Heading into Saturday’s game between the then-No. 16 Oregon Ducks and the Washington State Cougars there was no doubt who the better team was.
On paper, the Ducks were the clear favorite, yet first-year head coach Chip Kelly and his squad did not want to overlook any conference opponent, no matter how young and inexperienced they may be.
“There is no let up in this league,” Kelly said. “It’s a challenge week to week … I’ve been preaching that ‘It’s a one week season’ and they’ve really bought into that.”
Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said after the game that despite the announcement Friday of the possible reinstatement of senior running back LeGarrette Blount, his team was more than able to keep its focus on Washington State.
“People from the outside might view it as a distraction,” Masoli said. “But LeGarrette is still on our team as a regular person and it’s not a distraction to us if he’s going to come back or not.”
Masoli has been able to pick up the pace in the passing game over the past few contests. He went 14 of 18 for 116 yards and one touchdown, while running seven times for 52 yards and another score against the Cougars in just over a quarter and a half of playing time as the Ducks jumped out to a 42-0 lead at halftime.
The junior did get slightly banged up, taking a hit to the knee. He came out in the second half in sweat pants and a sweatshirt, but Kelly said on Sunday that he’s “fine” and went for treatment. Masoli said after the game Saturday that the injury was minor and his knee was just a little sore.
As for the scoring, redshirt freshman running back LaMichael James struck first with his 26-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the game. He and senior tight end Ed Dickson each scored once more in the quarter to put Oregon up 21-0 at the end of the first.
“We respected them and we wanted to go out and play to our full potential and stay on top of them from the beginning,” Dickson said.
In the following quarter three different Oregon players reached the end zone as Masoli, senior running back Andre Crenshaw and junior Nate Costa each recorded touchdown runs of six yards or less.
“We had another great week of practice,” Kelly said. “And we wanted to get off to another fast start.”
The Ducks handled the ball for the majority of the second half and place kicker Morgan Flint was able to knock in a 40-yard field goal to bring the score to 45-0.
WSU recorded their only score of the night after redshirt freshman Scott Grady muffed a punt, which the Cougars recovered on the Oregon one-yard line. Quarterback Marshall Lobbestael was able to sneak it into the endzone, but the point after attempt was no good.
Junior running back Remene Alston capped the scoring for the night with his six-yard touchdown run followed by a Rob Beard successful point after attempt — the eighth and final Duck to score. The Ducks went up 52-6 and were able to run down the clock over the next 12 minutes.
“We have gotten better each week,” Kelly said. “But again all this (means) is we’ve got four wins and we feel pretty good about it. We’ve got a big week next week against UCLA.”
The Oregon squad has shown great improvement over the past two weeks, outscoring its opponents 94-9 while earning a 2-0 start in Pacific-10 Conference play.
The Ducks have undoubtedly started finding Dickson more on the outside, which helped him move into first place on the all-time receptions list for Oregon tight ends as he recorded his 104th career grab against WSU.
“We’re getting the ball out to him in the flats early,” Masoli said. “And he’s making some people miss and getting good yards out of it.”
Dickson now expects to see a lot more pressure from opposing defenses but he doesn’t think that will slow the Ducks down one bit.
“They’re going to start double-teaming me now that teams see I’m catching the ball more,” Dickson concluded. “And that’ll free up other guys.”
Oregon will take its current four-game winning streak down to Los Angeles next weekend to take on the 3-1 UCLA Bruins who are coming off a tough loss at Stanford.
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Ducks annihilate Cougars
Daily Emerald
October 3, 2009
Shawn Hatjes
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