Posted: Saturday, November 29, 2008 10:00 pm
Oregon's offense gallops up and down the field
By Kevin Hampton
Corvallis Gazette-Times
CORVALLIS - Oregon State had its Rose Bowl hopes trampled on Saturday.
Oregon ran all over the Beavers in Reser Stadium and took a 65-38 Civil War win, dashing New Year's Day plans for OSU fans.
The Ducks tore through the OSU defense and rolled up 694 total yards, including 385 on the ground.
Big plays piled up for the Ducks. Oregon had a touchdown run of 83 yards, touchdown passes of 76 and 45 yards and interception returns of 40 and 70 yards.
Running back Jeremiah Johnson had the 83-yard run and a 79-yard dash to boot. He finished with 219 yards on 17 carries. LeGarrette Blount added 112 yards and a touchdown on 17 rushes.
"Coming into the game we could see that they were very aggressive, especially their safeties," Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said. "So we established our running game and opened it up with the play action. That got the safeties moving up and we threw it over the top."
Oregon State would have gone to the Rose Bowl with a win.
"It feels good," UO cornerback Walter Thurmond III said. "It feels good to finally get a win against Oregon State. The fans are so hostile and it is a great atmosphere to play in. So coming and being the underdog was great."
The Beavers tried to put together a comeback, cutting the lead to 13 a few times in the second half, but Oregon responded each time.
Lyle Moevao kept the Beavers close for a while, throwing for 374 yards and five touchdowns.
The Beavers scored on a 2-yard pass from Moevao to Brady Camp with 8:34 left to get within 51-38, but Oregon shut the door when Masoli hit Ed Dickson with a 45-yard touchdown pass and Spencer Paysinger returned an interception for the final score.
"It's terribly disappointing, but I'm really proud of our team," OSU coach Mike Riley said. "It's been a long time since we've had a locker room where we've lost a game, so that's always hard and this one is doubly hard. I give a lot of credit to the Ducks, how they played. I thought they came out and played fast and confidently and made a lot of huge plays."
Oregon will most likely head to the Holiday Bowl with the win. Oregon State looks headed for a Sun Bowl berth.
Oregon built a 37-17 lead in the first half. The Ducks used a balanced offense to throw OSU off-balance from the start.
"They just made a lot of big plays offensively," Riley said. "We had a great chance. We got them off the field right on the first drive and had the ball with good field position and didn't capitalize and then the big plays started occurring and that made the game the way it was."
The Ducks had 442 total yards in the first half, 252 rushing and 190 passing.
The Ducks came out throwing and Masoli found his comfort zone during UO's second possession. He drove the Ducks 80 yards in eight plays, connecting with Jaison Williams for 35 yards to the OSU 17 and then found Jeff Maehl in the back of the end zone and a 7-0 lead.
The Ducks took advantage of a short field to go up 10-0 with 6:07 left in the first on a 38-yard field goal by Morgan Flint.
The Beavers responded. Moevao hit Sammie Stroughter for 24 yards and then Jeremy Francis scored two plays later, taking a short pass from Moevao and slipping though defenders from 20 yards out.
Oregon went to the run and caught the Beavers off-guard. Johnson raced 79 yards and Blount scored from the 9 to give the Ducks a 17-7 lead.
The Beavers put together a long drive with Moevao converting on three third-and-longs, but Justin Kahut missed a field goal try.
"We also were down there twice inside the 10 and came away with 3 points," Riley said. "That was a major factor early and we could never get closer than 13.
"I thought Oregon did a nice job of stopping us early in the run and forcing us into more passing situations earlier than we (wanted)."
Flint did not miss from 22 after a 75-yard drive by Oregon. Blount had a 16-yard run, Masoli scrambled for 20 and completed a 36-yard pass to Dickson.
James Rodgers returned the kick 40 yards and was horse-collared, moving the ball to the UO 34. Kahut capped a short drive with a 24-yard field goal to cut Oregon's lead to 20-10.
Oregon quickly bumped it to 23-10 with 2:13 left in the half, then pushed it to 30-10 when Jeremiah Johnson raced through a huge hole on third-and-19 from the UO 17, shed several tackle attempts and scored with less than a minute to go.
An interception return by Thurmond III put the Ducks up 37-10, but the Beavers didn't fold, going 47 yards in three plays for a touchdown, an 11-yard pass from Moevao to Shane Morales.
Jeremiah Johnson rushed for 203 yards and the 83-yard touchdown in the first half.