Two teams heading in separate directions met on Saturday and the result was a convincing 37-10 victory for the now bowl-eligible Arizona Wildcats against the suddenly slumping Oregon Ducks in front of 58,029 at Autzen Stadium, most of whom left early.
The Wildcats, despite losing starting quarterback Willie Tuitama early in the second quarter, turned six Oregon turnovers into 23 points while running back Chris Henry rushed for 191 yards and two touchdowns and another through the air to give Arizona its first three-game Pac-10 winning streak since 1998.
“Sometimes it’s just your time, and we feel that it is ours,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said. “We feel good about the way we are playing now.”
The same can’t be said for an Oregon team that has gone 3-4 since starting the season red-hot at 4-0 and heads into the Civil War next Friday at Reser Stadium, a venue the Ducks haven’t won at in a decade.
The common theme in all of Oregon’s losses so far remains the same – turnovers and the inability to stop the run. Those two proved too much for Oregon to overcome Saturday in its first home loss of the season on senior day.
“I felt today we had every thing in order to beat this team,” senior center Enoka Lucas. “These turnovers have been haunting us since the beginning of the season to now. There’s no excuses any more.”
Oregon coach Mike Bellotti deemed it Oregon’s worst game of the season and joked that he may “burn the video tapes” of it.
“I was disappointed with the performance,” he said. “We didn’t execute very well, and I take that all on me. I didn’t prepare my team well enough. We didn’t play well on offense, defense, or special teams.”
The struggles also continued for Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon, who accounted for half of Oregon’s turnovers by tossing three interceptions that led to 13 Arizona points.
He threw for 88 yards on 14-of-22 passing and no touchdowns, giving him just one touchdown and eight interceptions in his last five games.
“I don’t think it’s a question of confidence, I think it’s a question of decision-making,” Bellotti said of Dixon who was intercepted twice throwing over the middle and once on a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage. Without his primary target, wide receiver Jaison Williams who was out with a back injury, Dixon’s longest pass of the game was 16 yards.
Backup quarterback Brady Leaf entered the game after Dixon’s third interception that came on the first play of the fourth quarter with Oregon trailing 34-10. He finished 11-of-22 for 95 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
Bellotti said the quarterback situation will be evaluated this week, and the starter will be the one who “gives us the best better chance to win.”
“I’m not sure what he’s going to do,” Leaf said of his coach. “I (haven’t) known what he’s going to do for about two years now, so I just got to take it as I have – just prepare myself like the team’s going to need me.”
Still, it was much more than just the quarterback play that led to this loss that drops Oregon to 7-4 overall and 4-4, fourth place, in the conference.
After Oregon opened a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, a muffed punt return by Patrick Chung at the Ducks’ 15-yard line led to Henry’s first score – a 15 yard run on the very next play.
Tuitama found Earl Mitchell behind the coverage for a 37-yard touchdown reception later in the first quarter and the stingy Arizona defense, which held Oregon’s high-powered offense below its season average in points and yards, picked off Dixon on back-to-back possessions, which turned into 10 points and a 24-10 halftime lead.
Oregon had a chance to cut the lead to one score on its first drive of the third quarter but turned the ball over on downs after getting stuffed on consecutive runs by Jeremiah Johnson on third-and-short and fourth-and-two inside the Wildcats’ 30.
Arizona capitalized on another mishandled punt by Oregon – this time by third-string running back Andiel Brown who returned Saturday with a small brace on his hand after breaking a bone against Portland State three weeks ago.
“It’s difficult because it sucks the momentum out of you very quickly … when the defense gets a stop, and we should be getting the football,” Bellotti said. “Instead, they have to turn right around and go back on the field.”
Arizona tacked on a field goal to take a 27-10 lead and Henry tacked on more with a career-long 61 yard run late in the third quarter to give Arizona a commanding 34-10 lead.
It was Henry’s first 100-plus yard rushing game this season.
“The turnovers didn’t help, but we didn’t play well on defense, bottom line,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said.
The focus now for Oregon is breaking a four-game losing streak in Corvallis against an Oregon State team that also has caught its stride late in the season. The Ducks trail the Beavers by one game in the Pac-10 standings, meaning bowl positioning is on the line for both teams.
It’s also a chance for the 19 Oregon seniors to end their regular season the right way.
“With a win over Oregon State next week, it’s going to make this loss that we had today (forgettable),” Lucas said.
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Ducks turn game over to Wildcats
Daily Emerald
November 19, 2006
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