Oregon’s loss to now-No. 3 Washington State on Saturday signaled something many Duck players have yet to see.
A year with three losses.
Only the 13 seniors who dotted the Oregon roster as freshmen in 1999 have experienced a season like this, although each played a small role — if any — in the Ducks’ 9-3 year.
Now the group — about to play its final game at Autzen Stadium on Saturday against Washington — hopes to avoid another loss.
“You really don’t want losses on your record when you’re a senior, but some of those things you really can’t control,” Rasuli Webster said. “There’s a couple of those games where we could’ve taken control, but we didn’t. But we took our losses and hopefully we’ll get better from them.”
Since 1999, the Ducks have lost just nine games, with six of those losses coming in the last three campaigns. In 2000, Oregon finished 10-2, with its only losses coming to Wisconsin and Oregon State. Last season’s only blemish was Stanford’s come-from-behind 49-42 victory at Autzen that ended Oregon’s 23-game home winning streak.
“The program has changed a lot,” senior Allan Amundson said. “We’ve gone from a decent program to an awesome team. When we start to lose a little bit, we’re not quite used to it.
“This program has come through a lot, a lot of changes. So when we start to lose, and we lose three games, it seems like the end of the world.”
How the Ducks answer back to last week’s 32-21 loss will be vital to keeping loss No. 4 off the stat sheet.
“We just need to win,” Webster said. “We need to beat the Dawgs. I think we kind of sat back on Monday, just talked a little bit, to get the team chemistry, see how everybody feels. I think we’re up to the challenge. I think we’re just ready to go out there and play.”
The Ducks say the season is not lost. While Oregon is far from knowing where it will go bowling, the Ducks say they know they need to step up their play to defeat the Huskies and Oregon State on Nov. 23.
“I think it’s still a good season,” Webster said. “We still have a lot of football ahead of us, and hopefully we can pull the rest of our games out.”
Oregon was in a similar situation earlier this season after losing two-straight to Arizona State and USC. A week after falling to the Trojans, the Ducks came back and dominated in a 41-14 victory over Stanford.
But then came the loss to the Cougars.
“We’re 7-3, and I don’t talk about the past,” head coach Mike Bellotti said. “I talk about looking forward to this week, playing the Huskies, getting back on the winning track. Really, if you go back and let past things grab you, it doesn’t work.”
What distinguishes the current season from the last three-loss campaign is the fact that Oregon has lost three of its last four games. In 1999, the Ducks lost two straight to Washington and UCLA, but surrounded those defeats
with victories.
This is new ground for Oregon. No player on the roster has had a period of losing like this. But it hasn’t deterred them from looking forward to Washington.
“I just think you’ve got to keep going,” Webster said. “Things don’t go your way sometimes and you’ve just got to push through them. Those three games just didn’t go our way. We just have to push through them, beat the Dawgs, then go down to Oregon State and win the bowl game.”
As for Webster and Amundson, and the rest of the Duck seniors, it is important for them to stay away from their worst season — record-wise — since they’ve been at Oregon.
“I believe they’ll go out as the winningest program during their time in the Pac-10, and that’s an awesome accomplishment, a tremendous thing to take with them their entire lives,” Bellotti said.
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