Adam Amato Emerald
The drive lasted 7:03 of third-quarter clock time, but seemed to stretch forever in real time.
Portland State started on its own 20-yard line and drove the length of the field using a wide array of Oregon miscues along the way. On fourth-and-12 from the Portland State 37-yard line, Keith Lewis was flagged for a roughing-the-kicker penalty on a punt. The Ducks were called for pass interference and holding. They missed tackles as Viking running back Ryan Fuqua slipped for three yards here, four yards there.
During the drive, “the penalties were too many for me to want to count,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “We weren’t playing smart.”
And at the end of it all, Portland State was supposed to score, supposed to capitalize. Instead, the Oregon defense drew a line on the Autzen Stadium NexTurf.
On second-and-nine from the Oregon 10, Duck linebacker Kevin Mitchell came on a blitz and drilled Viking quarterback Juston Wood for a loss of 10 yards. On the next play, Oregon linebacker David Moretti got in Wood’s face and caused an incomplete pass. On the next play, Portland State lined up for a field goal. Mitchell leapfrogged over Haloti Ngata, stuck his hand in the air.
Block.
On the worst defensive drive of the day for Oregon, Portland State couldn’t score. The Vikings never scored in the entire game, giving the Ducks their first shutout in 10 years, 41-0 at Autzen Stadium on Saturday.
“What (the stop) shows you is that we do have heart, we do have desire, and when you have those two things, you can do anything,” Mitchell said.
Bellotti said the performance of the defense was the highlight of the Ducks’ day, even while his offense put up 41 points.
The defense “dug down deep, because they were on the field a long time,” Bellotti said.
Oregon sacked Portland State quarterbacks five times for a loss of 31 yards. Mitchell led the way with two sacks, while Robby Valenzuela and Adam Isfeld also notched sacks.
“I was told I had a pretty good game. I couldn’t really tell,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell had the hardest hits of the day, but Moretti had the most spectacular play. With 11:20 left in the third quarter, Moretti blindsided Wood, knocking the ball from the quarterback’s grasp. The ball rolled free, and defensive end Ed Wangler picked it up and brought it down to the Ducks’ 3-yard line. On the next play, Oregon tailback Onterrio Smith dove over the left side of the line for the easy score.
The shutout was not only historic — the last time the Ducks shut down an opponent was their 7-0 victory in the 1992 installment of the Civil War Ñ but it gave the rest of the Oregon team faith in the stalwart “d.”
“It’s a trust factor,” starting quarterback Jason Fife said. “The ‘d’ trusts us to score and move the ball, and we expect them to make stops and get us the ball back.”
“The defense got us fired up, got us some good field position,” Bellotti said.
Indeed, for the second week in a row, Oregon won the battle for field position handily. The Ducks average starting field position was their own 43-yard line, while the Vikings’ average starting position was their own 19-yard line.
But the epitome of Oregon’s defensive day was that third-quarter drive, the drive that lasted so long but ended on an Oregon exclamation point. The Ducks’ final exclamation point was a zero, right under the spot for the visitor’s score.
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