After getting the ball to start and throwing an interception on their third play of the game then following that up with a three-and-out on their next possession, Cal was still the first team to score in this one—a field goal at the end of a 9 play 77 yard drive to go up 3-0 with 4 minutes left in the 1st Qtr. After a 4 yard TD run by Oregon QB Bo Nix early in the 2nd Qtr to put the Ducks on top 7-3, Cal would take the lead for the last time in the game on a six yard TD pass from Jack Plummer to J. Michael Sturdivant to go up 10–7. After that it was mostly Ducks as they scored two more TD’s in the 2nd Qtr to take a 21-10 lead into the locker room. Oregon got the ball first after the break and added seven more points to go up 28-10 just 2:15 later on a 29 yard Bo Nix TD pass to Sophomore RB Noah Whittington and then ran for one early in the 4th Qtr to go up 35-10. Cal tried to come back, scoring two more TD’s in the 4th Qtr, but they could never score enough as Nix connected with P. Herbert for a 40 yard TD and his third in the air on the day to put the Ducks up 42-17 with just a little over three minutes remaining. Cal scored once more on a 55 yard Milner pass to J. Richard Baker with just under a minute left to make the final total a little more respectable at 42-24.
The Ducks did their job and remain the only PAC-12 team undefeated in conference play. That said, there’s that old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket and sometimes you have to wonder what would Oregon do for points without Bo Nix who ever since the debacle at Georgia in Week-1 has completed better than 70% of his passes and averaged more than four TD’s a game either through the air or on the ground. In this game Oregon scored six TD’s, three on passes by Nix and three more on the ground—also by Nix who ran it 12 times for 59 yards and all three rushing scores. I think one of the reason he’s getting a lot of rushing TD’s lately is because, as Nix described it himself in James Crepea’s column for the Oregonian OregonLive; “I have been given basically full rein [by Offensive Coordinator Kenny Dillingham] over a lot of different checks. Most of them, not all of them, are within the scheme. The ones that aren’t are frequent checks that I’ll do for every given look in that situation. He’s allowed me to have a little bit of leeway and go in there and be confident and he trusts me and we have a good connection. We’re on the same page of what he wants and what’s good plays for our system.” As Crepea points out; “Bo Nix is in command. Not only of his play, which has been better over the last six games at Oregon than during his three years at Auburn, but in terms of control of the offense for the No. 8 Ducks. Nix has full autonomy to make pre-snap checks at the line of scrimmage, something he didn’t have the freedom to do at Auburn.” One thing for sure—it’s working—but I think I would be inclined to try and get most of those rushing TD’s with a RB first and keep Nix as healthy as possible for the PAC-12 Championship and maybe the national playoff.
Nix completed over 75% of his passes in this one for 412 yards and uncharacteristically threw two picks, giving him just five on the season against 20 TD’s. Oregon rushed for another 174 yards on 40 attempts, an average of just over 4 yards per carry. Cal’s Jack Plummer also threw up a couple of interceptions, connecting on 20-of-33 for 214 yards and 1 TD while their rushing game never gained much traction and never made it into the end zone with Freshman RB Jaydn Ott carrying most of the load rushing 14 times for 57 of Cal’s 74 yard total. Oregon had ten more 1st Downs, 31-to-21; led in Total Yards of offense, 586-to-402; and converted 3rd downs 5-of-10 times compared to just over 25% of the time for Cal.
Now sitting at 3-5 with games against No. 10 USC, Oregon State, Stanford, and No. 12 UCLA still on their schedule to play, Cal has no realistic chance—not even the one-in-a-million chance Mary gave Lloyd in Dumb-and-Dumber—to become bowl eligible. However there are definitely a couple of opportunities, beginning this next Saturday in the Coliseum against the Trojans, for them to have a huge impact on who ends up playing for the PAC-12 Conference Championship. Oregon hits the road for what should be a mile high fall vacation in Boulder to take on Colorado.