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Kickoff: 7:30 PM
TV: ESPN2
Records: Oregon 4-0, 1-0 Pac-12. Washington State 2-2, 0-1 Pac-12
Coaches: Chip Kelly (36-6 career) vs. Mike Leach (2-2 at Washington State, 86-45 career)
Pregame warmpus
- CenturyLink Field has been the site of two notable upsets this week with the Seahawks controversial win over the Packers on Monday night, and Washington’s upset of No.9 Stanford on Thursday night.
- Washington State likes to pass the ball — a lot. Mike Leech’s offense throws the ball between 40 and 50 times per game and is averaging 313.8 passing yards per game, which is 18th in the nation.
- Washington State is coming off an embarrassing loss to Colorado in which they gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter en route to a 35-34 loss.
- Twitter reports indicate the Ducks will be wearing green helmets with white jerseys and grey pants.
Keep your eye on
- Marquess Wilson — Washington State’s star receiver has four touchdowns in his last two games and was one yard short of his second straight 100-yard effort in the Cougars loss to the Buffs.
- The crowd — It’s a home game for Washington State officially, but many are expecting in the neighborhood of 50 percent University of Oregon fans at CenturyLink Field.
First quarter
After the Ducks forced Washington State to go three and out on their first possession Oregon marched down the field for the score with Kenjon Barner finding the endzone from 22 yards out. A two point conversion pass failed and the Ducks lead remained at 6-0 with 13:08 left in the first…
On the ensuing possession Washington State — aided by several penalties from Oregon — marched the ball down the field and had several snaps from inside the ten yard line before their drive stalled and Andrew Furney came on for the 18 yard field goal attempt.
From the “making something out of nothing” category, Marcus Mariota narrowly avoided a sack inside the redzone and scurried 13 yards down the sideline for touchdown. After missing a 2-pt conversion on their first score the Ducks opted for the conventional point after and took a 13-3 late in the first…
After forcing Washington State to punt from their own endzone the Ducks took over in great field position and wasted little time putting the ball in the endzone as Mariota found a wide-open Barner for the 30 yard touchdown pass to expand the Ducks lead to 20-3 with just over a minute left in the first quarter…
After a 92 yard kickoff return gave WSU some strong field position of their own the Cougars Carl Winston pounded the ball in the endzone for the score but a missed extra point kept the score at 20-9 with less than one minute left in the first.
Second Quarter
Playing with a short field once again Washington State drove to the Ducks three yard line but were unable to get the ball in the endzone. Faced with fourth and goal from inside the five yard line again Mike Leach once again opted to send out the kicking team and Furney converted cutting Oregon’s lead to 20-12 with 12:50 left in the half.
An aggressive playcall by Washington State to try an onside kick didn’t pan out for the Cougars but things could have been worse as the Ducks had to settle for three points. Beard’s 34 yard field goal gave Oregon the 23-12 lead with 11:40 left in the first half.
After forcing the Ducks to go three-and-out Washington State cut into the lead a bit more with a 26 yard TD pass from Halliday to Brett Bartolone. The Cougars went 67 yards in six plays to cut the lead to 23-19 with 6:03 left in the first half.
Third Quarter
The Ducks quick strike offense was nowhere to be seen on Oregon’s first second half possession but the end result was the same as the Ducks drove 76 yards on 18 in 6:14 capped off by a 4 yard scamper by De’Anthony Thomas to take a 30-19 lead with 8:39 left in the third quarter…
Avery Patterson made a statement play on defense stepping in front of a pass 33 yards away from the endzone and returning it all the way for the score to expand the Ducks lead to 37-19 with 7:20 left in the quarter.
Washington State couldn’t put together any response to the interception and went three-and-out in a heartbeat on their next possession giving the Ducks another short field to work with and Barner did the rest capping of a 41 yard drive with a 10 yard rushing score to turn a once-close game into a 44-19 score late in the third…
Kenjon Barner’s fourth touchdown of the day came out of nowhere as Barner went 80 yards on the first play from scrimmage to give the Ducks a 51-19 lead in a game that just 20 minutes earlier had Duck fans biting their nails as the teams ran off the field for halftime.