No. 4 Oregon’s contest against No. 9 Stanford could not have started more ominously for Cliff Harris.
The sophomore cornerback, fielding a kickoff after a Cardinal touchdown, was hit by Stanford safety Austin Yancy at the 12-yard line. Harris lost the football, and Cardinal safety Delano Howell recovered.
Stanford would score a touchdown three plays later.
“I give credit to (Yancy). He got a good hit on me,” Harris said. “I coughed it up.”
Harris went from goat to hero in the second half with two big interceptions. In the third quarter, he intercepted Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck on the Cardinal’s first play from scrimmage after Oregon took a 38-31 lead. In the fourth quarter, Harris came up with a pass in the back of the Stanford end zone to stave off a touchdown drive and record the first multiple-interception game of his career.
What helped him recover so quickly?
“Short-term memory. You know, taking one play at a time,” he said. “I made a mistake, but I didn’t dwell on it.”
Interceptions plagued Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas as well; two in the first half led to 10 Stanford points. The Ducks trailed the Cardinal 31-24 at halftime.
But Thomas, a sophomore from Houston, never panicked, and as the Stanford defense wore down, he picked them apart. Oregon scored 28 unanswered second-half points, and Thomas paired a career-high 117 rushing yards with 238 passing yards and four total touchdowns.
“Coach Kelly preaches about finishing,” Thomas said. “We know we’ve got to have better starts, but we just gotta keep working, gotta keep grinding.”
The Ducks (5-0, 2-0 Pacific-10 Conference) learned some things about themselves after defeating Stanford (4-1, 1-1 Pac-10), 52-31, at Autzen Stadium Saturday. Some things are tangible: Oregon has the depth to be a second-half team, outscoring opponents 107-7 in five second halves this season. The Ducks can defend the turf at Autzen Stadium against the best, with 13 consecutive home wins.
Some things are intangible. Particularly, Oregon’s composure.
“(Head coach) Chip (Kelly) always tells us, ‘Just keep playing,’” said defensive end Kenny Rowe, who had five tackles and the only Oregon sack on the night. “‘Don’t worry about it. Just keep playing.’”
The Ducks’ calm in increasingly stressful situations – helped by another loud crowd of 59,818 at Autzen Stadium – was threatened just once. Facing a third-and-seven at the Stanford 43 in the first quarter, Oregon was penalized for an illegal substitution. An irate Kelly berated referees; the Ducks, trailing 14-3, looked out of sync.
On the very next play, Thomas threw his first interception, to linebacker Chase Thomas. Stepfan Taylor would score on a 44-yard run on the next play. Stanford led 21-3.
Things could not have been worse for the Ducks. Until they weren’t.
“Everyone was talking about how they were more physical than us,” said safety Eddie Pleasant, whose second-quarter fumble recovery set up a LaMichael James touchdown run. “We had to come out and show them (we could play to that level).”
Stanford’s offense, captained admirably by Luck, gave Oregon fits all night with power running and play-action passing. Slowly, but surely, the Ducks’ composure produced cracks in the Cardinal.
The breaking point came in the fourth quarter. Stanford had a third-and-goal opportunity from the Oregon 1-yard line, but Luck fumbled the snap and lost five yards recovering it.
“That mistake changed the momentum a little bit for us,” Rowe said.
On fourth and goal, Luck threw an incomplete pass to tight end Zach Ertz. The Cardinal never threatened again.
The 21-3 lead Stanford had built was a distant memory.
“We wasn’t shocked at all,” Harris said of that deficit. “We just knew we had to play hard and finish. We just had to give our all. They kind of slowed up at the end. They started giving up.”
Composure won the day for the Oregon Ducks.
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