It wasn’t always pretty. In fact, it started out down right ugly, but Oregon (4-1 overall, 1-1 conference) overcame an early deficit to wrap up its first Pacific-10 Conference victory of the season – 44-20 over Stanford (1-2, 0-1) on Saturday.
By the time the first quarter was over, the Ducks trailed 10-7.
After the opening kickoff was a touchback, the Ducks’ first series began with Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens being sacked for a six-yard loss. Oregon then drove down the field to the Stanford 21-yard line, where they turned it over on downs. The Ducks had two plays for which they only needed to gain one yard but failed, and Stanford came away with the ball and holding the Ducks without any points on the opening series.
Stanford then punted on its first series and Clemens threw an interception on the first play of Oregon’s second series. That was about as bad as it got.
Clemens, who threw for 292 yards in the first half, had touchdown passes on three consecutive possessions during a 12 minute 27 second stretch of the first and second quarters.
“We thought the great match-up for us was our receivers against their secondary,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said.
Stanford connected on a 31-yard field goal with six seconds remaining in the first half to cut the halftime score to 21-13.
The Ducks began the second half by forcing Stanford into a three and out for negative 10 yards. That wasn’t the only good series for the Oregon defense as it allowed only 15 total yards in the second half.
“I was really pleased with the way our defense came out to play that second half,” Bellotti said. “We overcame some of our own mistakes, our inability to contain in the first half. It really made the whole difference.”
Keyed by the return of defensive end Devan Long, the Ducks pressured the backfield and forced Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards to scramble.
“In the first half, they victimized him. He was one of the culprits in terms of not finishing plays,” Bellotti said. “(In the second half) he just did some things with effort, which is what we have come to expect of Devan Long.”
Long had missed the past three games after suffering a leg injury in the season-opener against Houston on Sept. 1 and it showed early.
“The first half I was blowing up, my legs, my brace was wrapped too tight, everything was going wrong and my mind was clouded and I just wasn’t there. I was running around with my head cut off,” Long said. “I went out in the second half with a smile on my face, changed my shoes, got my little fast shoes on and I was like, ‘I’m just going to have fun.’ I was just running around with my boys.”
Penalties hurt the Ducks as they were penalized 16 times for 170 yards. Half of those came in the second half for 105 yards.
“I am frustrated by the penalties, that were way too many,” Bellotti said. “Some of them were penalties of aggression. I can appreciate that. I don’t condone it, but I appreciate it.”
It was only 9 yards from setting the record for most penalty yards in a game.
On the positive side, several true freshmen outperformed the Cardinal on their own. Running backs Jonathan Stewart and Jeremiah Johnson accounted for four touchdowns in filling in for Terrence Whitehead, who didn’t play because of an injury and started the previous four games this season.
Stewart scored his first three offensive touchdowns of his collegiate career. He caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Clemens in the first quarter to get the Ducks on the scoreboard and rushed for two more touchdowns in the third quarter.
Johnson, who was planning on redshirting this year and worked on the scout team, rushed for a team-high 63 yards on 11 carries and scored his first career touchdown on a 5-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Long wasn’t the only veteran that stepped up. Clemens, who threw for 393 yards in less than three quarters, became the fourth Oregon quarterback to surpass 7,000 career total yards. He is just 8 total yards from passing current Detroit Lion quarterback Joey Harrington and 17 passing yards from surpassing Chris Miller for fourth on the all-time passing yardage list.
Sloppy UO overpowers Stanford
Daily Emerald
October 2, 2005
Oregon wide receiver Demetrius Williams came up clutch in the first quarter of a 44-20 victory over Stanford on Saturday. Williams caught four passes for 103 yards, including a 43-yard grab on the Ducks’ first scoring possession.
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