In front of a home crowd in Pullman that was rocking that stadium all game long it sure looked like the Cougars had Oregon’s number, all the way down until with just under four minutes left in the 4th Qtr and trailing 34-22 Oregon scored the first of back-to-back-to-back TD’s with the most devastating being the third, the result of an interception back to the house giving Oregon a 44-34 lead with just a minute to play in the game. The Cougars came back to get within three at 44-41, but it took all but one tick of the clock to get it done—so close.
Washington State led from their opening possession, which went 75 yards in 8 plays for a 7-0 lead, until the last 1:21 of the game when Oregon finally caught and passed the Cougars on a five play 69 yard drive ending in a 50 yard pass from Oregon QB Bo Nix to finally go ahead 37-34. They were ahead 10-3 at the end of the 1st Qtr; 17-9 at the half which included a pick with Oregon sitting at 1st and goal on their 7 yard line that went 95 yards back to the house; 27-to-15 at the end of the 3rd Qtr; and then—like I said.
Both QB’s connected on 75% of their passes with Bo Nix hitting 33-of-44 for 428 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 pick compared to Cameron Ward who connected on 37-of-48 for 375 yards, 2 TDs, and 2 interceptions while also rushing for a score. Oregon gained more yards on the ground, 178 to just 53, but the Cougars put more points up on the board–two TD’s to one. Nix connected with eight different receivers multiple times with Sophomore WR Troy Franklin collecting five of those passes for 137 yards and 1 TD, an average of better than 25 yards a catch. Sophomore RB Bucky Irving and Senior TE Cam McCormick hauled in the other two. Sophomore WR De’Zhaun Stribling and Senior Robert Ferrel were the recipients of Ward’s two TD passes while Junior RB Nakia Watson scored the other rushing TD for the Cougars.
The defenses were about equal in total tackles with Washington State edging out Oregon 81-to-78, but the Ducks were more disruptive picking up four sacks and eleven tackles for loss. Oregon barely came out on top with regard to 1st Downs, 28-to-27 but had almost 200 more Total Yards for the game, 624-to-428. The AP made this comment after the game; ““It was the full Bo Nix experience for No. 15 Oregon. The Auburn transfer threw a Pick-6 that went 95 yards and helped get Washington State to the verge of an upset in the fourth quarter. Nix then led the Ducks on two late scoring drives to keep them undefeated in non-Georgia games.” Cougar Head Coach Jake Dickert had this to say; ““There’s no moral victory. We accept this loss. They beat us . . . I’m excited about the men in that room and they’re disappointed because we didn’t make the plays to win the game. But that was it; it was two good football teams playing and they executed better at the end to win.”
Next week Washington State will stay at home in Pullman to take on the Cal Bears while Oregon gets to go home to Autzen Stadium in Eugene to host Stanford.