What can you say about this game except wow—it was great! One of the best college games I’ve ever seen. I mean it doesn’t make it to the level of the January 2006 Texas Longhorn 41-38 defeat of two-time national champion USC or the 1992 last second defeat of Kentucky by Duke in the NCAA Basketball Tournament East Regional Final—but it’s definitely in my Top-10. I mean how many times have you gotten to watch two Top-10 teams with legitimate Heisman hopefuls go at it and have it so close that you don’t know who’s going to win until time runs out in the 4th Qtr.
I once watched Long Beach Poly High School win a CIF Southern Section playoff game against Orange Lutheran. The final score was 2-0. You’re probably asking yourself what the hell does that have to do with the game between Oregon and Washington. Well, it came to mind because very late in that game Orange Lutheran had the ball first and goal inside the five yard line. Instead of kicking the field goal and going ahead with little time left in the game the coach of Orange Lutheran decided he wanted to make the point that there was no team that could keep his guys out of the end zone four plays in a row. Who knows what the motivation was. Maybe he thought that not settling for the field goal would help his team’s confidence moving further in the playoffs. Maybe he was just jealous that Sports Illustrated Magazine had christened Poly the, “Sports School of the Century,” earlier in the year. Whatever the reason he tried to get that ball over the goal line by running it straight up the gut three times in a row. What he couldn’t know at the time was that Poly’s nose tackle on defense and center on offense was Jurrell Casey who went on to play at USC on scholarship and was then drafted by the Tennessee Titans where he played for nine years as a defensive tackle and defensive end, an all-Pro in 2013 and five time Pro Bowl selection—one of over 60 players who have made it to the NFL after having played for Long Beach Poly. After getting stuffed by Casey three times in a row the Orange Lutheran coach still wouldn’t back down and kick the field goal, instead opting for a pitch out and run on 4th and goal. Unfortunately the ball was mishandled and Poly took possession needing only to take a knee on the next four downs to run out the clock and win the game.
Regarding Oregon and head coach Dan Lanning’s decision during this game to not kick a field goal is probably best summed up by Athlon Sports who wrote; “Trailing 22-18 with time about to expire in the first half, the Oregon Ducks faced a 4th and goal from the Washington Huskies’ three yard line. Considering that Oregon would get the ball back to start the second half, the simple answer would have been to take the three points and go to halftime trailing 22-21.” Moral of the story, when you’re up against a tough team and get a chance to put points up on the board, do it.
If you look at the stats of this game it’s pretty clear that your best strategy against Washington would be to run the ball and do your best to limit the amount of time that Michael Penix-Jr gets a chance to throw the ball. And for the most part Oregon did a really good job of it. The Ducks had the ball for nine more minutes, but even with that Penix-Jr still threw for twice as many TD’s as Oregon’s Bo Nix who connected on 75% of his throws for 337 yards, 2 TD’s, and no interceptions. On the ground Oregon rushed 40 times for 240 yards with RB’s Bucky Irving and Jordan James collectively picking up 190 yards of that with a TD a piece. Of Oregon’s total yards of offense Bucky Irving on the ground with 127 yards and Troy Franklin in the air with 154 were involved in just over 50% of the total with Franklin and Patrick Herbert (brother of Chargers QB Justin Herbert) picking up the two rushing TD’s. For Washington, QB Michael Penix-Jr connected on 22-of-37 for 302 yards, 4 TD’s and 1 interception. On the ground Penix handed the ball to Junior RB Dillon Johnson 20 times for 100 yards and their only rushing TD.
Washington led this game for three quarters, 14-8 after one, 22-18 at the break, and 29-16 after three. But early in the 4th Qtr, after holding Washington to a three-and-out, Oregon went 80 yards in under three minutes aided by two Bo Nix completions, one for 49 yards, to finally take the lead 33-29 on a 10 yard Jordan James TD run. Nine plays later, aided by a pass interference call, the Huskies have the ball 1st and goal at the Oregon 8 yard line. Four plays later they go for it at 4th and goal on the 1 yard line and end up losing a yard and handing the ball back over to Oregon with 6:33 left in the 4th Qtr and Oregon still up 33-29. Ten plays and 51 yards later the Ducks, this time way beyond field goal range, go for it on 4th and 3 at the Washington 47 yard line but have to turn the ball back over to Penix-Jr and the Huskies. Two plays and two passes later Washington is back in the end zone and back in the lead 36-33 with just 1:38 left on the clock. Between six Bo Nix passes and two Bucky Irving runs Oregon gets in position with time running out for their Place Kicker Camden Lewis to attempt a 43 yard field goal—a distance he was a perfect three-for-three for going into the game. But, he missed—not what could have been the winning field goal, but the field goal they needed to send the game into overtime.
It’s possible that these two teams aren’t done with each other and could end up facing off in the PAC-12 Conference Championship on December 1st in Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas. But there’s a lot of football to play yet and although the loss puts the Ducks behind the eight ball to where they can ill afford another misstep, the teams ahead of them all have games that could be lost. The Ducks head back to Eugene to take on Washington State while the Huskies stays home to host the Arizona State Sun Devils.