Ducks Continue Their Winning Ways

A month ago the Oregon Ducks season could have easily continued on a downward spiral. Boise State defeated them 19-8 and the Ducks star RB LeGarrette Blount was suspended for throwing a punch. The schedule after the Boise State disaster was Purdue at home followed by Utah at home. At that point most people would have written off the 2009 season for Oregon. The Ducks were able to defeat Purdue 38-36, Oregon beat the 18th ranked Utah Utes 31-24 and they blasted #6 California 42-3 and climbed all the way back up to #13 in the AP Poll.

At the start of the season either Cal or Oregon was expected to challenge the USC Trojans for first place in the conference. Now that Cal is completely eliminated from the discussion the Ducks have put themselves in a great position with six games left to play.

UCLA is probably the best defensive team the Ducks have faced all season. The Ducks were held to zero points in the first half of the game. It wasn’t until the second half of the game when the Bruins could not stop turning the ball over that Oregon was able to take control of the game. After trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Ducks outscored UCLA 24-7 in the second half of the game. The Oregon defense held the Bruins to 6/16 on third down conversions and 0/2 on fourth down. UCLA QB Kevin Prince was 13/25, threw for 81 yards and had 1 interception. Bruins QB Richard Brehaut was 5/10, for 64 yards and 1 interception. The same offensive woes continued for UCLA with their inability to move the ball in the air.

Ducks QB Nate Costa only threw for 82 yards, but RB LaMichael James finished the game with 20 carries for 152 yards. After the Blount suspension James has taken advantage of his opportunity. James has a total of 581 rushing yards, 4 TD and is averaging 6.3 YPC. Without the services of starting QB Jeremiah Masoli and S T.J. Ward this was a big win for the Ducks. Now Oregon heads into the bye week with a lot of momentum. The Ducks have an opportunity to get healthy and their next three games will have a huge effect on where the Ducks end up in the Pac Ten Standings. Oregon is at Washington on October 24th. They get the USC Trojans at home on October 31st and they are on the road against Stanford on November 7th.