PULLMAN, Wash. — Appropriately, a guy named Green buried the Ducks at Martin Stadium on Saturday. A guy named Gesser didn’t help Oregon’s chances, either.
Wary of Washington State’s Heisman candidate, senior quarterback Jason Gesser, the Ducks forgot about the Cougars’ running back, Jermaine Green. Gesser threw for 277 yards and four touchdowns while Green gained 180 yards on 25 carries as the No. 3 Cougars (9-1 overall, 6-0 Pacific-10 Conference) ended a four-game losing skid to the Ducks with a 32-21 win in front of 37,600 fans.
Offensively, the No. 23 Ducks (7-3, 3-3) totaled just 252 yards, their lowest output of the season, including a dismal two-yard effort in the third quarter. Onterrio Smith, who snuck up on the Cougars for a school-record 285 yards here last year, took the brunt of the WSU beating Saturday, as he ended up with a season-low 64 yards on 25 carries and two nagging injuries.
“This is very difficult to take,” said Oregon quarterback Jason Fife, who was 16-of-35 for 192 yards with one touchdown and one interception. “The (Oregon) defense did everything it needed to. The offense was just ineffective today. A lot of that ineffectiveness falls on me.”
For three quarters, the Oregon defense seemed to do it all — including the offense. Junior cornerback Steven Moore, on a blitz in the first quarter, swiped the ball out of Gesser’s hands and ran 12 yards the other way for Oregon’s first touchdown. On the second play of the second half, junior linebacker Kevin Mitchell intercepted a Gesser pass and returned it 20 yards for a score to give Oregon a 21-17 lead.
“Our defense played with great character,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “They scored two touchdowns and gave us a chance to win the game.”
But Oregon’s defensive 11 could only play like 22 for so long. After holding the Cougars to just a field goal in three straight possessions that started in Oregon territory in the third quarter, the Duck “D” bent in the end.
Washington State 6-foot-6 receiver Mike Bush beat freshman corner Marques Binns for a jump ball in the end zone to give the Cougars a 26-21 lead with 8:56 left. Less than a minute later, Binns was again beat — this time by Devard Darling for a 46-yard score — though that play was a bit out of the ordinary. Binns made a nice play to tip the ball, but it bounced up and fell into Darling’s hands.
“This is very frustrating,” said senior receiver Jason Willis, who had his first career touchdown catch in 87 career receptions, which turned out to be Oregon’s only offensive score. “This is the first time I’ve lost to WSU. It hurts. It hurts a lot.”
With two games remaining — the home finale Saturday against Washington and the Civil War in Corvallis — the Ducks stand in fifth place in the Pac-10, and are projected to go to the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 25.
Smith, who sat out of the Stanford game last week with a minor knee injury, was poked in the eye during Oregon’s first drive Saturday. As he was escorted off the field, Cougar fans cheered. He also injured his foot in the second quarter, and took just three handoffs in the second half.
“That was without class,” Bellotti said of WSU fans’ cheerful reaction to Smith’s first-quarter injury. “This is the only stadium where I’ve heard someone cheer when a player got hurt.”
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