Oregon’s star QB took the field for a nationally televised game last Thursday night knowing something just wasn’t right. What had appeared to be just a scare two weeks before in a game against Arizona State was, regrettably, far worse. What fans, and perhaps many of his own teammates, didn’t realize was that Dixon had torn his ACL in that game. All subsequent assurances about the severity, or lack thereof, of the apparent injury were just a smokescreen, at Dixon’s behest, to buy the young man some time to make the most important decision of his playing career.
Although doctors had cleared him to play, there was an ominous caveat involved. He could play on the damaged knee, but the injury left him vulnerable to much more serious damage. And given the violent nature of the game, that vulnerability represented a huge amount of risk. As a senior, Dixon’s pro prospects had sky rocketed this season as he dazzled the football world with his frenetic, dizzying style of play. When defenses pressured the line, he could step back and launch darts downfield, hitting his receivers in stride. His 85-yard strike to Brian Paysinger that broke the game open against Michigan was as perfectly thrown a pass as could be made on such a play. When defenses took his receivers away, he could simply outrun the pursuit and slash upfield for back-breaking gains. And his decision making on when to throw and when to run had been superb. He’d made so few mistakes that it was easy to see why NFL teams were starting to buzz louder and louder about his game.
So, his weakened knee not only put his current season at risk, it put his professional future at risk as well.
Yet, there he was – laughing with teammates during pre-game warm-ups Thursday night, running all of his offensive drills, and taking the field on Oregon’s opening possession. And all the while, he knew there was a time bomb ticking in his damaged knee.
However, his team was playing for the Holy Grail of college football – the BCS Title. Oregon had climbed all the way to #2 in the BCS rankings and really controlled their own destiny for a title opportunity. In fact, they were in one of the spots for a title game showdown at the moment of their match-up with Arizona on Thursday, and Dennis Dixon knew it. He also had to know that his team wasn’t going to get the rest of the way there without him. So, he stepped onto the field, assuming huge personal risk, mostly because his team’s dream season simply could not go on without him.
And on Oregon’s first drive of the game, things worked out beautifully. Facing a 4th-and-3, Dixon further showcased his lethal ability. Faking a pitch to Jonathan Stewart, he took the ball himself on a QB draw and raced 39 yards right through the heart of the Arizona defense for a score. It was an emphatic statement – you just don’t have enough to stop me.
But the time bomb never stopped ticking. No matter how much danger he showed to the opposition, more danger lurked in that knee. And on Oregon’s third series of the game, the time bomb finally went off. Planting on the weakened knee, he crumbled to the turf. The risk suddenly became horribly real.
Still, Dixon likely assumed that risk, because the dynamics of a locker room are far more complex than putting on the same uniforms and executing plays on the field. There is a unity, a loyalty among teammates, that supersedes the box score. With college football’s crown jewel to be had and with so much already invested in the chase, how could Dennis Dixon just walk away from all of that?
It is a heartbreaking tale. Yet, it is also a tremendously heartening story of honoring what it means to be a part of a team – what it means to sacrifice for something bigger than your own immediate desires.
In fact, it is reminiscent of another story about another athlete who gave his sporting life to help his team.
In 2002, the San Francisco Giants were in a desperate struggle to reach the MLB post-season. The team’s closer, Robb Nen, was one of the National League’s most feared gunslingers. He regularly kicked open the bullpen door with a 98-mph fastball and a logic-defying 96-mph slider in his holster, and that slider seemed to contradict physics. A pitch with that much break was simply not supposed to be thrown with that much velocity. Yet, Nen could, and MLB hitters seemed helpless against it.
However, down the stretch of the 2002 season, something wasn’t quite right. Nen’s fastball slowed, and his nuclear slider suddenly became human. With the Giants surging, Nen also had a secret.
His rotator cuff was in tatters, and the more he threw, the worse the pain got. However, his teammates kept turning to him every time a close game inched towards the ninth inning, and he simply refused to let them down.
So, he kept taking the ball, and he kept destroying his injured shoulder.
He still walked out to the mound with the same stoic demeanor, the same cool confidence of having toxic stuff that he could use at a moment’s notice to humiliate hitters, but it was false bravado. He was clinging to reputation and sheer guts to get hitters out, and they were starting to figure it out.
He helped the Giants get into the 2002 playoffs and kept closing games for them in the NLDS and the NLCS. Somehow, someway, he was practically willing his way through those final tense innings. And the pain was excruciating. With a World Series title just six outs away, things finally gave way. In Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, Robb Nen gave up the tying and, ultimately, game-winning runs on Troy Glaus’ 2-run double, vaulting the Los Angeles-Anaheim Angels past the Giants, 6-5.
That was the final inning Robb Nen ever pitched in the big leagues. It was later discovered that he’d destroyed his arm in trying to deliver a championship to his team.
As with Dennis Dixon, the tidal pull of loyalty to teammates, the honor of unity of the team, must have held sway with Robb Nen. How else could you possibly explain willingly tearing your body to pieces?
Perhaps, the even more remarkable thing in Dixon’s case is that he made such a sacrifice without the benefit o####uaranteed pro contract. In any event, I can only hope that such sacrifices don’t go unnoticed. In the rush to celebrate the transitory nature of scoreboard results, we shouldn’t forget to value the people over the games they play.
It doesn’t matter who you are or who your favorite team is. At some point, your rooting spirit will get crushed. Sure, there may well be championship glory to celebrate. However, no team wins a championship every year. Eventually, there will be a moment when hope vanishes and championship dreams turn to dust. For the second-ranked Oregon Ducks, that moment happened the instant Oregon’s all-everything QB Dennis Dixon limped off the field last night in Tucson, taking the team’s national championship hopes with him during the first quarter of Oregon’s 34-24 loss to Arizona.
Dixon, the Heisman Trophy favorite and the multi-threat trigger man for Oregon’s lethal spread offense, had already stunned the Wildcats with a 39-yard TD bolt straight up the middle of the field on a 4th-and-3 to start the game. He then drove the team back into the red zone on the Ducks’ next series before a pass bouncing out of WR Derrick Jones’ hands was intercepted in the end zone. While Arizona capitalized on the mistake with a score of their own, a 34-yard TD strike from Willie Tuitama to Mike Thomas, it was what happened on Oregon’s next drive that ultimately determined the game, dashed the Ducks’ dream season, and caused yet another shake-up to the BCS picture.
Driving Oregon into the red zone yet again, Dixon ran an option play, but something went horribly wrong. His knee buckled, and he fell to the turf in a heap. Where a similar sight two weeks before against Arizona State only turned out to be a sizable scare, this time the injury was very real. And Oregon’s high-powered offense came to screeching, ear-splitting halt.
Enter backup QB Brady Leaf. Exit any and all chance for the Ducks to win the game.
Because you cannot take a Ferrari off the racetrack, replace it with a Prius, and expect to win the race. Almost as if on cue, Leaf threw a back-breaking interception on Oregon’s very next series. Arizona’s star CB Antoine Cason jumped a route on a short third-down pass and took the ball 42 yards for a TD and the first lead of the game for the Wildcats, 17-11. Momentum was in full force for Arizona, and the Ducks looked dizzy from how quickly their fortunes had spun on them.
And they simply didn’t stop spinning.
Tuitama burned the Oregon secondary again. This time, on a third-and-long, he again found Mike Thomas, who split the coverage and caught a brilliantly thrown pass from Tuitama in the seam before streaking past flailing defenders 46 yards for a score. Thomas finished the game with 6 catches for a game-high 125 yards and the two big TD’s, and he wasn’t alone in making big plays for the Wildcats.
Just 10 minutes after he stunned Oregon with an interception return for a TD, Antoine Cason stunned the Ducks a second time. He took an Oregon punt 56 yards to the house to give Arizona a commanding 31-11 lead. Just like that, the Wildcats had dropped 24 straight points on the Ducks. Knowing that Oregon was wounded and reeling without their superstar QB, Arizona had swarmed in to take advantage.
Down 20 and left with a single weapon in the backfield, star RB Jonathan Stewart, Oregon gamely attempted a second half comeback. Stewart, who finished with 131 yards on 28 carries, just kept churning upfield. However, the Arizona defense, led by senior LB Spencer Larsen, knew that, besides Stewart, Oregon’s offensive cupboard was bare. So, they turned up the heat on the Oregon star.
With Stewart reasonably contained, the Wildcats openly challenged Leaf to make plays. And he couldn’t. Where Dixon had been able to run circles around defenses to buy time or burst into the open field, the cement-footed Leaf could only try to get the ball downfield with his arm and a depleted receiving corps. Arizona’s secondary, playing with house money and a 20-point lead, refused to yield the big plays Leaf and the rest of the Ducks needed to get back into the game.
Though Oregon did close to within 31-24 late in the fourth quarter, the long, painstaking drives that were required for those closing points drained too much off the clock. Without the ability to strike quickly, as they had done for much of the season under Dixon’s scary precision, Oregon just had too little to make up too much.
As Arizona students mobbed the field and the Ducks’ BCS title dreams evaporated, there was little solace to be found in what might have been. While no team ever wants to lose, they can only hope that such losses occur with their best. The added bitterness in Oregon’s meltdown in Tucson was that their best was in street clothes for three-and-a-half quarters
However, give Arizona credit. They took down the #2-ranked team in the nation by knowing exactly where the Ducks were vulnerable and keeping their foot on the wound until Oregon simply could not get back up. That the dream season in Eugene is gone is heartbreaking, for sure. The wild ride that was Oregon’s exhilarating dash to the cusp of college football’s apex still had its moments, and there is gratitude in that. It’s just a shame that the one moment still fresh in everyone’s mind is the sight of the team’s best player not being able to finish what he had worked so tirelessly to help create.
Greatness isn’t something that has come easily or often to the University of Oregon’s football program. So, this year’s thrilling high-speed chase all the way up to #2 in the BCS rankings has been all the more dizzying, because of its freshness and the crisp, clean smell of championship hope. It is new and exciting and, with every passing week, closer to being a reality.
However, while the reality of team greatness may have made only spotty appearances in Eugene over the years, individual football greatness has been painted across the school’s history for decades in wide, rich strokes. So, as this year’s team continues to chase the collective glory of a national title, perhaps, they can draw some inspiration from the proud lineage of great players who have lined up in the green and yellow of the University of Oregon in years past.
QB – Dan Fouts (1970-1972)
A future Hall of Fame NFL QB, Fouts threw for 5,995 yards and 37 TD’s in his career at Oregon. Along the way, the skinny kid from San Francisco who slipped through the recruiting nets of every school except one, set 19 records for that school and became the first QB in the program’s history to pass for more than 2,000 yards in a season. As a pro, Fouts spent his entire 15-year career with the San Diego Chargers - starting as a rookie apprentice to the great Johnny Unitas and finishing with 43,040 career passing yards, 254 TD’s, six Pro Bowl appearances, and a bronze bust in Canton.
DE/OG – Dave Wilcox (1962-1963)
A rangy, athletic end on defense and bruising guard on offense, Wilcox was relentless in his desire to excel at his job. And the native of Vale, Oregon with the lunch pail mentality was definitely good at his job. Invited to the Hula Bowl after his senior year, he became the first defensive player to earn outstanding lineman honors in the game’s history. As a pro, Wilcox moved to linebacker and carved out an eventual Hall of Fame NFL career. He was named to seven Pro Bowls and, true to his tough Eastern Oregon background, only missed one game in his 11 years as a pro, spending his entire career with the San Francisco 49ers.
RB – Mel Renfro (1961-1963)
Mel Renfro was fast. So fast, in fact, that he was an All-American track star at one of the nation’s preeminent track schools. However, unlike many track stars who tried but failed to translate that speed to success on the football field, Renfro was able to make that transition spectacularly. An electrifying running back, Renfro climbed to third on Oregon’s all-time points list (141) and seventh on the all-time rushing list (1,532) during his career with the Ducks. Moved to cornerback in the NFL, he spent his entire 14-year pro career with Dallas, making 10 Pro Bowls and finishing with 52 career interceptions (3 for TD’s). He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
QB – Norm Van Brocklin (1947-1948)
No one could ever accuse Norm Van Brocklin of not trying. In fact, were anyone ever to even have made the suggestion, the fiery QB nicknamed the “Dutchman” would likely have punched his lights out, because that’s the way Van Brocklin handled things on the football field. He fought for every yard he gained, for every pass he completed, and for every score he put on the board. At the end of his two-year Oregon career, that fight yielded 1,949 passing yards, 18 TD’s, and a berth in the 1948 Cotton Bowl. In the NFL, he never stopped fighting. In a 12-year pro career, he threw for 23,611 yards and 173 TD’s with Rams and Eagles. And that competitive fire led him all the way to Canton.
WR/RB – Bobby Moore (1969-1971)
Long before he married Mrs. Huxtable, the benign sports personality now known as Ahmad Rashad was plain old Bobby Moore. However, there was nothing plain about his game on a football field. During a spectacular college career, Moore set 14 school records at Oregon, including the single-game rushing (249), season rushing (1,211), and career rushing (2,306) marks. He also set the single-season records for pass receptions (54) and career catches (131). And in excelling as both a running back and wide receiver, Moore led the Pac-8 in scoring in 1969 and 1970 from two different positions, the first conference player ever to do that. As a pro, he made four Pro Bowls in 10 NFL seasons, finishing his productive career with 495 catches for 6,831 yards and 44 TD’s.
TE – Russ Francis (1972-1974)
The Hawaiian-born Francis was such a gifted athlete that he was drafted by both the NFL and MLB. However, the playmaking TE was also an enigma. A free spirit who somehow balanced the easy-going attitude of the Islands with the white-knuckle intensity of the gridiron, Francis missed his entire sophomore season with an ankle injury, came back as a junior and earned All-conference and honorable mention All-American honors with 31 catches for 485 yards, and then elected not to play during his senior year. Despite missing his final season, he still held enough promise to be a first-round selection by the New England Patriots. In a 14-year pro career with New England and San Francisco, Francis made 3 Pro Bowls, missed the playoffs one season because of a motorcycle accident, retired and un-retired, made a cameo as a pro wrestler, and finished his quirky but occasionally brilliant NFL career with 393 catches, 5,262 yards, and 40 TD’s.
OT – Gary Zimmerman (1980-1983)
Gary Zimmerman was probably the school’s greatest offensive lineman. At 6’6”, 294 pounds, Zimmerman was a hulking figure who used his size and speed to frustrate opponents. However, his height also mandated exceptional technique, because tall linemen have a higher tipping point. Few knocked Zimmerman over, though. Through technique and sheer toughness, he simply wouldn’t allow it. He ended up parlaying his exceptional college career into a brilliant 12-year NFL stint with Minnesota and Denver that included seven Pro Bowls.
In later years, each decade had its moments and star players with each seemingly leading to bigger and better things.
The 80's brought Chris Miller throwing deep to Lew Barnes, Bill Musgrave pitching the ball to Derek Loville, and Doug Judge knocking the snot out of the people in the secondary. The decade also brought increasing respectability to the program with successive winning records and mid-level bowl bids.
The 90's brought even more success, culminating in the school's first Rose Bowl berth in 37 years following the 1994 season. Though the Ducks fell 38-20 to that year's co-National Champion Penn State Nittany Lions, Oregon QB Danny O'Neill set Rose Bowl records for pass attempts (61), completions (41), and passing yards (456). And 11 of those completions were made by TE Josh Wilcox, Dave's son, carrying on the family name on the Oregon gridiron. However, that Rose Bowl appearance would not have possible in the first place had it not been for a stunning defensive play by a freshman DB. Now simply know as "The Pick", cornerback Kenny Wheaton intercepted a Damon Huard pass near the Oregon goal line and streaked 98 yards for a game-sealing TD against the highly-ranked Washington Huskies.
Aside from the team's magical Rose Bowl run, the decade also brought higher expectations. Bowl bids were now expected, and the level of bowl game became the focus rather than just the invite itself. Greater visibility also brought a higher level of talent to the program. Ricky Whittle, Saladin McCullough, and Rueben Droughns were all 1,000-yard runners for the Ducks in the 90's. Akili Smith and A.J. Feeley starred at QB, and it was Smith who first opened up the Oregon offense to a legitimate pass-run QB. Defensively, Chad Cota and Alex Molden roamed the secondary, and Peter Sirmon, Jeremy Asher, and Rich Rule swept the middle of the field.
In the new millennium, "Captain Comeback" Joey Harrington, whose father John had been an Oregon QB under legendary coach Len Casanova in the 60's, did something his father or few others ever had for the school's program - he openly entered the Ducks into the National Championship conversation. In 2001, Harrington led Oregon to an 11-1 record and a 38-16 win over Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl and an eventual #2 national ranking. WR Keenan Howry, RB Maurice Morris, RB Onterrio Smith (Mr. Wizzinator himself), and DB Steve Smith (who snared a Fiesta Bowl-record three interceptions) all helped to make the Ducks one of the most dangerous teams in the country.
Kellen Clemens followed Harrington at QB, Terence Whitehead inherited the RB job, Demetrius Williams claimed the WR spot, and Haloti Ngata, JD Nelson, and Blair Phillips were the new defensive stalwarts.
However, 2007 has been another thing entirely. QB Dennis Dixon and RB Jonathan Stewart have brought the team as close to a National Championship opportunity as the school has had in years. And Dixon is the current frontrunner to bring home Oregon’s first Heisman trophy. Stewart hasn’t been too shabby, either, running for a school-record 251 yards earlier in the year and climbing to 5th on Oregon’s all-time rushing list.
It is rarified air that is circulating around Eugene these days. Though, with three conference games left on the schedule including the bitter Civil War game remaining with Oregon State, there is so much more to be done before anyone in Eugene can take a deep breath of that air.
However, the current team needs to look no further than the program’s four Hall of Famers – Fouts, Wilcox, Renfro, and Van Brocklin – to know that greatness has visited the Oregon campus before. They just have three weeks to bring it back.
Playing a team with a mascot sporting horns and a pitchfork just three days after Halloween, the Oregon football team had to know they were going to get a scare in their big Pac-10 showdown with the undefeated Arizona State Sun Devils on Saturday. They probably just didn't realize how big that scare would be.
Early in the fourth quarter, Oregon's star QB and Heisman candidate Dennis Dixon darted from the pocket and ran for 11 yards and a first down. At the end of the play, Dixon's leg twisted awkwardly and he immediately clutched at his knee. For Oregon players, coaches, and fans, few Halloween horrors could rival the sight of Dennis Dixon grabbing his knee in pain. Rollicking Autzen Stadium, one of the loudest venues in the country, went instantly silent.
With the Ducks leading comfortably 35-16 at the time, few in the sold-out stadium were in the mood for celebrating as Dixon hobbled off the field. Oregon's senior QB has been an unquestioned team leader this season, and his lethal pass-run threat has fueled the offense to nearly unprecedented heights. As further proof of that, Dixon had thrown for 189 yards and 4 TD's without an interception and rushed for another 57 yards at that point in the game. The vaunted ASU defense simply had not been able to contain him, and he had directed Oregon to five scores and a 19-point lead against the #4 team in the country. To say that the Ducks would be a far less dangerous team without him in the lineup is one of the more massive understatements in college football.
So, when Dixon limped off the field, nearly all of Oregon’s lofty hopes went with him and rested squarely on how badly Dixon's knee had been hurt. Luckily, Oregon's star QB was seen strolling the sidelines without visible pain shortly after and even jogged off the field in the closing seconds of the game as his backup, Brady Leaf, handled things for the Ducks in the final clock-killing drives of the contest. And it's a good thing Dixon's knee injury appears to be only a minor mishap, because Oregon's offense goes from high-octane to garden variety unleaded without him.
As for Oregon's big 35-23 win over the previously undefeated Sun Devils, the tone for the game may have been set on the Ducks' very first play from scrimmage. Boxing legend Roberto Duran had the nickname "Hands of Stone" as a testament to his punishing punching power. Oregon's star-crossed WR Jaison Williams has earned a similar nickname but with a far less positive connotation. Williams has dropped so many passes in his career with the Ducks that his unreliability has nearly become the stuff of legend. However, on the first play from scrimmage against the stout Sun Devils' defense, Dixon found Williams for 43 yards.
Later in the same drive, Dixon found his big WR for a 26-yard score. Just like that, Oregon took a 7-0 lead and established Jaison Williams as a legitimate scoring threat. By the stretching the field early, they also created running space, and on their next drive, they took advantage of that running room by giving the ball to Jonathan Stewart and allowed the big RB to push forward. Between Stewart and Dixon, they ran the ball seven times for 41 yards and set-up a 3rd-and-5 at the ASU 13. And it was Stewart who finished the drive by taking a beautifully executed screen pass and powered his way into the end zone.
With the huge home crowd roaring, Oregon’s defense stopped the Sun Devils on their next drive and forced a punt. However, DB Patrick Chung knocked down the punter for an apparent 15-yard penalty and an ASU first down. It would have been a huge momentum shift, except the Sun Devils were called for an illegal formation as well, and the infraction offset the bigger Oregon penalty. So, the Ducks got the ball back and wasted little time in cashing in on their good fortune.
This time it was all Dennis Dixon. The dual-threat QB ran for 19 yards on three carries and completed all four of his passes on the drive for the other 56 yards, and it was much-maligned Jaison Williams again finding the end zone on a 27-yard strike right down the middle of the field. On the play, Dixon pulled two ASU defenders forward with a terrific pump fake, and Williams ran right by them, wide open. Williams, who finished with five catches for 106 yards and the two big TD’s, was found money for Oregon. So little was expected of him coming into the game that his profound early impact put an exclamation point on just how much was going right for Mike Bellotti’s team in the biggest game of the year.
Just over a minute into the second quarter, the Ducks were up 21-3 and were firing on all cylinders. Conversely, the Sun Devils were in trouble and knew that if they fell behind any further the game was likely over. However, ASU had been on the wrong side of the score at some point in nearly all of their games this year and never withered. Their undefeated season was peppered with big comebacks, so an early 18-point deficit seemed oddly routine to them. And true to that pattern, Dennis Erickson’s team came roaring back.
Even though ASU QB Rudy Carpenter had an injured thumb and the score dictated upsetting the pass-run balance that had been the cornerstone of the Sun Devil’s offense, Carpenter started to get the ball downfield and his receivers started making plays for him. With a TD practically a necessity for ASU, Carpenter delivered. A 31-yard pass to TE Tyrice Thompson down the middle of the field put the Sun Devils squarely on the Oregon side of the field. Four plays later, Carpenter hit WR Michael Jones for a 26-yard score, and ASU had the answer they absolutely had to have.
The score also seemed to energize the Sun Devil defense, because they forced a pair of three-and-outs and recovered a fumble on a third series when Dixon mishandled a play fake. Momentum was shifting, and ASU, who had closed the score to 21-13, had a chance to shorten that gap even further with the ball at the Oregon 49 and just over three minutes left in the first half.
With no timeouts left and the clock ticking, the Sun Devils drove all the way down to the Oregon 13. With under a minute to go and time draining off the scoreboard like so much water escaping from a leaky bucket, Carpenter knocked that bucket over. With a chance for a game-changing TD, ASU imploded. Frantically trying to get a play signaled in from the sideline, Carpenter allowed precious seconds to tick away. When they finally got the play off, it was an odd choice. RB Dimitri Nance was stuffed on an inside run and knocked back two yards. With less than 10 seconds left, Carpenter now spiked the ball and set up a field goal try without having taken a legitimate try for six. As punctuation for the botched red zone opportunity, ASU kicker Thomas Weber missed the field goal attempt, pulling the 32-yard try wide.
The amount of wind that seemed to empty from ASU’s sails in those final seconds of the half never came back. Although they took their first drive of the second half for three points and closed to within 21-16, the huge momentum swing that would have surged their way with a TD, or even another field goal, before halftime had some carryover when it didn’t happen.
And with a chance for Oregon to slam the door shut once and for all, Jonathan Stewart did so – with a running start. Stewart, who finished with 99 yards on 21 carries, broke through the ASU defense and thundered 33 yards for a TD, putting the Ducks back up by 12, the margin that would mark the final score (even after the teams traded late TD’s).
Stewart’s score forced ASU back into a pass-heavy offense, and Oregon’s uneven pass defense had a chance to shine. DE Nick Reed entered the game with 7.5 sacks for the season and has been the only consistent pass rusher for the Ducks for most of the year. Against the Sun Devils, it was Reed who again brought the heat. On a day Oregon sacked Carpenter nine times, Reed registered 3.5 of them (bringing his season total to a Pac-10 leading 11 sacks) and forced ASU to account for him every time Carpenter dropped back to pass.
Although the Sun Devils had moved the ball well all game long, gaining 489 yards in total offense, the combination of the increased pass pressure and the need to fight the clock, the scoreboard, the raucous partisan crowd, and a fired-up Oregon defense finally seemed to catch up with them. Carpenter, who had a truly gutsy performance and balanced all of those sacks and his injured thumb by throwing for 379 yards and 2 TD’s, made the one mistake that sealed things. With ASU again in the Oregon red zone with one last chance to get back into the game, Carpenter was again pressured and made a wild throw on the run. Whether a receiver broke off a pattern or Carpenter made an awful read, the pass fluttered into the end zone right in the middle of three Oregon defenders. Without an ASU player in sight, DB Walter Thurmond III made the easy interception and ended any remaining drama.
With the win, Oregon has played itself right into the National Championship picture. Currently at #3 in the BCS rankings, they have a chance to edge their way into the title game should either team ahead of them stumble. However, thinking that far ahead is deadly in college football these days. Instead, the Ducks just need to keep playing as they have and let the rest sort itself out. A much needed bye week may strengthen that perspective. If nothing else, it is also seven more crucial days for Dennis Dixon’s knee to avoid the rigors of a live football game. And with so much riding on what’s left of Oregon’s season, any thought of the Ducks trying to forge ahead without their star QB leading the way is far scarier than anything seen on Halloween night.
It's official. Jonathan Stewart definitely has game.
For the second week in a row, Oregon's superstar RB simply refused to be stopped. And that refusal was never more apparent than on the final play of the third quarter in the Ducks' 24-17 win over USC at Autzen Stadium on Saturday. Stewart, who had shredded Washington's defense for a career-high 251 yards just a week earlier, got the call on a crucial 3rd-and-14 and ran directly into the Trojans' nationally-ranked run defense. Churning straight upfield, Stewart appeared to be stopped well short of a first down. However, appearances can be deceiving, because they tend to discount the extraordinary. And Stewart's third down run was extraordinary.
Oregon's junior RB took the contact of no less than seven USC defenders, dragging a number of them forward to a fresh set of downs for the Ducks. A seemingly impossible first down suddenly became reality, and, on a day full of momentum shifts, it shifted again. Oregon, with a 7-point lead over USC at the time, was looking to pull away. Fittingly, Stewart, who had 103 rushing yards on the day, finished the job with a 1-yard TD plunge to give the Ducks a 24-10 lead.
However, with the Ducks up 24-10 and just over 10 minutes left in the game, Oregon's coaching staff took their foot off the gas, and the team's high-octane offense stalled. Lamborghini's are simply not supposed to idle. However, the guys wearing the headsets had spoken - time was now more important than scores - and that seemed to be that.
Oregon's defense, which had shown itself to be both stifling and pedestrian in alternate weeks leading up to the USC game, had dug itself in nicely against the Trojans. In the first half they had allowed just 3 points despite the fact that a pair of special team turnovers had given USC the ball deep in Oregon territory.
And, ultimately, it was what was done or not done with those gifts that defined the game. That pair of Oregon turnovers, which included a fumble on the opening kickoff, only led to three points for the USC. In fact, the Trojans further compounded matters with a self - destructive holding penalty on a separate series that nullified a long TD run by freshman sensation Joe McKnight.
Meanwhile, USC had committed a pair of turnovers themselves in the second half, and the Ducks converted both into touchdowns. The first, a Stanley Havili fumble at the USC 16, was a backbreaker, because it happened with the game tied at 10-10 and led directly to a TD run by Stewart just two plays later. The second, a Mark Sanchez interception, ended a promising USC drive that could have re-tied the game and set the scene for Stewart's dramatic third quarter run.
So, down by 14 and time, a thundering crowd and an equally thundering defense against them, USC needed to make something happen quickly. Just how quickly they did stunned not only the big partisan crowd and the Oregon defense but probably themselves just a little as well.
In just 48 seconds, Sanchez fired five passes, completed four of them, and drove the Trojans 85 yards to a startlingly efficient score - a beautifully thrown 14-yard TD pass to David Ausberry. In fact, a pass interference penalty was called on the play. Such was the methodically unstoppable nature of that drive, it couldn't even be denied by illegal contact.
With the Ducks reeling just a little and the Trojans definitely rolling, Oregon needed to string together some first downs to drain what was left of the game clock. Oregon QB Dennis Dixon had been showing his versatility all game long. He'd completed nearly two-thirds of his pass attempts, hadn't turned the ball over a single time and had escaped USC's defensive pressure time and again on the way to 76 yards running. His elusiveness had been maddening to the Trojans. Every time they thought they had him pinned down, Dixon simply outran the pursuit to either buy time for his receivers or to get positive yards himself.
However, among the Oregon receivers, only two had really distinguished themselves. In the wake of season-ending injuries to star WR's Brian Paysinger and Cameron Colvin, TE Ed Dickson had elevated his game and established himself as a dangerous pass threat. Against the Trojans, Dickson became Oregon's most reliable pass catching weapon, hauling in five throws for 69 yards. Freshman WR Aaron Pflugrad also showed some grit. The undersized young wide-out, who's more Wayne Chrebet than Reggie Wayne, somehow found open spaces and made a pair of big catches despite getting creamed on both.
Unfortunately for Oregon, the team's most talented WR, big Jaison Williams, simply hasn't turned his seemingly limitless potential into performance often enough for the Ducks. The USC game was no exception. With the game on the line and Oregon starving for time-consuming first downs, Williams had a chance to make a big play but didn't. On third-and-5 with less than four minutes to go, Dennis Dixon once again escaped USC's pass rush and made a perfect throw to Williams. However, Williams, whose problems with dropped passes are becoming the stuff of legend among the Duck faithful, literally let the ball hit him in the numbers before bouncing to the turf. Goodbye, game-sealing first down; hello, frantic nail-biting finish.
With USC's confidence soaring, the Trojans got the ball back with plenty of time and a pair of timeouts to take a legitimate shot at tying the game. And Mark Sanchez had found a groove. However, the team's leading receiver, TE Fred Davis had been effectively shut down by Oregon's defense. Davis, who entered the game with a team-high 34 catches for 538 yards and 5 TD's, had been held to just a single catch for 11 yards against the Ducks. Instead, WR's Patrick Turner and Videl Hazelton had been Sanchez's go-to guys. Turner finished the game with 7 catches for 107 yards and a score, while Hazelton paced USC with 8 receptions.
So, with the team’s young QB now throwing the ball with some authority and 82 yards to go for a game-tying score, the Trojans curiously called two straight running plays that netted just 4 yards. A short pass to Hazelton on third down set up a 4th-and-2 at the USC 26. Although McKnight converted with a 7-yard run, another short pass on first down only brought the Trojans to their own 37, and they had burned nearly two minutes off the clock in gaining just over 20 of the 80-plus yards they needed to extend the game.
With a new sense of urgency, Sanchez started to throw the ball downfield. He found Hazelton for 17 and McKnight for another 10. They were on the Oregon side of the field now, but the clock was running dry. They needed a big play. So, Sanchez turned to USC’s big play guy, Fred Davis, to make something happen. However, the Oregon defense knew how much Davis meant to the Trojans offense and had held him in check all day long. So, when Sanchez decided to force a pass to Davis, he threw into triple coverage. Nickel DB Matthew Harper jumped the route and made the interception, sealing the game for Oregon.
It was a big win for the Ducks, who have been surging in recent weeks (jumping all the way to #5 in the BCS rankings), but they have little time to savor the victory. The undefeated Arizona State Sun Devils come to Autzen Stadium this weekend for a game that will likely determine the Pac-10 race and have some significant influence on the BCS Title Game picture. So, any breaths that need to be caught had better be done as such quickly, because one big game begets another.
Oregon is just fortunate that their star running back has found his game and that it appears to be unstoppable enough to make running on 3rd-and-14 seem like a smart thing to do.
It looks like Jonathan Stewart was up to the challenge, after all.
In the wake of a season-ending injury to his teammate and fellow star RB, Jeremiah Johnson, in Oregon’s lopsided win over Washington State last week, there was some question as to whether or not, Stewart, the Ducks’ supremely gifted junior RB would be able to shoulder the load of Oregon’s rushing attack without the help of Johnson. Consider that question answered – to the tune of 251 yards.
In Oregon’s 55-34 win against Washington on Saturday, Stewart set career-highs for carries (32) and yards (251) and found the end zone twice in helping the Ducks improve to 6-1 on the season. Perhaps, playing the Huskies provided extra motivation for Oregon’s superstar RB, because they always seem to get Stewart’s best efforts. In 2006, Stewart, from nearby Lacey, WA, had one of his biggest games of the year against his hometown team, running for 159 yards and 2 TD’s. A year later, he improved that by almost 100 yards. And the locals had to be impressed. Not only did Stewart obliterate his previous career-high for rushing yards (168), he nearly doubled the number of carries he’d been averaging coming into the game (16.5). It was a big effort on a day that his team needed that from him.
And Stewart wasn’t alone. Oregon’s rushing attack was simply unstoppable. With Stewart leading the way, the Ducks rolled up a school-record 465 yards on the ground and left little doubt that whoever was carrying the ball for Oregon was likely to move it forward in sizeable chunks. Johnson’s replacement, sophomore Andre Crenshaw, spelled Stewart and also set career-highs in carries and yards, picking up 113 yards on 15 carries and two scores.
QB Dennis Dixon joined the party as well. While Oregon’s senior QB is enjoying a stellar season so far in 2007, his rushing totals had been fairly stagnant the past three games. Although he’d scored a rushing TD in each of those games, he had done so while gaining a modest 48 yards on 24 carries. The danger he had flashed as a runner in the first two games of the year, a remarkable 141-yard effort in the season opener against Houston and a 76-yard day against Michigan in Ann Arbor, had seemingly disappeared in recent weeks. That danger returned against the Huskies as Dixon added 99 yards and a TD of his own to Oregon’s gaudy rushing totals. And that TD, his 7th of the season, kept his impressive string of scoring exactly one TD in each of the Ducks’ seven games this year alive.
Credit for Oregon’s devastating day running the football in Seattle should also include the team’s veteran offensive line. Senior tackles Geoff Schwartz and Fenuki Tupou, senior guard Josh Tschirgi, junior guard Mark Lewis, and junior center Max Unger have been doing this all year long. Whether pass protecting for Dixon (and yielding less than two sacks a game) or creating space for Stewart and company to do their thing (at a 295-yard per game clip, 3rd best in the nation), the guys in the offensive trenches for the Ducks are an elite group.
And Oregon needed their running game to come up big as the team’s already depleted receiving corps thinned out even more before game time. Sophomore WR Derrick Jones was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. While specifics of that violation were not disclosed, an indefinite suspension implies something serious. And with Cameron Colvin and Brian Paysinger out for the year with injuries, Jones’ suspension reduced the team’s depth at WR considerably.
However, the Ducks’ overwhelming success on the ground allowed Dixon a chance to keep the Huskies off-balance with the pass, and he was able to spread the ball around to the few available receivers in uniform. Jaison Williams, Garren Strong, and freshman Aaron Pflugrad all had five catches apiece for between 50 and 60 total receiving yards each, and Strong caught Dixon’s only TD pass of the game, a 2-yard score for the game’s first points. In all, Dixon completed 19 of 30 passes for 196 yards and one TD with one interception (a desperation toss-up on the final play of the first half).
Truly, the only sour notes on a day filled with upbeat ones were played by the Oregon defense.
On a day full of big plays, the Ducks’ secondary was burned for four long TD passes. Washington QB Jake Locker, a redshirt freshman who seems to have the trappings of a star in the making, was spectacular against Oregon. Although he completed just 12 of 31 passes, four of those completions were daggers. One, a stunning 83-yard score to Anthony Russo, kept the Ducks from blowing the game open in the 1st quarter. Two others, a pair of TD passes in the third quarter (43 yards to Louis Rankin and 38 yards to Marcel Reese), tied the game at 31. Locker, who finished the game with 257 yards passing and 4 TD’s, also ran for 78 yards and seemed to single-handedly keep the Huskies in the game until 24 fourth quarter points by the Ducks finally put things out of reach. However, Locker’s effort led to 421 yards in total offense and 34 points for the Huskies, and, for three quarters, matched Oregon’s high-octane offense score-for-score.
Defensively, the Ducks couldn’t have looked more different than they did a week earlier in manhandling Washington State, 53-7. In that game, DE Nick Reed dominated play, recording 3.5 sacks and five tackles for loss. Against the Huskies, Reed was essentially shut-out, limited to only 3 assists. And the rest of the defense seemed to follow suit. They simply could not keep Washington off the scoreboard. With USC and Arizona State looming for the Ducks, their inconsistent defense had better find their footing – and fast.
Fortunately, the Oregon offense ultimately settled things in Seattle - 661 yards in total offense and 55 points were just too much for the Huskies to match. And visions of Oregon running backs burning up and down the field must have stayed with the Washington defense long after the game ended. After all, on a day when one of Seattle’s own made a triumphant return home, his team’s historic day at Husky Stadium had to leave some sort of lasting impression.
So much for a letdown by the University of Oregon’s football team.
After a gut-wrenching loss to Cal that ended when a potential game-tying touchdown was fumbled out of the end zone in the closing seconds, the Oregon Ducks probably had to at least consider the possibility that losing such a close game with so much on the line might have some carryover. Just to emphasize the point, a bye week brought them seven more days to ponder the situation.
As it turned out, the extra time likely did little more than get them good and angry for the next team that happened to get in the way. Enter the struggling Washington State Cougars. Bill Doba’s team was winless in conference play (0-3) with a defense that was reeling, especially on the road. In the Cougars’ previous three road games, they had given up at least 40 points in each. Add to that the fact that Oregon’s Autzen Stadium is one of the tougher venues in the conference in which to play, and the formula for the game seemed set.
So, what happens when an angry offensive juggernaut takes on a flailing defense?
As befitting a team from Oregon, the Ducks made it rain. There were points and touchdown passes and fast players in yellow and green uniforms covering the field all afternoon long. In football terms, Oregon made the sky open up and the resulting thunder and lightning was impressive to watch.
Oregon QB Dennis Dixon rebounded nicely from a disappointing two-interception performance against Cal, completing 21 of his 28 passes against the Cougars for 287 yards and 3 TD’s. More importantly, he avoided throwing any picks, the fifth time he’s done so in six games this year. For the season, Dixon’s numbers look even more gaudy – 1,525 passing yards, a 70.2% completion rate, 15 TD’s, and only 2 interceptions.
As if to punctuate his danger on a football field, Dixon also ran in for a score, his team-leading sixth rushing TD this season.
With Dixon doing most of the work offensively, star RB Jonathan Stewart put in a workmanlike day at the office, 66 yards on 13 carries (a 5.1 per carry average) and spent most of the day watching his teammates deliver the beating.
One of those teammates was Stewart’s understudy at RB, Jeremiah Johnson. Johnson bolted to two 1st quarter scores, including a 42-yard TD run that opened the scoring. However, if anything could put a damper on what would eventually wind up a ringing 53-7 conference win, it was the sight of Oregon’s talented backup RB being carted off the field with a knee injury. Johnson, who had gained 63 yards on just 4 carries up to that point, wrenched his knee in the second quarter and could miss the rest of the season.
And it is a big loss. Johnson’s numbers for the year – 344 rushing yards (at 6.4 yards per carry) and 5 TD’s – will be very difficult to replace. More than that, it was Johnson’s quickness and elusiveness that provided such an effective contrast in running styles to the power and straight-ahead speed of Stewart. The burden of replacing Johnson now falls to a pair of sophomores, Andre Crenshaw and Remene Alston. Crenshaw, in particular, has looked good at times this year, gaining 156 yards in limited duty. However, neither he nor Alston ran particularly well against Washington State. Alston was held to 26 yards on 13 carries, and Crenshaw gained just 24 on nine carries.
With the shadow of Johnson’s injury hanging over the team, they will also have to deal with WR Cameron Colvin being lost for the year with a broken ankle. Colvin, who made the ill-fated fumble against Cal, has had a star-crossed career at Oregon. Though the potential for stardom was always there, the talented senior WR never seemed to be able to reach that level. Sadly, Colvin was making a final push to get there this year, having a pair of his best games for the Ducks before he got hurt.
In Colvin’s absence, big Jaison Williams made one of his sporadic appearances in the spotlight. Ever the game-breaking threat, Williams has spent most of his career at Oregon as more abstract promise than actual dagger. However, as he has been known to do, Williams again flashed a glimpse of his remarkable ability, hauling in four passes for 108 yards and a score, a 52-yard home run in the second quarter that pushed the score to 33-0.
However, with Colvin now out and Brian Paysinger also out from earlier in the year, it is imperative for Williams to be a consistent threat. His history of sporadic play and dropped passes suggests such a leap to consistent stardom may not be in the cards, but if he can get there, he’ll be able to mitigate the losses of Colvin and Paysinger a great deal.
Sophomore WR Derrick Jones, an emerging star, and TE Ed Dickson will also be around to help. In recent weeks, Dickson has become
