Oregon offensive coordinator Gary Crowton might have said, “Let’s open the bag of tricks and introduce the Arizona State fans to a little thing we call ‘trickeration’.”
Or maybe he just felt tired of not seeing any deceptive, fling-it-down-the-field plays.
Whatever the reason, Oregon (5-1 overall, 2-1 conference) brought out the fun bag en route to a 31-17 victory over then-No. 17 Arizona State (3-3, 1-2) Saturday night in Tempe, Ariz.
“(Crowton’s) mind is yet to open up,” Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens said. “We are just out there having fun.”
Wide receiver Demetrius Williams ran for 22 yards on the Ducks’ opening play, weaving through defenders before smacking into a fellow Duck near midfield.
“It’s real fun when you have an offensive coordinator who is open to anything,” Williams said. “You’ll come to the sideline and say, ‘Coach, we can do this.’ And he doesn’t care. He goes with it.”
Oregon brought out the flea-flicker for the first time in a while, and it worked. For 61 yards to Williams inside the Arizona State 10-yard line.
“(Clemens) made a great play and I just felt it was my duty to go make a play for him,” Williams said.
Terrence Whitehead took a forward lateral from Clemens for a six-yard touchdown on the following play to tie the game at 10 midway through the second quarter.
“We were trying to show the defense some different stuff,” Whitehead said. “Trying to be balanced and go with whatever works for us.”
The Ducks even brought out the halfback pass, which failed to reach Clemens, who had slipped out down the left sideline.
“I told Terrence he’s 0 for 2 now on passes, and I don’t think he liked that,” Clemens said.
With exception of the miscue on the throw, Whitehead picked through the Sun Devil defense with ease. He gained 122 rushing yards and one touchdown on 21 carries. Whitehead also caught nine passes for 100 yards and one touchdown. After sitting out last week’s win at Stanford, Whitehead says he felt fresh and relaxed.
“I felt really good coming off the injury, pretty healthy,” Whitehead said. “My leg was rested, so it was fun.”
Clemens threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns, with Williams accounting for 108 of those yards and one touchdown. This was the 10th 100-plus receiving yard game for Williams in his career, tops all-time among Oregon athletes.
The Oregon special teams came up with a clutch blocked punt in the third quarter. Nick Reed broke through the blockers and recovered the ball at the one-yard line. Whitehead punched it in on the next play, scoring the game-winning touchdown.
The secondary held Arizona State wide receiver Derek Hagan to four catches for 46 yards, a season-low on yardage. Hagan, who ranks fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference in career receiving yards with 3,368, had been averaging more than seven catches and 116 receiving yards per game.
“It all comes down to execution,” Hagan said. “We just didn’t execute on offense at all tonight. All week in practice we weren’t executing and that’s where it all really starts. Once game time comes around, we have to be ready to play.”