team with Nix returning as well as many skill players on both sides of the ball with a highly-ranked recruiting class coming into Eugene.

Down 27-21, the Ducks took the ball on their own 20-yard line and the only thing going through their heads was to go 80 yards and score a touchdown. They had all three timeouts left and 2:24 on the clock.

For the second straight drive, Nix suddenly found receivers down the field, including a big 28-yard catch and run from tight end Terrance Ferguson.

Eventually, the Ducks had a 4th-and-2 from the 4-yard line and Nix found Cota on the goal line for the game-winning score.

“That’s one of our just go-to plays. We feel really good about that play” explained quarterback Bo Nix after the game.

“We’ve run it multiple times. It’s hard to stop against guys and good situations. It puts Troy and T-ferg and Chase and those guys in situations to do what they do best. Chase knows over and over that that’s the three. If he gets housed, he is going to get a natural pick there going across the middle, and we thought he did a great job of picking up the protection, and we threw it over the middle and had a completion for a touchdown.

“It just goes to practice and practice and practice. You know, you run that play over and over, and I think everybody on the sideline kind of wanted that play, and I just happened to be the one that might have verbalized it. One of our favorite plays.”

Tied at 27-27 one would think the extra point would just be an afterthought.

Kicker Camden Lewis decided to make things a little too exciting as he doinked the left upright. Fortunately, the ball still went through the uprights and gave the Ducks the 28-27 lead and win.

Yeah, all we needed was time on the clock. You can’t worry about the past, and you really can’t worry about the future. You have to be in the present.

I thought our team did a good job of being in the present. I thought our players made great adjustments. Some of those drives where we stalled out and didn’t get a first down, our guys believed we’re going to get a stop and have an opportunity to do it again. That’s what it came down to.

“You talk about phenomenal players making great plays down the stretch. That’s what you saw” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning after the game.

“They took every fourth down. They took every yard, took every inch, took every ounce of effort that our guys had to finish the way they needed to finish.

To the Tar Heels’ credit, they gave themselves a chance on the last play of the game, but quarterback Drake Maye’s Hail Mary attempt was knocked down in the end zone to give Oregon a win that will be talked about for quite some time.

“It was an outstanding trip for our guys. They had a great time, new experiences,” said UNC coach Mack Brown.

“Most of our guys had never been to California, and the weather is great. The bowl was great. The volunteer red coats treated our guys with very high respect. It was organized it, and they had a good week. They prepared well. They practiced well during the week, unlike last year. We weren’t as ready to play. We were ready to play tonight. Played our hearts out.”

The Tar Heels managed to get the ball to the Oregon 40-yard line with a second left. It would have been a 57-yard field goal attempt, but Brown thought putting the ball in Maye’s hands would have given his team a better chance.

“We thought if we could get it to the 35, we had a chance, and that’s why Drake tried to get it to the 35 on the out,” he said. “And then when there was one second left, we knew we had to sling it in the end zone. That was our only chance. We put our it tallest guys, most athletic guys out there, and Drake got it up there with still a chance.”

Running back Bucky Irving was named the Offensive Player of the Game with 149 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Linebacker Mase Funa was given defensive honors with his seven tackles, two for loss and a sack.

Corner Twikweze Bridges also could have been named defender of the game. He was the shutdown corner Oregon thought it was going to miss with the departure of Christian Gonzalez.

“I can’t thank the guys in this locker room enough” said Lanning.

“It’s really easy when there’s change and transition. Especially for some of these guys change they didn’t pick. Some changes they did. It’s really easy to buckle up. Especially when you talk about the adversity we saw early in the season when it didn’t go our way.

“But this group has never stopped and never wavered. You know, Mase knows what it’s like to be a championship father because he sees it and he does it himself. He operates the way that’s necessary. Chase has a certain level of pride in the way that he attacks the field because he knows what it means to wear the O because he grew up wearing it.

“Bo being a husband. Bucky being a teammate, the son, the player. Every piece that he is for this team. I can’t speak enough on as a coach, you know, I coach for the relationships. I love to win, but we have relationships on this team. Everybody says blood is thicker than water. I sure love these guys.

Maybe not true blood, but I share blood with these guys. These guys are my family. They’ll forever be my family and they’ll forever be part of my first team here as a head coach, and for that I’m forever grateful.”