SAN DIEGO, Calif.. – A couple of inches decided the winner of the Holiday Bowl Thursday night as Oklahoma (8-4 overall, 6-2 Big 12 Conference) held on to defeat No. 6 Oregon (10-2, 7-1 Pacific-10 Conference), 17-14.

A record 65,416 fans witnessed the Sooners dominate the third quarter on both sides of the ball and escape from Qualcomm Stadium after a late Oregon rally failed.

Oklahoma linebacker Clint Ingram intercepted a pass by Oregon quarterback Brady Leaf at the Oklahoma 10-yard line with 33 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

“I fully believe we would have won that football game; a couple of inches on that last pass,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said.

Leaf found receiver Demetrius Williams open near the five-yard line, but decided to forfeit touch for quickness during the pass.

“I just underthrew the ball a little bit,” Leaf said. “I saw (Ingram) … (I thought) just take the trajectory off of it a little bit, try get the ball to (Williams) a little bit quicker, and I just didn’t get it high enough.”

Despite the final score, the Ducks erased a double-digit deficit in the final four minutes of the game and made key defensive stop after stop in the closing quarter. Leaf found Tim Day in the back of the end zone with 3:30 remaining to close the gap to three points.

The Ducks forced a three and out on the Sooners’ ensuing possession and had the ball at its 22-yard line with one timeout and 3:04 left in regulation.

Leaf guided the Ducks down the field, converting two third downs. With the ball in field goal range and the clock under its control, Oregon went for victory.

“I didn’t want to give them too much time; we didn’t want to score too early,” Bellotti said. “I knew we could always kick the field goal to tie it up, at that time obviously we were all thinking ‘win the football game, and win it right now.’”

Excluding their final two drives, the Oregon offense was stale for most of the game.  The Ducks finished with 327 total yards – 137 came on the final two possessions. Meanwhile the defense could only hold on for so long before a quarter of struggles.

In the third quarter Oklahoma scored a touchdown on each of its two possessions, amassed 169 yards of offense and held the Ducks to negative-nine total yards.

The biggest story of the quarter was the change of momentum for the Oklahoma rushing game. Oregon held the Sooners to 28 rushing yards in the first half while star tailback Adrian Peterson gained eight yards on eight carries. That changed in the second half as
Oklahoma finished with 132 rushing yards, 83 in the third quarter.

“What they did in the second half was run more laterally that created some gaps,” Bellotti said. “When they ran at us we did a great job. Some of the biggest plays came when we stuffed it inside, at the point of attack, and they reversed and we didn’t quite stay alive as much as we talked about.”

The teams combined for the lowest scoring first half of a Holiday Bowl game with the Ducks leading 7-3 at halftime.

Oklahoma got on the board first with a 34-yard field goal on its first possession of the game. Oregon answered with a 12 play, 79-yard drive capped by a five-yard touchdown run by Williams on third and goal with 2:58 remaining in the first quarter.

The Ducks’ failed to record its 11th victory of the season – a school record held by the 2001-02 team. However, only two previous teams have accomplished 10 wins in one season.

Of the 22 players that started the Holiday Bowl, Oregon could potentially return 14 next season, including eight on offense.