Sometimes stats don’t tell the story.
This was not one of those games.
In a dominating 49-0 win over Arizona, Oregon’s defense held the Wildcats explosive offense to just 332 yards — a far cry from the 604.7 yards per game Rich Rodriguez’s offense averaged entering the night — and intercepted four passes returning two of them for touchdowns. The Ducks stopped Arizona on third down nine times and stood firm on all four of the ‘cats fourth down conversion attempts.
And when Arizona was knocking on the door, the Ducks answered by holding the Wildcats scoreless in five trips to the red zone including an impressive goal line stand that featured four-straight stops after Arizona had a first-and-goal from the Ducks two-yard line.
“First and goal on the two yard line,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. “And they stopped them? That was pretty special.”
That special performance comes as a result of a tremendous week of preparation, Aliotti said. He credited his support staff of Jerry Azzinaro, Don Pellum and Jerry Neal for preparing the Ducks as a defensive unit as well as the team themselves.
“Let’s share some love with the rest of the guys,” he said. “It was a good night to share it.”
The Ducks needed to be good defensively early on thanks to a sluggish start and two first-quarter fumbles, but Arizona was unable to capitalize on any of Oregon’s three turnovers on the night. The Ducks scored 31 of their 49 points on the night off turnovers — always a favorite stat of head coach Chip Kelly.
“We talk about response off the turnover all the time,” Kelly said. “It’s something we practice and something we take a lot of pride in. I thought they really did an unbelievable job today.”
The shutout was the result of a phenomenal team performance, but there were some individual standouts as well. Ifo Ekpre-Olomu broke up several dangerous pass plays and grabbed two interceptions, returning one of them for a touchdown. Ekpre-Olomu’s night wasn’t perfect, the sophomore defensive back was twice flagged for pass interference- — but he made plays when he had to.
“Like any secondary kid you’ve got to have a short memory,” Kelly said. “He had a couple pass interference calls but bounced back from them. We always preach about playing the next snap and he certainly did. I’m really happy for him.”
Ekpre-Olomu said that the Ducks’ success came from being extremely well-prepared for everything Arizona might throw at them. And throw Arizona did, especially in Ekpre-Olomu’s direction, but the starter from Chino Hills, Calif. said he expected he’d be challenged.
“This is my first year starting,” he said. “I was ready for them to throw my way every time, I just wanted to show them what I could do.”
Troy Hill and Kiko Alonso each also had an interception, with Hill returning his 16 yards for the score —and when the defense is scoring multiple touchdowns, things are going right.
“When you score twice on defense, that’s pretty special,” Kelly said. “You usually don’t lose when you score on defense.”
The most impressive stat from the game though might also be the most obvious one: zero points. It’s the Ducks first shutout since blanking New Mexico 72-0 to open the 2010 season, and their first conference shutout in Autzen Stadium since the Ducks blanked Stanford nine years ago.
“It’s hard to get a shutout in modern football,” he said. “In today’s game you can play unbelievable defense and I’ll just use this example, you get a field goal blocked and they run it in for a touchdown. All those silly little things can happen.”