This playing in the Big Ten thing has turned out to be pretty fun for the Oregon Ducks football team.
In their first outing of being the No. 1 team in the country, Oregon surely played up to its ranking as the Ducks crushed No. 20 Illinois 38-9 in front of a packed Autzen Stadium and in front of a national television audience on CBS.
Oregon came out with guns blazing with two first-quarter touchdowns to take an early 14-0 lead. The Ducks didn’t let up and eventually solidified the victory with a 35-3 halftime lead.
“Fun game. I thought it really helped that on both sides of the ball we started off fast tonight. That’s always a positive for us,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I do feel like we had a little bit of a lull in the second half where we could have been a little bit cleaner, hurt ourselves with a couple penalties, the extended drives, you know, for them.
“But, overall pleased with our team’s performance, and think we continue to see this team have growth and look for opportunities to get better. Obviously, we’re going to be playing a really physical team next week, so have to do a great job of continuing to tackle what we can improve.”
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel was nearly flawless as he went 18-of-26 passing for 291 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a rushing touchdown.
Oregon used a balanced attack offensively and an aggressive defense that Illinois just had no answer for. Illinois Luke Altmyer came into the game with just one interception to his name, but against Oregon, the junior threw two picks.
After claiming a quick 14-0 lead, a pass to Tez Johnson and then to Justius Lowe later in the quarter, the Ducks made it 21-3 early in the second quarter on Gabriel’s lone rushing touchdown, a seven-yard run on an option play.
Then it was time for Noah Whittington to find the end zone a couple of times, one an 18-yard run and then a short two-yard pass. It turned out out to be more than enough for the Ducks to hold on to their perfect record.
“Yeah, I mean, this guy does everything right every single day, works his absolute tail off. I was really thrilled to see him have some success tonight,” Lanning said.
“He’ll be the first one to tell you. It starts with the guys up front for him. But he ran hard, right? He created some big plays, had a huge catch, obviously last week, was able to turn that in some really positive runs this week.”
Oregon’s championship journey continues next week as the Ducks travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take on the Michigan Wolverines, who defeated their in-state rival, the Michigan State Spartans 24-17 to move to 5-3 on the season.
The game will be televised on CBS at 12:30 pm.
( POSTGAME ) DAN LANNING DISCUSSES WIN OVER ILLINOIS