By halftime of the Ducks’ home matchup with Cal last Saturday, the Autzen crowd had taken a firm stance regarding the state of the Oregon quarterback position. This time, it was louder, more brash and seemingly angrier than ever before.
A “We want Thompson” chant began in the student section before making its way around the stadium, erupting into a deafening chatter.
At the end of a slow first half, Anthony Brown and the Oregon offense mustered a mere 10 points against an unranked Golden Bears squad. Fans hoped for a bounce back, blowout win. But, instead, the Ducks led by only three points after the first frame. It was especially grim, and, at times, eerily similar to the team’s loss at Stanford the week before.
The chants only got louder in the third quarter as the Ducks went scoreless and Cal took a narrow lead.
Oregon eventually took control, wrote its wrongs and won by way of a 14-point fourth quarter. Brown may not have been perfect, but one thing is for sure — he was resilient.
He finished the evening with 20 completions on 28 attempts for 244 yards and a single touchdown through the air. He added a touchdown on his feet as well, scurrying out of the pocket in the red zone and around the outside of the hashes before diving for the pylon.
“When you play [quarterback], you assume the mantle of responsibility and the criticism that goes with it, but I think AB is doing a solid job in his role,” offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead said.
He added: “You can nitpick and talk about stats and completion percentage and all that stuff, but I’ll go into a game with AB as my quarterback and believe in his capabilities and what he’s gonna do.”
It wasn’t a perfect game, nor does Brown claim it was, but he got the win, and he did it on a night where even his own fans had abandoned their belief in his ability to do so.
“Things like that sometimes happen in sports, and it has to be irrelevant in terms of our process and how we go forward,” Cristobal said of the crowd noise. “It never has played a part in what we do or how we do it, and it can’t be. But, in terms of Anthony handling himself in the game, he made a lot of good plays tonight, a lot of big plays. He showed a lot of poise.”
As the season’s gone on, what started as a fraction of disbelievers among the Oregon fanbase has only grown larger. It hasn’t all been unfounded and, at some points, perhaps justified.
Brown went 14-of-26, throwing for 186 yards and an interception in the Ducks’ week five loss to Stanford.
The Stanford loss was ugly, and Brown owned it.
“You just gotta execute,” Brown said of the loss. “Excuse my language, but I played like s***. Can’t do anything about it but fix it and move on from it.”
Still, head coach Mario Cristobal and the team stuck with Brown heading into week six — a display of fidelity and confidence that makes it clear they intend to keep things the way they are for the foreseeable future.
“I think the best thing a guy like that has is the ability to — like all of us should — if you don’t have your best day to look your teammates, your coaches right in the eye and say ‘I’ve got to do better,’ because that commands respect and the trust of people,” Cristobal said.
Brown wasn’t flawless in week six, and at times he was spotty, but he delivered. After a slow start and a scoreless third quarter, a roaring crowd calling for a far younger, far less experienced replacement, and a field tilting against him — none of it rattled him, and perhaps now he’s even stronger for it.
“He’s not gonna flinch,” Cristobal said.
