All hope is not lost in Duckland.
If the Ducks can take anything from a stunning 45-42 loss to Arizona State, it’s that they’ve been there before. Not often, but they’ve been there.
The Ducks lost to underdog Stanford on Oct. 20, 2001 — their only loss last season — in a nearly identical situation.
Last season, Oregon returned home from three road wins at 6-0, were a top-10 team and the favorite to run through the Pacific-10 Conference. The Ducks were heavy favorites against the Cardinal. And they had a 23-game home-winning streak, the longest in the nation, to protect.
But the Ducks blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead, thanks in large part to two blocked punts, in a 49-42 Stanford win.
From then on, the Ducks’ mantra was that they would not let Stanford beat them twice.
“We have to come back from this,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said after the loss to Stanford.
They did. The Ducks won their final five games of 2001, including a Fiesta Bowl victory that secured a season-ending No. 2 ranking.
This season, on Oct. 19 (almost exactly one year after the Stanford loss), Oregon was also 6-0 after consecutive road wins. They returned home No. 6 in the country and the only undefeated team left in the Pac-10. Oregon had a school-record 11-game winning streak, the second longest in the nation.
And the rest is history. Andrew Walter had 536 passing yards. ASU 45, Oregon 42.
“It’s just déjá vu,” Oregon safety Keith Lewis said. “The same thing happened last year, at the same point in the season. We gave up too many big plays today.”
Walter, Arizona State’s sophomore quarterback, had a career day as he set the Pac-10 record for passing yards while tearing apart the Oregon secondary.
Oregon’s task now is to forget Walter. Forget ASU.
“We can’t let ASU beat us twice,” Oregon linebacker David Moretti said.
After losing to Stanford last year, the Ducks went to Pullman, Wash., and dropped Washington State, then undefeated, to get back on track. This week, Oregon faces a tough USC squad at Autzen Stadium.
“Nobody wants to lose again. We’ll bounce back,” Oregon tailback Onterrio Smith said.
“It’s not if you get knocked down, but if you get back up,” Bellotti said.