The Ducks, at home in Autzen stadium, made it look as though there wasn’t much fight in the Illini—at least in the first half—scoring TD’s on five-of-six possessions before the break while holding Illinois to just a field goal in the 1st Qtr and scoreless in the 2nd to go in at the break up 35-3. Getting the ball to start the 3rd Qtr, Illinois would get deep into the red zone on a 73 yard 8 play drive but would fail to convert a 4th and goal at the Oregon 2 yard line. After forcing Oregon to punt on their next possession, they would get the ball back and get all the way into the end zone this time at the end of a 16 play, 95 yard drive, and 4 yard Freshman RB Ca’Lil Valentine TD run to make it 35-9 after a failed two-point conversion.
The Fighting Illini would get a golden opportunity to cut further into that score after an interception of a Dillon Gabriel pass three plays later on the Oregon side of the field. But a sack and a couple of incompletions would bog that drive down at the Oregon 34 yard line where they would fail to convert a 4th and 12. Seven plays later the Ducks would add three more points to their score on a 44 yard field goal by Senior Place Kicker Andrew Boyle to make it 38-9 with nine minutes left in the game. Just two plays later Illinois Junior QB Luke Altmyer’s pass would be intercepted by Oregon’s Junior DB Sione Laulea. But unable to move the ball with just the running game they would hand it back over on downs after failing to convert a 4th and 3 at the Illinois 36 yard line. Once again Illinois would work it down into the Duck’s red zone at the end of a 9 play 51 yard drive but would come up empty on a 4th and 6 at the Oregon 14 with 3:31 left in the game. Forty-four yards on five runs by Freshman RB Da’Jaun Riggs and a first down pass from backup QB Austin Novosad to WR Jeremiah McClellan would eat the rest of the remaining time on the clock.
For Illinois, Junior QB Luke Altmyer struggled getting the offense going while dealing with Oregon’s three sacks, seven tackles for loss, and eight pass disruptions. On the night he connected on not quite 50% of his passes for 161 yards, 0 TD’s and 2 picks while also rushing eight times for minus two yards. Collectively the team rushed 32 times for 132 yards with Sophomore RB Aiden Laughery picking up 69 of those yards on 12 attempts with Freshman RB Ca’Lil Valentine accounting for the only rushing TD.
For the No. 1 Ducks, now 8-0 overall and on top of the Big Ten with a 5-0 conference record, Senior QB Dillon Gabriel was 18-of-26 for 291 yards, 3 TD’s and 1 pick while also rushing three times for one of their two TD’s on the ground. Junior RB’s Jordan James and Noah Whittington along with Riggs and Sophomore RB Jayden Limar would combine on 34 rushing attempts for 207 of the 229 total yards on the ground with Whittington picking up the other TD. In the air Gabriel would connect multiple times to seven different receivers with Senior WR Tez Johnson leading the pack with six receptions for 102 yards as well collecting one of the three TD passes from Gabriel with Whittington and Sophomore WR Justius Lowe the other two. Gabriel, a portal transfer from Oklahoma, is now second on the NCAA’s list for career leaders in passing yards with 17,236—behind only Case Keenum who plays for the Houston Cougars and is the all-time leader in passing yards, completions and touchdowns. The Ducks have just four regular season games left, two on the road against Michigan and Wisconsin, and two at home against Maryland and Washington.