Maurice Morris had only participated in nine of Oregon’s nation-leading 23 straight victories at Autzen Stadium.
But winning at home was all he was used to. So, along with the 46,021 fans who slowly marched home in silence, Morris didn’t quite know how to feel after the Ducks lost a wild, back-and-forth contest to Stanford, 49-42.
“It was a lot different,” Morris said. “This is my second year here and every game I walk out of Autzen smiling and happy that we won, but today I had that feeling of walking out after a loss. It’s tough, especially with it being in the day and having all that time to lay around in the evening and think about what you could have done.
“It’s not going to be an easy night.”
There weren’t many easy answers for the Ducks in their postgame interviews as they tried to come up with the exact words to sum up their emotions after suffering their first loss of the season.
“I really can’t describe how I’m feeling,” Onterrio Smith said.
The lone blemish on its 6-1 record not only ends the fabled Autzen Stadium win streak, but ends any chance Oregon had of competing against the likes of Miami, Nebraska and Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl with the national championship on the line.

And while the Pacific-10 Conference title is still within reach, these Ducks know that the window of opportunity to play for all the marbles only comes around so often.
“We won a conference championship last year,” Keenan Howry said. “We didn’t want a conference championship this year. We wanted a national championship. It’s a big disappointment. We had this game in our hands.”
Howry mentioned how crazy it was that the three longest home win streaks in the nation all fell in successive weeks. Florida State had held the top spot before losing to Miami at home on Oct. 13. Fresno State then moved up to second behind Oregon, but the Bulldogs lost at home on Friday to Boise State.
And then the Ducks, with a charged up Homecoming crowd behind them, couldn’t pull off another can’t-believe-your-eyes-type win at Autzen.
Instead, Harrington’s last second Hail Mary attempt fell incomplete behind three Oregon receivers and the Ducks were faced with the cold reality of a home loss.
“It had to slip sooner or later,” Rashad Bauman said. “It’s difficult to swallow because you never want to come out and disappoint your fans.”
Added Howry: “It can bend and bend, and finally, some things break. And it broke today.”