EL PASO, Texas — The game of inches came down to a matter
feet.
After a game that had more than 850 yards of total offense, a field
goal by Minnesota’s Rhys Lloyd ultimately did in the Ducks.
With Oregon barely holding on, Lloyd took on a strong wind and an
onslaught by the Ducks’ defensive line to clear the uprights
by just a few feet with 28.3 seconds left in the game. The ball may
have been tipped — Oregon players said it was — but it sent the
Golden Gophers to a 31-30 victory Wednesday in front of 49,894 at
the Sun Bowl.
“I was a little shaky when it came down to the last kick, but all I
told (Lloyd) was to hit it good,” Minnesota head coach Glen Mason
said. “My concern at that point was to keep my team off of the
field to avoid a penalty.”
Minnesota (10-3 overall) drove 55 yards on 16 plays in a span of 3
minutes and 53 seconds to take the come-from-behind victory. The
kick came a little more than four minutes after Oregon’s Jared
Siegel sank a 47-yard field goal to put the Ducks up by two.
“They made plays when they needed to do and did a good job on their
last series,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said.
The climactic field goal overshadowed impressive offensive
performances for both teams. Minnesota ran for 241 yards and Oregon
passed for 376.
Overall, the teams combined for more than 860 yards of total
offense. That included a number of Sun Bowl records, mostly by the
Oregon offense.
Playing in his last game for the Ducks, Oregon wide receiver Samie
Parker caught 16 passes — a Sun Bowl record and an Oregon
single-game record. He was awarded the C.M. Hendricks Most
Valuable Player award.
The 16 receptions gave him 77 this season, an Oregon record. Not
stopping there, the 77 receptions this season gave him 180 for his
career in Eugene, yet another school record.
Parker also totaled 200 yards of receptions against the Golden
Gophers, placing him seventh on Oregon’s all-time single-game
list.
“I think we had a pretty good day today,” Parker said of he and
quarterback Kellen Clemens. “We knew one of their guys (Trumaine
Banks) got sent home and they wanted to move a safety
into there.”
Clemens also had a career day, connecting on 32 of 42 pass attempts
for 363 yards and three touchdowns. He connected on two with Parker
— an 18-yarder in the second quarter and a 40-yarder with 3:09
left in the third. He also found a streaking Dante Rosario for a
9-yard touchdown strike to start the game’s scoring early in the
second quarter.
Despite Clemens strong play, he questioned himself after the
game, wondering what might have been had he connected on an
intended touchdown pass to quarterback-turned-wide-receiver Jason
Fife two plays before Siegel’s final field goal.
“Perhaps, if I had made that play we would have won that game,”
Clemens said. “It would have forced them to score a touchdown
instead of kicking a field goal to win it.”
Perhaps. But Minnesota’s 241 rushing yards on 55 attempts is
probably what did in the Ducks (8-5). Laurence Maroney led the
Golden Gophers with 131 yards on 15 carries, which included
a 3-yard run on a 4th-and-1 from Oregon’s 36 on the final
drive.
Thomas Tapeh averaged just 3.1 yards per carry but scored three
touchdowns. Marion Barber III rounded out Minnesota’s running trio
with 37 yards rushing.

“We did our best,” Oregon defensive end Quinn Dorsey said. “They
had way too many third-down conversions (9 of 17). Our whole
defense didn’t do what it needed to do in that aspect.”
The Ducks, meanwhile, chose not to run the ball, evidenced by
almost twice as many pass attempts. Terrence Whitehead lead Oregon
with 35 yards but ran the ball just six times.
Kenny Washington also had just six rushing attempts, turning them
into 28 yards.
“They’re a good team and they made plays,” Rosario said. “It’s
tough, especially for the seniors.”
Those seniors that played their last game for the Ducks include
Parker, Fife and linebacker Kevin Mitchell.
Fife saw a number of plays at wide receiver. He took on the
third-receiver roll after freshman Kyle Weatherspoon went down with
a hamstring injury a few days before the game. Fife didn’t catch a
pass but did complete one to Clemens on a lateral pass
trick-play.
“I felt good,” Fife said. “I felt fast, I was open a couple times.
(Clemens) just couldn’t get it to me. I had fun nonetheless.
“We were going to do (the pass play) regardless of what happened in
the game. It was fun.”
Mitchell had nine tackles and was credited with a forced fumble in
the fourth quarter — one that Igor Olshansky recovered and led to
Siegel’s final field goal.
Siegel’s 30-yard field goal as time expired in the first half gave
the Ducks a 17-14 lead. Neither team could get much momentum in the
first quarter, but the Ducks and Golden Gophers stuck to what got
them through the regular season in the second.
Clemens completed 10 passes in the first quarter and kept Oregon
moving in the second by going 8 of 10 for 97 yards and two
touchdowns. Minnesota, meanwhile, ran for 5 yards in the first
quarter, but the Golden Gopher trio ran for 83 yards in the
second.
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for Oregon. The Ducks
defeated California, UCLA and Oregon State to finish out their
Pacific-10 Conference slate to send them to El Paso.
“I think all our seniors deserve credit for turning the season
around,” Bellotti said.