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.

 

Stats:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/gameTrax?gameId=200710200065

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/boxscore?gameId=200710200065

http://www.cfbstats.com/2007/player/529/79040/rushing/gamelog.html

http://www.cfbstats.com/2006/player/529/79040/rushing/gamelog.html

http://www.cfbstats.com/2007/player/529/79026/rushing/gamelog.html

http://www.cfbstats.com/2007/player/529/77003/rushing/gamelog.html

http://www.cfbstats.com/2007/team/529/rushing/index.html

http://www.cfbstats.com/2007/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category01/sort01.html

 

Other:

http://oregon.rivals.com/cdepthtext.asp

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=173412

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2003962401_webducks19.html?syndication=rss