The season didn’t exactly begin the way Oregon had planned.
Behind a total of seven turnovers for the game, the Ducks (0-1 overall) lost their season and home opener 30-24 to Indiana (2-0) in front of 57,550 people at Autzen Stadium Saturday.
The talk after the game centered around Oregon’s offense and its four fumbles in the first half that led to 20 Indiana points. At halftime, the Hoosiers led 23-0.
“We turned the ball over too many times,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “I thought their defense played very well.”
In addition, the Oregon run defense had trouble stopping Indiana’s rushing attack. Hoosiers running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis had 91 rushing yards on 29 carries and quarterback Matt LoVecchio had 23 rushing yards on 12 carries.
The Hoosiers jumped out early in the first quarter to a 17-0 lead after capitalizing on fumbles by Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens, punt returner Aaron Gipson and running back Terrence Whitehead, who fumbled twice.
Indiana scored its first touchdown with six minutes left when Green-Ellis ran 19 yards to put Indiana up 10-0.
When Hoosiers’ kicker Bryan Robertson made a 31-yard field goal with seven and a half minutes left in the second quarter, the Indiana lead blossomed to 23-0 going into halftime.
Right then, the energy and buzz that surrounded the stadium before the game deflated. Oregon fans began booing their team as the players entered the locker room.

Ducks receiver Demetrius Williams said it was a tough first half to watch and all the players were looking around for anyone to make a play.
“You see the scoreboard and you’re saying to yourself, ‘We got to make a play. Somebody needs to make a play and step up at some point,’” said Williams, who had five catches for 129 yards. “I think that in the second half we showed that we can make plays, but we just came up a little short.”
The beginning of the third quarter brought a glimmer of hope when Clemens threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to fullback Daunte Rosario. Kicker Jared Siegel then hit a 33-yard field goal to narrow Indiana’s lead to 23-10.
On the ensuing kickoff, Indiana’s Lance Bennett ran 98 yards for a touchdown to give the Hoosiers a 30-10 lead. It was the first time a Hoosier had a kickoff return for a touchdown since Derin Graham against Kentucky on Sept. 18, 1999.
Oregon, however, answered right back when Clemens completed a 59-yard touchdown pass to Williams to cut the lead to 13 again at 30-17 with two minutes left in the third quarter.
Things seemed to go in the Ducks’ favor entering the fourth quarter after another touchdown pass from Clemens to Rosario closed the deficit to 30-24.

“For the most part, they gave us chances to come back,” Bellotti said. “I was proud of the way this team came back in the second half, but obviously I’m very disappointed.”
The Ducks had a chance to close within three points on their next drive, but Siegel missed a 35-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide left.
With a little over four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Oregon had two more chances to take the lead with a single touchdown, but Clemens threw two more interceptions to essentially seal his team’s fate. For the game, Clemens completed 24 of 44 passes (55 percent) for 317 yards, threw three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Bellotti said afterward that he knows his quarterback can play much better and hopefully his team learned a lesson.
“Kellen can play better. He knows that I know that,” Bellotti said. “It was a very difficult first game, obviously. Hopefully we learn some lessons from this game about … whether we underestimated our opponent.
“We gave them too many opportunities and we started a little too late to come back,” he said.
No one foresaw the Ducks losing the game to Indiana when, on the first play of the game, Oregon kick returner Kenny Washington ran 100 yards for an apparent touchdown. The Ducks ended up having a penalty that wiped out the touchdown.
Washington said the penalty call didn’t make him as angry as the way his team played after that and giving the Hoosiers a comfortable lead at halftime.
“When it happened, it was just unbelievable, and the fact that they called it back wasn’t a big deal because you’re so pumped up,” said Washington, who had nine carries for 78 yards. “But I was just disappointed on the way we played after that because I thought we could get past that.”
The Ducks now look forward to next Saturday’s big game when they travel to face national championship contender Oklahoma at 12:30 p.m.

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