Almost a year ago, a nearly half-empty Autzen Stadium cheered as quarterback Brady Leaf took the field and Dennis Dixon sat on the bench.
Dixon threw three interceptions in Oregon’s 37-10 loss to Arizona at Autzen Stadium and the crowd became weary of his mistake-prone decisions. After the loss, Dixon had thrown six interceptions in three games and was benched in the regular-season finale against Oregon State. No one complained about the decision.
Saturday against Arizona State, however, Dixon’s departure and Leaf’s entry signaled the complete revolution that’s occurred since the Arizona game last year.
After throwing four touchdowns against the Sun Devils, Dixon’s 11-yard scamper gave every Duck enthusiast a scare as he lay on the ground clutching his knee after being tackled.
“I’m like ‘Is he going to get up? Is he hurt?’ Of course things are going through my mind,” Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart said. “He got up and started walking it off so I knew right there and then he’d be fine.”
Shortly after leaving the game Dixon paced on the sideline and stood at coach Mike Bellotti’s side bouncing up and down, letting Bellotti know he was ready to play.
“It’s nothing big,” Dixon said. “I could have played if I had to.”
Surely, some fans spotted Dixon eager to reenter the game and wondered why he remained on the sideline while Leaf managed the offense. But with a reasonable lead, Bellotti played it safe and kept his star quarterback from further injury.
And in those few, brief series, we saw what life could have been like without Dennis Dixon, who should, by now, be the Heisman Trophy front-runner. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly continued to call plays that Dixon runs so effortlessly while Leaf took the reins.
The play calls worked, for the most part, although Leaf obviously doesn’t have the same mobility that Dixon has to make running the spread-option read look so simple, or the ability to make a fake handoff look so deceiving. Leaf still moved the offense downfield, just much more slowly than when Dixon is at the helm of it.
Fortunately for the Ducks, Dixon didn’t pull, pop, tear or blow anything; he sustained some strains and bruises, but nothing too serious, especially with this week’s bye.
Dixon and the rest of the Ducks who don’t have blown-out knees should be healed well enough to exact revenge on the Wildcats who embarrassed them in Eugene last November.
Next Thursday, Arizona shouldn’t expect to see the same Dixon hand over the game by making three bad decisions early on. This far into the season, Dixon’s made only one mistake that’s cost the Ducks and even now, his first interception of the year against Cal doesn’t seem like the end of the world like it did when it first happened. Other teams have fallen and the Ducks continue to win.
And Dixon continues to assert himself as one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football – and the best one leading a national-title contender.
While other current and past quarterbacks have received more praise because they’ve broken the tackles that Dixon doesn’t, his deceptiveness and elusive ability complement the offense perfectly so he doesn’t always have to try and break those tackles and take on those big hits.
After Saturday’s scare, hope that he doesn’t have to again for the remainder of the regular season.
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