Ducks Outlast Cougars 43-28
Rick Morgan
All week long Oregon head coach Chip Kelly touted the Washington State Cougars as "a much improved team" and they proved to be just that before falling 43-28 to the Ducks Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium.
The Cougars clearly felt their best defense against Oregon's offense was to keep them on the sideline and to a significant degree, they did just that. Time of possession favored the Cougars by better than a 2:1 margin.
As Kelly is fond of pointing out, time of possession isn't as important as points on the scoreboard - but getting those points on the scoreboard got a bit more complicated in the early going as the Ducks tried to work two key offensive players back into the line-up.
Both quarterback Darron Thomas and running back LaMicheal James returned to action - though Thomas was replaced at the half by Bryan Bennett in a move Kelly thought was best for the team.
"We were a little bit out of sync," was how Kelly portrayed the offensive performance in the opening half, "We were off a little bit offensively . a ball here and a ball there."
"We just felt that Bryan gave us a better chance in the second half," Kelly said.
"Darron handled it great . It's all about the team, this team is all about we not about me. I just felt in the best interests of what we had to do for him that we were going with Bryan."
The Ducks opened the game up with a haymaker - after holding the Cougars to a three and out, Avery Patterson blasted past three defenders to smother Daniel Wagner's punt. Boseko Lokombo scooped the ball off the turf and led a four player convoy to the goal line.
Oregon converted the two-point attempt when holder Jackson Rice - in the clutches of a defender - completed a jump pass to kicker Alejandro Maldonado. Just for fun, go ahead run through that ?X and O' one more time.
Washington State answered early in the second quarter with an Andrew Furney 40-yard field goal.
The Ducks then turned WSU away at the doorstep when Eddie Pleasant intercepted quarterback Marshall Lobbestael on the Oregon two and returned it 25 yards. A personal foul penalty added 15 more.
After two carries by LaMicheal James netted three yards, Thomas had his best moment of the day. Flushed from the pocket and rolling to his right, Thomas spotted Lavasier Tuinei behind the Cougar defense and launched a wrong-footed rocket that Tuinei corralled at about the 10-yardline, tumbling into the end zone for a 55 yard score.
Thomas' fortunes took a turn for the worse on Oregon's next possession. With 2:53 to work with the Ducks got the ball on their own 20 after a missed field goal attempt.
Kenjon Barner ripped off a pair of first downs - 13-yards and 26 yards - to move Oregon into WSU territory. On fourth and seven, Thomas' pass bounced through the hands of Rahsaan Vaughn and into the hands of WSU cornerback Damante Horton. 76 -yards later the Ducks halftime lead is 15-10 instead of 15-3 or 22-3.
Enter Byran Bennett.
And De'Anthony Thomas.
Thomas took the kickoff 27-yards to the 42 and three plays later Bennett sent Thomas in motion to the left, hitting him at the hashmark with a swing pass. Over the next 45 yards, the freshman sensation undressed the same Washington State defender three times on his way to the end zone.
"He's a special player when you can get the ball in his hands," said Kelly. "Our job is to try and figure out a couple different ways we can get him in there. He's just a talented, talented kid.
"You watch him catch that swing pass and run down the sideline - I'm thinking in my head ?why is he going there, why is he going there, why is he going there - wow that was an unbelievable move - good job."
"I taught him that last move," laughed Kelly before deadpanning "no, I didn't."
Bennett later directed a 14-play, 77-yard scoring drive that pushed Oregon's lead to 29-13. A 19-yard pitch and catch to Tuinei put the exclamation point on a possession that saw the Ducks run the ball 11 times, Bennett and Barner doing most of the work.
"I thought Bryan did a good job," Kelly said. "When he goes in there we know that he's got a lot of weapons. What Bryan can do is he plays within himself. I don't think he forced the issue again, for the third straight game - he took what the defense gave him. . I thought he made some really good decisions and put the ball on people when he had to put the ball on people."
WSU cut the lead to 29-20 when Lobbestael connected with Jared Karstetter for a 24-yard touchdown.
"I said it before the game - when you watch film, it was a much improved team," said Kelly. "I think Paul (Wulff) is doing a really good job. I thought they ran hard, I thought Marshall Lobbestael did a great job of really managing that offense. They had some big receivers that could make some big catches."
Any momentum the Cougars may have fashioned was quickly cut short - again thanks to the electric De'Anthony Thomas. Gathering in the WSU kickoff on his own seven, Thomas veered to the right and exploded through the wedge, running out of the grasp of the only WSU defender who had a prayer of making the tackle for a 93-yard touchdown, his 11th of the season.
Thomas ended the day with 262 all-purpose yards and a pair of scores.
Barner paced the Oregon running attack with 107 yards on 11 carries. In his 30 minutes of work Darron Thomas completed 8/13 for 153 yards and two interceptions. Bennett completed 4/7 for 88 yards and two scores.
Barner's 28-yard scamper to open the fourth quarter sealed Oregon's victory, although the Cougars did mount a scoring drive late in the game for the 43-28 final margin. Oregon covered the onside kick and improved to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in Pac-12 play
With their fourth consecutive loss, the Cougar's record fell to 3-5, 1-4.
"I thought our offensive line started to assert themselves in the second half," said Kelly. "We ran the ball better than we ran it in the first half.
"I thought our defense did a great job of making them work the field. We didn't have the ball very often on offense and we made a few mistakes there . our defense does a really good job in red zone defense and they've done it all year long. We are eight games in and it doesn't surprise me how those guys are playing."
"Special teams obviously gave us a huge boost today - blocked a punt and returned a kick for a touchdown . We'll get better but we'll take 7-1."
