The Stanford Cardinal’s last victory over Oregon came in 2001, the only blemish in an otherwise perfect season for the Ducks. Consider Saturday’s result, then, the only blemish on the new-and-improved Ducks.
Toby Gerhart carried the ball 38 times for 223 yards and three touchdowns, and the Ducks’ penalties and mental miscues prevented them from catching up to Stanford’s suddenly potent offense in a 51-42 defeat, Oregon’s first in Pacific-10 conference play.
“That’s a great team right there. My hat goes off to them,” Ducks tight end Ed Dickson said. “The defense didn’t play well today. The offense didn’t play well either.”
Oregon (7-2, 5-1 Pac-10) outgained Stanford (6-3, 5-2) 570 yards to 505, but the Cardinal’s numbers were the most balanced. In addition to 254 rushing yards, freshman quarterback Andrew Luck had a banner game against a suddenly out-matched Oregon defense, completing 12 of 20 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns. Luck was sacked just once and never intercepted.
“They’re very balanced,” Oregon head coach Chip Kelly said. “They have two real talented players in Gerhart and Luck. We had trouble stopping them.”
Oregon was in a hole from the opening kickoff, when Stanford wide receiver Chris Owusu broke free from the coverage team and was finally chased down at the Oregon 16-yard line, a 77-yard return. The Ducks held them to a four-play, four-yard drive that ended in a 29-yard field goal by Nate Whitaker, but the offense went three and out on its first series. Luck and Gerhart helped engineer a nine-play, 75-yard drive off that defensive stop that ended in the senior running back’s first score of the night, a one-yard touchdown run.
Oregon responded with a 60-yard touchdown run from LaMichael James, who entered the endzone virtually untouched, but Stanford responded with another Toby Gerhart touchdown run, a four-yarder with 1:33 remaining in the first quarter.
“They schemed us perfectly,” defensive end Brandon Bair said. “The way they stacked more than one lineman in there (in the running game), more than the regular front in there, brought in more offensive lineman, it’s something we needed to adjust to and it took us too long to do it.”
An Oregon drive in attempt to answer for Gerhart’s touchdown runs was halted after six plays, and Stanford responded with an 87-yard, six-play drive that culminated in a touchdown pass from Luck to tight end James Bray. The two teams exchanged fumbles in the next two possessions – Dickson was stripped of the ball after a completion, and Gerhart fumbled the ball on the next play – before quarterback Jeremiah Masoli answered with a 29-yard strike to wide receiver Jeff Maehl.
Stanford fullback Owen Marecic, who also started at middle linebacker for the Cardinal, got involved in the offense with a two-yard touchdown run on the Cardinal’s next possession, the final score of the second half. The Ducks never were in control of the game – the Cardinal led the time-of-possession battle, 20:50-9:10, at the half, and Oregon committed six penalties to Stanford’s two.
“That’s the type of game where little things add up fast,” offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said.
Down 31-14 at the break, the Ducks came out of halftime looking to narrow the gap. Masoli threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Jamere Holland to pull the Oregon within 10 points, and Stanford went three-and-out on its next possession.
The next Oregon drive was quickly derailed, after wide receiver Jeff Maehl drew a pass intereference penalty on a 38-yard completion. Stanford took all of two plays – a 31-yard run by Gerhart and a 31-yard pass from Luck to Owusu – to score and bring the margin back up to 17.
“After halftime, we took a couple plays off there,” Helfrich said.
Stanford continued to match Oregon in the points column; a three-yard rushing touchdown by Masoli was quickly nullified by a 17-yard rushing touchdown by Gerhart. The third quarter ended on a befittingly dour note: Oregon’s first failed fourth-down conversion of Pac-10 play.
Smelling blood in the water, Stanford took greater control over the game in the fourth quarter. The Cardinal’s first drive of the period took 4:12, ending in a 41-yard field goal. The Ducks responded with a one-yard touchdown run by Barner, but a 4:26 Cardinal drive ate away at the clock. Masoli led a 54-second drive down the field, completing a 21-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Davis with 2:38 remaining, but the Cardinal recovered the onside kick and eventually iced the game with a field goal.
“We just kept leaning on each other hoping somebody would make a play,” Masoli said. “Eventually we did, but we ran out of time.”
And, with the finality of the second loss, out of any national conversation.
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