PULLMAN, Wash. – Oregon trailed at halftime Saturday for the first time since its season opener against Houston after Washington State converted a 40-yard hail mary as the first half ended.
Washington State quarterback Alex Brink rolled to his right and lofted the ball toward the end zone, where receiver Jason Hill tipped the ball to himself between three Oregon defenders.
“Sheer luck, sheer luck,” Oregon cornerback Justin Phinisee said of the play. “Sometimes you get them – a 1 percent chance – they got that 1 percent.”
Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said he couldn’t remember another time that had happened against a team he had coached.
“They just outjumped us,” Bellotti said. “The ball was batted up instead of being spiked down and the whole deal there is to spike it down or make sure that they don’t catch it and obviously we failed. That’s a luck-type of play … the ball bounced up and their guy was the guy left standing, instead of our guy. That was unfortunate because it certainly gave them a little bit of momentum going into halftime.”
Washington State running back Jerome Harrison rushed for a 28-yard touchdown with 11 minutes 35 seconds remaining in the second quarter taking a 7-3 lead, which marked the first time Oregon trailed since a 7-0 deficit less than three minutes into the Washington game Oct. 15.
“He’s a great running back,” said Oregon defensive end Darius Sanders, who finished with two tackles for a loss, one sack and his first career interception. “He has great vision, he’s patient, he’s fast, he’s strong, he runs hard. I have the utmost respect for him.”
Harrison caught a 34-yard touchdown pass on the Cougars’ opening possession of the second half, boosting the lead to 21-10 with 12:51 remaining in the third quarter.
“Credit to him, he got his game ball today,” Phinisee said of Harrison.
Except the final score of Oregon’s loss to top-ranked USC, that is the biggest deficit the Ducks have faced this season.
Containment issues
Harrison, the nation’s second leading rusher with 172 average rushing yards per game, finished with 143 rushing yards on 28 carries with one touchdown. He also caught four passes for 38 yards and a touchdown.
“Fair at best,” Bellotti said about Oregon’s success of containing Harrison. “Jerome Harrison is a great back. He does a great job at the line. He’s a very patient runner, he sees the holes well and he has the burst of speed to elude people. I think he’s a very good running back and we did not do as well as we wanted to in terms of containing him.”
Harrison was the most productive on the ground in the second quarter when he rushed for 91 yards on eight carries. Excluding that quarter, Harrison rushed for 54 yards on 20 carries.
The game was delayed early in the third quarter after Harrison rushed for eight yards on the opening play of the second half. The rush established the Washington State single-season rushing yards record, which was previously held by Rueben Mayes (1,637). On the following play, Harrison rushed for 15 yards, breaking the 100-yard rushing barrier and establishing a new Pacific-10 Conference record with his 13th straight game of rushing for at least 100 yards.
Harrison currently has 1,693 rushing yards this season. His rushing touchdown extended his school record to 15 this season.

[email protected]