Royce Freeman entered Oregon’s third Pac-12 game of the season against Washington State leading the nation in carries for 10 or more yards (25). He was averaging 122.6 yards per game (16^th best), had 613 rushing yards (12^th best) and a team-high seven touchdowns. He was also four scores shy of cracking Oregon’s all-time top five list for touchdowns.
As a sophomore, Freeman has emerged – almost by default – as Oregon’s go-to on offense following reigning Heisman trophy winner Marcus Mariota’s departure. To put things into perspective, running backs coach Gary Campbell was actually open to the idea of Freeman carrying the ball over 30 times a game if it came down to it.
Saturday, Freeman was asked once again to anchor a struggling, pass-deficient Oregon offense that has switched back and forth between Jeff Lockie and walk-on Taylor Alie.
“I don’t feel no pressure,” Freeman said when asked about the potential pressure that comes with being the top offensive weapon.
Prior to Saturday’s 3 p.m. kickoff at Autzen, LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott had field days against Maryland and South Carolina on the other side of the country.
Fournette, who is arguably the frontrunner for the Heisman, finished with 158 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries.
Elliott, who torched Oregon in last year’s College Football Playoff final, padded his already impressive resume with 106 yards on 21 carries and two scores.
Both anchored blowout wins this Saturday.
Freeman, who is in the same realm and discussion with these top tier backs, had the best outing of them all, with a career-high 246 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns.
The difference?
He was the only one who had a lacking quarterback and lost.
“The offensive line did a great job of opening things up, something we worked on a lot in practice,” Freeman said. “I was very appreciative of those holes. I was just trying to make plays, not go down.”
On the last drive of the game in double overtime, Oregon (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) had one last opportunity to even the score, trailing 45-38.
Following a pair of Freeman runs and a costly holding penalty on second down, Lockie was left with a third-and-11 situation with the game on the line. After his two-yard scramble to the Washington State 26-yard line, Lockie was picked off by Shalom Luani to end the game.
“We definitely let that one get away at home,” Lockie said. “It hurts. A couple things just didn’t hit for us and it didn’t work out.”
In a game in which Mark Helfrich pointed to missed opportunities and a failure to put the nail in the coffin, Freeman’s one-man show just wasn’t enough.
“That’s very frustrating when you’re extremely close to finishing it out,” Helfrich said. “That’s when you need to finish it.”
True freshman Taj Griffin, who added 96 yards tonight to his 150 against Colorado, also had to bite his lip as the Ducks failed to reward terrific outings by their backs.
In the game’s most crucial moments, Freeman and Griffin bailed the Oregon offense out with breakout runs, broken tackles and highlights.
On his first carry of the game, Freeman hit the gap and racked up 30 yards.
Late in the third, after Oregon’s offense came up blank on back-to-back drives trailing 21-17, Griffin exploded for a 43-yard gain that was soon capped off with a 17-yard touchdown to Freeman.
Early in the fourth, when Oregon held a 24-21 edge, Freeman effortlessly breezed through Cougars defenders en route to a career-long 49-yard carry that was converted into his second score of the game.
Instead of praising these plays that continually kept Oregon in the game, they merely ended up being efforts for a lost cause.
The bottom line is that Oregon needed to throw the ball better to help open up the field. After the game, offensive coordinator Scott Frost admitted that his offense needed to do a better job of throwing the ball to help out balance out the attack.
Now, with three losses, Oregon will need to figure out how to do just that to try and salvage what’s left of the season.
“I think everybody is aware of that considering the amount of times we run and the way we’re trying to throw the ball,” Freeman said, alluding to Oregon’s imbalanced offense. “It’s something we’ve got to work on. We’ll see what this team’s identity is on Monday when we get back to work.”
Follow Hayden Kim on Twitter @HayDayKim