What a year it has been for QB’s in the PAC-12. As of this past Tuesday five of our QB’s are in the Top-10 in the nation in passing yards and one of the others, LSU’s Jaydn Daniels was the former QB for the Cougars. With his 404 yard and 6 TD performance in Oregon’s 49-13 butt kicking of the Sun Devils, Bo Nix is fourth in passing yards nationally and 2nd only by 1 TD to Daniels in TD’s thrown at 35 with just 5% of his passes resulting in interceptions—lowest in the country.
This game was a blow-out from the get-go with Oregon holding Arizona State scoreless through the first half while putting up three TD’s in both the first and second quarters to go in 42-0 at the break. As the AP wrote in their recap for ESPN; “For two glorious quarters on Saturday, the Oregon Ducks achieved football nirvana.” Ducks’s head coach Dan Lanning said afterwards; “We talk about playing to our standard. I think the first half is the definition of that standard.” It was clear that, in spite of his normally aggressive nature, Lanning took his foot off the gas in the 2nd half, most likely to rest folks up for their game against Oregon State this next Saturday. Although holding the Sun Devils to just a field goal in the 3rd Qtr the Ducks didn’t score again until the top of the 4th Qtr, a TD pass from Sophomore back-up Ty Thompson to Junior TE Casey Kelly with Bo Nix on the sidelines watching having left the game early in the 3rd Qtr. With a lot of the Duck defensive starters on the bench Arizona State was able to get 10 more points on the board in the 4th Qtr including a TD run by Senior WR Melquan Stovall and a 34 yard field goal by Senior Place Kicker Dario Longhetto.
Nix and Thompson combined connected for 28-of-36 for 463 yards, 7 TD’s, and 1 interception with Junior WR Troy Franklin on the end of 8 receptions for 128 yards and two Bo Nix TD passes. Junior TE Patrick Herbert also picked up 78 yards and 2 TD’s while Gary Bryant Jr. and Tez Johnson combined for 9 receptions and over 160 yards as well as a TD each. The Ducks didn’t score in the ground game this week but Junior RB Bucky Irving and Sophomore Jordan James combined for 20 rushing attempts and 111 of the team’s 140 yard total while averaging over five yards per run.
For Arizona State, Junior QB Trenton Bourguet connected on 20-of-37 for 142 yards and although did not throw an interception didn’t connect in the end zone either. Entering the game behind center for a combined 10 plays was Junior RB Cameron Skattebo and TE Jalin Conyers who combined on 5-of-10 for 63 yards with 1 TD by Skattebo who also led the team rushing, picking up 49 yards of the teams 111 yard total. Oregon had eleven more first downs and about 300 more total yards. Neither teams recorded a very good third down efficiency percentage but both were really successful on their fourth down attempts. The Ducks went for it four times on 4th down and were successful 75% of the time while the Sun Devils were even better, making it four out of their five attempts—an 80% clip.
As I mentioned, Oregon will be taking on their in-state rival Oregon State this next Saturday in a game that used to be called the Civil War—a match-up that was first played in 1894 and is the fifth most-played college football rivalry game in the Football Bowl Subdivision. And although Washington and Washington State have come to an agreement to continue the Apple Cup through 2028, no such scheduling agreement has been reached between the Ducks and the Beavers. Arizona State heads back home to host their in-state rival as well, Arizona, in a game known as the Duel in the Desert.