It appears that the improved work from the offensive line last week in Pasadena, California will not serve as an anomaly.
A week following the Ducks’ resurgent rushing attack that amounted for 259 total yards of offense, Oregon controlled every phase of the game when it was on offense and, in dominant fashion, took care of business against Washington, winning 45-20.
“When you can run the ball, you can do anything,” Mark Helfrich, who saw Oregon running backs put together 221 yards of offense, said following the game.
The beneficiary of this recurring trend was none other than Royce Freeman. A week after rushing for over 100 yards for the first time in his collegiate career, Freeman carried the ball 29 times for 169 yards and four touchdowns. However, much of the credit was due to the the improved line play across the board, at least according to the freshman.
“They’re getting a great push,” Freeman said. “It’s not even a tribute to us (the running backs) as it is to them because they’re doing all the work.”
Freeman, as well as the offensive line’s, impact would be felt by the second drive of the game. After going three-and-out on its first drive and falling behind 3-0 after a Washington field goal, Oregon was faced with a 3rd-and-8 at the Huskies’ 37.
Running the ball right behind the interior lineman, Freeman slipped through the Washington defense on a 37-yard sprint to the end zone.
“It was a good front that we got,” center Hroniss Grassu said. “It was a split look and the linebackers had the responsibility of both of the A gaps. We just ran the ball down the middle and Royce does such a good job of setting up the blocks for us that he was able to hit it right down the middle.”
Oregon would never trail again and with the addition of Marcus Mariota finding eight different receivers throughout the night, the Ducks totaled 554 yards of offense by the game’s end.
Mariota passed for 336 yards and two touchdowns and for the most part, found a different combination of receivers not typically appearing at the top of the stat sheet. With Keanon Lowe out due to injury and Devon Allen only catching the ball twice, Mariota completed a combined 10 passes to the likes of Darren Carrington and Dwayne Stanford.
“We’ve been waiting for Darren to have a great game,” offensive coordinator Scott Frost said. ” Dwayne Stanford has a couple of the best hands that we’ve had around here in a long time. So those guys give us a lot of depth and we feel great with them on the field.”
The Washington defense was building quite the resume as the Oregon game approached. It ranked third in the nation in sacks with 24 and playmakers like Shaq Thompson and Hau’ oli Kikaha had plenty to do with it. But right from the start, it was obvious that their impacts would be minimal.
Evidence of that would be on the subsequent drives following the Ducks’ first touchdown of the game when Mariota lead scoring drives of 81 yards on 17 plays and 99 yards on 12 plays. For a team that is prided on its fast paced movement and drives that typically don’t last longer than two minutes, Oregon held the ball for 30:33.
“Last week we turned the corner,” Frost said.” I think it carried over to this week and if we continue to run the ball like that, we’re going to be hard to stop.”
Defensively, Don Pellum’s group limited the Huskies to just 317 yards of total offense while also forcing two turnovers against a team that had just one on the season before today. The most indicative stat though may’ve been Washington’s 9-for-18 line on third-down.
“That’s the main thing,” Ifo Ekpre-Olomu said. “Now we’re making plays.”
Channeling off the returned consistency from the offense, Oregon as a team put together its second consecutive dominating performance and, while a number of integral factors contributed to its decisive victory, the post-game rhetoric remained the same.
If Oregon can run the ball well, its a team that’s hard to stop. Washington and UCLA are just the latest to find out.
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise