It’s been rumored that USC quarterback Caleb Williams wants partial ownership of whichever team selects him in the 2024 NFL Draft. The Oregon Ducks took full ownership of Williams’ Trojans on Saturday night.

To be fair, Williams had moments of greatness while leading his offense against the Ducks. The problem was that the Trojans had by far the second-best offense in the contest. Oregon’s was too good to keep up with.

The two quick drives that the Ducks strung together were the flashy and fun ones, but a series of lone drives later in the game sealed Oregon’s ninth win of the season.

It’ll be the Ducks’ first two drives, that consisted of 14 points on just five plays, that get the most attention and will show up on the highlight reels. 

But the longer drives, even some that didn’t result in points, were the true difference in the 36-27 Oregon win.

The Ducks’ third drive of the game was one of these drives. Oregon used 13 plays to travel 75 yards and score to go up 19-7 on USC. A string of smaller chunk plays that took six minutes and eight seconds off the clock and extended the Ducks’ lead.

It also kept Oregon’s defense off the field and gave it time to rest up for USC’s next drive, which resulted in a  punt and led to another Ducks’ scoring drive, a field goal to again extend the lead. 

“Anytime [our] offense has the ball, they can not only score at any time, but they can control the clock,” Oregon linebacker Evan Williams said. “They have that one-play explosive ability, and defenses have to respect that. And [the offense] can drag clock out when necessary. That’s huge for a defense and we love giving the ball back to [our offense].”

Largely thanks to that long scoring drive, Oregon limited USC to only 14 points in the first half and took a 22-14 lead into the half.

Then, after receiving the second-half kickoff, the Ducks put together their longest drive of the day.

Oregon, starting on its own 15-yard line, used six minutes and 43 seconds to go 85 yards in 12 plays and score again. Now up 29-14, the Ducks’ had some breathing room. Another scoring drive later in the quarter gave Oregon a three-score lead with one frame of football left to play.

USC had 15 minutes to score three times and shut down the Oregon offense, something it hadn’t been able to do all game.

In a three-score game, every minute matters. Every play the leading team possesses the ball for, it has a chance to run nearly a minute off the clock. 

In that scenario, one of Oregon’s few non-scoring drives on Saturday may have been the most important of the entire game. Already with a three-score lead, the Ducks got the ball back midway through the fourth quarter.

Oregon used nine plays to go 52 yards on a drive that would end on a Camden Lewis 43-yard field goal attempt. He missed it, but it almost didn’t seem to matter. The Ducks sucked five minutes on the drive, taking a major cut out of USC’s hopes to come back.

The truth is, the Trojans’ offense is one of the best in college football. But at that point in the game, the Oregon defense wasn’t USC’s biggest obstacle, it was the diminishing clock.

The Trojans’ offense only got four drives in the second half, thanks in large part to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning’s clock management. An area, he said, the Ducks’ could have done even better in.

“I think, honestly, we can do a better job with that,” Lanning said. “There were some drives where we kind of stalled out and we didn’t use as much of the clock as we should have. That’s something that we’ll critique ourselves with on managing that a little better.”

The best way to stop USC’s powerful offense was to keep it off the field. Oregon earned an advantage in time-of-possession to do just that. 

With all the criticism that Lanning has received in his tenure as Oregon’s head coach, he took major steps in his game management by winding down the clock to continue the Trojans’ late-season spiral.

The long touchdown passes to Tez Johnson and Troy Franklin early in the game were the ones that made Autzen Stadium erupt. But it was the long drives late in the game that sent the fans home happy.