Nobody expected it to be a close game, and it wasn’t.
Oregon scored a season-high 63 points on their way to a seven-touchdown victory over Tennessee Tech at Autzen Stadium as the Ducks closed out nonconference play. Marcus Mariota spread the ball around effectively, completing passes to 12 different receivers, finishing 21/28 for 308 yards and four touchdowns, along with one interception.
“He’s not going to force it just to one guy,” Chip Kelly said. “A lot of times, they take away different options for him so he’s got to go through his progressions and I think you saw him do that today.”
The Ducks showed their depth at the running back position as well eating up over 300 yards rushing, paced by third-string running back Byron Marshall’s 13 carry, 125 yard effort. Defensively, the Ducks held a Tennessee Tech team that averaged over 500 yards per game to just 177 total yards including a particularly stifling first half where the Golden Eagles were held to 48 yards.
“I’m not a big stat guy,” defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said. “But 1-for-17 on third down, that just jumps out. That’s a big deal.”
The Ducks had five sacks for a total of 31 yards created mostly by strong downfield coverage and a dominating performance by the defensive line.
“When we can generate a pass rush without really blitzing,” Kelly said, “I think it bodes well because it allows us to stay in coverage. Once we got settled down after the first drive that’s what we did.”
Oregon’s 16 third down stops led 12 punts from Tennessee Tech and gave De’Anthony Thomas a chance–finally–to show what he could do returning kicks. Thomas averaged 21 yards on four punt returns with a long of 48.
“A lot of punters don’t give me a chance,” Thomas said. “I was really happy today just to get practice for it and get the feel of it.”
All told, Thomas had an explosive first half racking up 222 all purpose yards including 73 yards on just three receptions and 62 yards on three carries. The so-called Black Momba was held to just one touchdown on the day, but he was just a fumble away from finding the end zone a second time when he coughed the ball up after a 49-yard reception.
Oregon offensive lineman Jake Fisher pounced on the loose ball in the endzone for the touchdown finishing with the bizarre stat line of zero catches for one yard and a touchdown.
“That’s when I talk about effort,” Kelly said. “When you have a guy fumbling the football 60 yards down the field and your right tackle is there to recover it for a touchdown, I think it says a lot about Jake and the effort that we’re trying to coach.  That’s what we want our guys to do, we want to finish.”
The Ducks also distanced themselves from the poor second-half performances that somewhat dampened the enthusiasm after big wins in the first two weeks of the season, scoring 28 points in the third and fourth quarters and holding the Golden Eagles to just a touchdown, even with reserves playing almost every down of the second half.