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The Ducks scored on every single drive Anthony Brown Jr. played and finally did what a top-10 team should do to a team like Colorado
(Eric Evans/GoDucks.com)
EUGENE — With two minutes to play at Autzen Stadium the student section had cleared out.
The score was lopsided and boos began to cascade down from those who remained here on this homecoming afternoon. Just hours earlier, the place was a joyful mess as Oregon paraded around legends from yesteryear — first Marcus Mariota and Hroniss Grasu, then Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally and so on — and it was just a week ago that a hot mic caught Oregon coach Mario Cristobal telling fans that he didn’t want to “hear that shit anymore,” in regards to booing.
Yet here they came again, beginning faintly and then picking up steam as the man drawing their ire took center stage. But this time it was a referee, who after replay review had just ruled what would have been Anthony Brown Jr.’s fourth touchdown pass of the day came from an illegal formation.
No problem. The Ducks took the penalty, moved back to Colorado’s 14-yard line and then scored three plays later when Seven McGee punched it in for six from one-yard out to punctuate No. 7 Oregon’s 52-29 thumping of Colorado.
In a way, Saturday came with a slight twinge of déjà vu from those Mariota years, when it seemingly felt like only the guys in stripes could halt the offense.
These Ducks put up a season-high 568 yards. They had 15 first downs rushing. They had 15 first downs passing. They scored on every single drive Brown commanded the offense. They did what the No. 7 team in the country should do to a team like Colorado, who came into Saturday having wins over Northern Colorado of the FCS and Arizona of the Pac-12 South. The Ducks stomped them, improved to 7-1 and for one of the few times this season made fans reach hard to come up with any really legitimate gripes.
“We improved in a lot of areas offensively,” Cristobal said. “…All in all, some positive steps and plenty of stuff to clean up and get better at.”
Brown had the best game of his career, passing for 307 yards and three touchdowns while adding another 38 yards on the ground. Between the third and fourth quarters as Oregon fans sang along with “Shout,” Brown, who rarely even lets himself crack a smile on the field, was among his teammates dancing. For weeks, critics have called for Ty Thompson to replace him.
Brown made sure the backup got his reps with a nearly flawless performance.
And when Thompson threw an interception in garbage time and Colorado scored and, for a fleeting moment, the game felt closer than it needed to be, Cristobal put Brown back in.
“The conversation? There’s really no conversation to be had there,” Cristobal said of the change. “All of a sudden we let a lot of guys play and it’s a 16-point game.
“I wanted to make sure it was a three-score game.”
Brown’s performance wasn’t an outlier among the offense. Travis Dye rushed for two touchdowns and caught another. True freshman Byron Cardwell added 127 yards on seven carries — including a 34-yard touchdown run along the right side that, while wearing a yellow No. 21, brought slight shades of Royce Freeman. Eleven different players caught passes, including Troy Franklin, another true freshman, with the first of his career.
“Man, it feels good,” Franklin said, “and I think it shows a lot about what we have coming up.”
The Ducks began October with an overtime loss at Stanford, and its following two wins over Cal and UCLA came by a combined 10 points. While Oregon has been very good at winning football games, most of those wins have come with a high-degree of stress.
This wasn’t one of those wins.
Even perceived low points of this one could be reasoned away. Sure, Colorado fired its offensive line coach on Monday, came into Saturday averaging 15.1 points per game and then scored 15 points in just the second half against the Ducks. But by then an already injury-plagued Oregon defense had sustained losses to safeties Steve Stephens IV and Daymon David. Bryan Addison, a 6-foot-4 former wide receiver, played most of the game at safety.
And let’s face it: When healthy, Oregon’s defense hasn’t been the side of the ball drawing the ire of this fanbase. It’s been the offense, which finally looked like the offense of a playoff contender.
Cristobal has talked all season about the room this team has to grow and the Ducks showed bright flashes of that on Saturday. Only one of Oregon’s four remaining opponents — Oregon State — is more than one game above .500. If the Ducks can bottle this, things could get really interesting here over the next month as the playoff herd continues to thin.
“We’re not too concerned about that term ‘style points,’” Cristobal said. “We want to play our guys. We want to get our guys ready to go down this home stretch and have them get reps and experience playing so when they do have to play, in critical parts of the game down the line, they’re ready to play. That’s the most important thing.
“And we did that today and still won a game comfortably.”
— Tyson Alger
