Onterrio who?
No. 19 Oregon (7-2 overall, 3-2 Pacific-10 Conference) played Saturday
without its star running back, Onterrio Smith, but true freshman
Terrence
Whitehead played the part of a Heisman candidate in a 41-14 romp of
Stanford.
Whitehead rushed for 132 yards on 29 carries as Oregon snapped a
two-game
losing streak in front of 56,436 fans at Autzen Stadium.
“We wanted to make a statement,” said Oregon quarterback Jason Fife,
who was
20-of-36 for 254 yards and four total touchdowns. “We wanted to put up
as
many points as we could. We said, ‘Let’s just play flawless and kill
’em.’”
With its seventh win, Oregon also became bowl eligible for the ninth
straight year. “We cleared a lot of benchmarks today,” head coach Mike
Bellotti said. The Oregon defense, heavily criticized after giving up
big
plays in losses to Arizona State and USC in the past two weeks, held
the
Cardinal to 173 total yards, including 92 passing yards.
The Ducks said they had a vendetta against the Cardinal, who won here
last
year — Oregon’s only loss in 2001 — and celebrated at midfield. When
time
expired Saturday, the Ducks were the only ones marching on the Oregon
logo.
“Last year it hurt a little bit that Stanford celebrated, and they had
the
right to celebrate because they had a great victory,” said Oregon
defensive
tackle Igor Olshansky, who recorded two sacks against Stanford. “But we
wanted to make the point that we’re the only ones to celebrate on the
‘O’
from now on.”

After jumping out to a 28-0 lead after one quarter and a 38-7 lead at
halftime, the Ducks managed just 96 yards and one field goal in the
second
half, though they had the ball only three times. In fact, the Ducks ate
up
more than 12 minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter with a
23-play,
78-yard drive that ended with a 23-yard field goal by Jared Siegel, his
15th
straight of the season, a school record.
“We had a great effort in the first half,” Bellotti said, “and a
workman-like effort in the second half.”
Oregon started off its fireworks show early. On the opening drive of
the
game, Fife found tight end Tim Day for a one-yard score, Day’s first
career
touchdown catch.
Stanford, on its first possession, tried twice to go over the top of
Oregon
freshman cornerback Aaron Gipson, to no avail. After a Stanford punt,
Oregon
took possession at its own 22. On the first play, Whitehead took a
handoff,
cut outside and dashed for a 42 yard gain. Seven plays later, Fife
found
tight end George Wrighster, who made a nifty one-handed grab in the end
zone
to put the Ducks up 14-0.
“That was an awesome catch,” Fife said. “That was pretty much the only
place
I could put the ball.”
Less than five minutes later, Wrighster took a pitch and scored his
first
career rushing touchdown. Stanford again had trouble finding a rhythm
on its
next possession and was forced to punt. The snap, however, was slow and
rolled past Stanford punter Erick Johnson and all the way to the
Stanford
3-yard line, where Oregon took over.

Two plays later, Fife dove into the end zone to give Oregon a 28-0
first-quarter lead. Officially, Stanford totaled minus-15 yards in the
first
quarter, compared to 202 total yards for Oregon (101 rushing, 101
passing).
Prior to Saturday, Stanford was tops in the Pac-10 with 159 yards
rushing
per game, but the Cardinal were held to 81 yards on the ground against
Oregon.
“It’s great to get back on track,” said safety Keith Lewis, who
intercepted
Stanford third-string quarterback Ryan Eklund in the third quarter.
“You
have to have confidence. I would say we lost respect in the last couple
week, not confidence.”
Meanwhile, Smith, the Pac-10 leading rusher prior to Saturday, did not
suit
up for the game. He missed practice all of last week with a sore left
knee,
but said he will be ready to go Monday. “We did not want to risk losing
him
for the rest of the season,” Bellotti said.
NOTES: With two field goals in two attempts against Stanford, Siegel
extended his streak of consecutive field goal to 15, passing the
previous
school record held by Nathan Villegas in 1998. Bellotti has a 18-3
record in
games played in November. Senior wide receiver Keenan Howry, who had
three
receptions for 87 yards to extend his streak to 44 games with a catch,
tied
Tony Hartley (1996-99) for second on Oregon’s career receptions list
with
160. He needs three more to break Cristin McLemore’s (1992-95) school
record
of 162.
Contact the senior reporter at [email protected].