With the freshmen students on campus and entering Autzen for the first time, the student section was a madhouse on Saturday night.
The Ducks found a way to pull away from the Wildcats, defeating them 41-19.
The students kept the northwest corner of the stadium packed all game, and their noise proved to be a factor all night. To the tune of a hollering crowd, it only took three plays for the Ducks to open the scoring.
Anthony Brown found Jaylon Redd streaking across the field, who broke a tackle and steamed ahead before crossing the goal line. As he ran into the endzone nearest to the student section, the stadium erupted as if to send momentum to the home sideline.
“Jaylon made a great run after the catch, breaking two tackles and just taking off,” Brown said.
Brown finished the game with 10 completions for 206 yards and three touchdowns.
On the very next play from scrimmage, Arizona quarterback Jordan McCloud threw a pick on the Wildcats’ 25-yard line, setting up the Ducks for another score.
McCloud would go on to throw four more interceptions on the night.
After starting their second drive close to the red zone, the Ducks settled for a 21-yard field goal, putting them up two possessions less than three minutes into the game.
The Wildcats soon found rhythm on the offensive side that carried over to the second half.
With his first start of the season, McCloud continuously made timely plays, consistently leading the Wildcats down the field and into the redzone. Arizona capped off a nine-play drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass from McCloud to Bryce Wolma.
Arizona finished the game with 202 yards on the ground and 435 total yards, outgaining the Ducks in both categories.
Following a CJ Verdell score that put the Ducks back up by 10, the Wildcats managed to march back to the redzone. Arizona, threatening to score, turned the ball over in the endzone due to a miraculous pick by Mykael Wright, who barely tapped his foot in bounds to secure the catch.
Entering the third quarter up 24-10, the Ducks allowed Arizona to hang around. After forcing a safety and a few shaky calls from the referees, the Wildcats were able to surge down the field and score on the 12th play of the drive, reducing the Oregon lead to five.
“All these teams have really good football players. And, if you allow a team to continually make plays and get in there, you can find yourself in a dog fight,” Cristobal said.
Oregon’s first drive of the fourth quarter wasn’t pretty, but they were able to get within Camden Lewis’ range in nine plays. Lewis nailed a 43-yarder, continuing to be a bright spot for the Ducks this year, with a 100% season field goal percentage on five attempts.
The following possession, Oregon was able to force the Wildcats to punt for only the second time, and it couldn’t have come at a better moment.
The Ducks, with an opportunity to make it a two-possession game late in the fourth, put together a 4-minute drive –– which ended with Brown finding a wide open Spencer Webb for an insurance score.
With a pick six from Bennett Williams the next drive, the Oregon lead increased to 22, and it stayed that way for the remainder.
“Turnovers [were] a bright spot. Winning the fourth quarter [was] a brightspot –– still a lot of stuff to improve on,” Cristobal said.
The Ducks look ahead to next week where they will play Stanford at 12:30 p.m on Oct. 2.
