The No. 6 ranked Oregon Ducks (8-1, 5-1) dominated the California Golden Bears (3-6, 1-5) 63-19 on a rainy, gloomy day at Autzen Stadium. Cal was coming off a close, shootout loss against the No. 20 ranked USC Trojans, highlighted by a fantastic performance by Cal’s star running back, Jaydn Ott. The Ducks were coming off a major blowout against Utah in Salt Lake City.
Both on the field and in the box score, Oregon was far superior than Cal. The Ducks finished with 597 total yards of offense while the Golden Bears were limited to 286 yards in the loss.
This was Bo Nix’s 56th start, an NCAA record he holds and continues to build on.
“To be able to play for that long, it’s an honor,” Nix said. “You can only speak to the teams that I’ve been a part of,letting me play that many snaps and keeping me upright.”
His historic day, however, started off very poorly, with a Tez Johnson drop leading to an interception on the first play from scrimmage.
After three unsuccessful downs, the Golden Bears chose to settle for a short field goal, which was then blocked by Khyree Jackson and returned for a touchdown by Jahlil Florence, sending the Autzen crowd into a frenzy.
The block was called back after an offsides and unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, resulting in an automatic first down for Cal. The next play was an errant throw by Fernando Mendoza that was picked off by Steve Stephens IV at the 8-yard line and returned to the Oregon 14-yard line.
Oregon was very undisciplined in the first quarter, especially when it mattered on big plays. After a personal foul on Steven Jones forced a 2nd-and-37, Bo Nix delivered a dart over the middle to adopted-brother Johnson for a 48-yard touchdown for the game’s first score.
Through eight minutes of the game, Oregon accrued four penalties for 44 yards, which had been a problem earlier in the season, so it was bound to resurface in a scrappy, sloppy first quarter.
The Golden Bears’ next drive was cut short by a Casey Rogers strip-sack, recovered by Taki Taimani at the Cal 1-yard line, that gave the Ducks an almost guaranteed touchdown. Then, all Nix had to do was place the ball over the goalline, and that’s exactly what he did, diving forward to put the Ducks up 14-0 with 4:40 left in the first quarter.
After a Cal drive resulted in three points, Oregon got the ball back on its own 25. However, on the first play, Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball into the man in motion, Johnson, which was then recovered by Cal’s Nohl Williams and ran in for a scoop-and-score from the 9-yard line, cutting the Oregon lead to four with 1:32 left in the first.
A Camden Lewis miss from 53 yards out set up Cal with beneficial field position, which it turned into a chip-shot field goal for Mateen Bhaghani. The Ducks responded with a dominant drive of their own, ending in another Bo Nix 1-yard sneak into the endzone.
The Oregon defense forced a 3-and-out, which led to another touchdown for Johnson. A Cal 3-and-out, and a 47 yard punt return for Johnson set Oregon up deep in the Golden Bears’ territory again with less than a minute to go in the half.
In the last five minutes of the first half, the Ducks scored 21 unanswered points, firmly putting them back in the driver’s seat for the second half.
It took the Ducks a quarter to fully get into a rhythm, but after they started scoring, it became impossible for Cal to respond.
Nix put up Heisman numbers yet again, finishing 29-38 for 386 yards, 4 passing TDs and 2 on the ground. His favorite target of the day was Johnson, who finished with 12 receptions for 180 yards and 2 scores. Troy Franklin and Terrance Ferguson each added a touchdown of their own, while Bucky Irving added one on the ground during his 89-yard day.
The key to Saturday’s game for the Ducks was keeping Ott and the Cal rushing attack at bay. The Oregon linebacking core was rarely seen farther than five yards off the line of scrimmage, which left it susceptible to medium-yardage passing plays at times, but filled the box to stop the run.
The Golden Bears came into the game with the third best rushing attack in the Pac-12, and it has been one of the main factors keeping them in a lot of games. Due to Oregon’s focus on stacking the box, the rushing attack never got going, which meant that the offense couldn’t really put together consecutive successful drives.
Most of the success that Cal had in the game came off of Oregon’s mistakes. The Golden Bears’ offense only found the endzone once, which came late in the second half. The rest of their points came off of the botched snap fumble and field goals that were a direct result of Ducks defensive mistakes.
Autzen Stadium witnessed a scary moment with 4:05 left in the third quarter. Cal running back Jaivian Thomas was stretchered off after taking a hit and slamming his head on the turf after trying to recover his own fumble. Thomas laid on the ground, unmoving for about 15 minutes while trainers attended to him. When being carted off, Thomas was responsive and is now being treated at a local hospital. After the game, Oregon head Coach Dan Lanning said,, “We’re praying for great news for him, never want to see somebody injured in this game.”
The Ducks face off with No. 20 USC at Autzen Stadium next Saturday while Cal looks to snap its four-game losing streak next week when it hosts Washington State.
