Oregon’s fortunes may have been foreshadowed during the initial drive of its 28-14 victory over Arizona on Saturday at
Autzen Stadium.
The Ducks drove the ball down the field methodically and had it on the Arizona two-yard line when it appeared that Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens fumbled the
ball while trying to scramble toward the
end zone.
Fortunately for Oregon, the officials said Clemens was down and Arizona head
coach Mike Stoops was on the field
showing his displeasure for the
call, resulting in an unsportsmanlike
conduct penalty.
“It was a fumble, and they missed it,” Stoops said. “When things aren’t going right, it seems like you don’t get those calls.”
After the play, Clemens said he spoke with the official.
“I shared my opinion with the ref that my knee was down,” Clemens said.
But when asked if his knee was down, Clemens smiled and said, “Uh, I don’t know.”

Running back Terrence Whitehead leaped into the end zone for the first of his three touchdowns on the next play and gave the Ducks a 7-0 lead.
That’s the type of game it would be for the Wildcats.
Oregon would eventually build a 28-0 lead with the help of its stingy defense, which held the worst offense in the Pacific-10 Conference to a mere 266 yards. Most of those yards came in the final quarter when Oregon had second and third-string players in the game on defense.
“The defense played a bend-but-don’t-break defense in the first half,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said, “then was dominant in the second half except for those last two drives.”
Oregon cornerback Aaron Gipson,
who picked off two passes in the game,
said he wanted to stay in to preserve
the shutout.
“With five minutes to go, coach came up to us and said he wanted to put the backups in and see how they played in a pressure situation,” Gipson said. “I wanted to be on the field for the shutout. I started it off, and I wanted to end it.”
Another massive force for the Ducks on defense was the 6-foot-5, 345-pound Haloti Ngata. He was blowing through Arizona linemen and creating havoc while tallying eight total tackles, three tackles for losses, two quarterback hurries and half a sack.
“I felt more active than I have all season,” Ngata said. “With our defensive line being so good, I was able to be single-blocked and make some plays.”
While the Oregon defense was stuffing Arizona, the offense kept its momentum from last Saturday’s win against Washington State and totaled 492 yards.
“Our offense as a group carried over the confidence built in the fourth quarter of the Washington State game,” Bellotti said.
Clemens appeared confident in the pocket for the second consecutive week and completed 21 of 30 passes for 336 yards and one touchdown. Clemens has now thrown a touchdown pass in 11 straight games.
“I thought Kellen was very sharp today,” Bellotti said. “His comfort zone in the pocket and his touch on the ball was excellent. He gave the guys a chance to catch the football.”
Clemens’ favorite target Saturday was Demetrius Williams, who pulled in nine passes for 153 yards.
“He’s getting one-on-one situations,” Clemens said. “Demetrius will kill a guy one-one-one. I’m just throwing it out there, and he gets them.”

As sharp as the offense was, it did sputter a couple of times, turning the ball over twice on broken fourth-down plays.
The first was a fumbled snap between Clemens and center Enoka Lucas.
On the other fourth-down miscue, Clemens was stepped on by his own offensive lineman and stumbled back and fell for a 7-yard loss.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Bellotti said. “Those things are hard to handle as a coach when you take the risk of going for it on fourth down and not even getting the
play off.”
Clemens said he is to blame for the second miscue.
“I should have kept my feet if I was any sort of an athlete,” Clemens said.
Oregon’s penalty woes didn’t disappear
after a week of practice concentrated on
limiting penalties. The Ducks, who lead the conference in penalties, were penalized 11 times for 114 yards, and one of them cost punt returner Justin Phinisee a touchdown.
“Somewhere down the line these penalties are going to get to us,” Phinisee said. “Until we can
eliminate those penalties,
when you think about
big bowl games, we’ll be just
another team.”
The penalties that occur during a play don’t bother Bellotti as much as the ones received before and after a play.
“I think there were some penalties by some people that were plain and simply stupid and selfish,” Bellotti said. “I’m going to find a way to get that across to them.”
Despite the penalty woes, Oregon has crawled its way back to a 3-3 overall record and a 2-1 conference record.
“We feel very good about being 2-1 and still being in the hunt,” Clemens said. “I think some
people might have thrown the
towel in for the 2004 season,
but we said the heck with
it, we’re going to go out and
play every game like it’s our
last one.”