Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers Both Fall

The good news for the University of Oregon this past Saturday was that they weren’t the losing team at the end of regulation. The bad news for them was that they still ended up losing their game against California anyway.

California kicker Matt Anderson kicked a 28-yard field goal on the first possession of the second overtime, giving the Golden Bears a 52-49 lead and sophomore linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk picked off Ducks freshman quarterback Justin Herbert on the first play of Oregon’s ensuing drive, thus ending the game.

Herbert produced Oregon’s turnover at the most inopportune time possible, tarnishing an otherwise prolific performance. He threw for 258 yards and six touchdown passes on the day, with four of them coming in the second half to help the Ducks rally from a 20-point deficit early in the third quarter.

He threw a six yard touchdown pass to  junior receiver Charles Nelson early in the fourth quarter, which actually gave Oregon a brief 35-34 lead, and then threw the game tying 42-yard pass to Nelson again, with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter, tying the score at 42.

Herbert’s sixth touchdown pass of the afternoon came on the second play of the first overtime, when he connected with sophomore receiver Jalen Brown on a 20 yard scoring pass. But the Golden Bears responded in kind, with California quarterback Davis Webb running it in from one yard out to tie the score at 49 and force a second overtime.

Herbert’s interception nullified the Ducks chance to respond to Anderson’s game-winning kick.

Meanwhile, the Ducks’ cross-state rivals — the Oregon State University Beavers — gave their fans a far less-thrilling afternoon, becoming another victim of the fifth-ranked University of Washington Huskies.  The Beavers fell behind 21-0 at the end of the first quarter, and 31-0 by halftime, en route to a 41-17 defeat in Seattle.

Oregon State did manage to make the final score a little more bearable thanks to a pair of touchdown runs in the second half, coming from senior running backs Victor Bolden (who took a third-quarter hand off 75 yards for the score) and Tim Cook (on a nine yard run with less than four minutes left in the game). Bolden finished with a total of 75 yards rushing on the day, with all of them coming on that one score, while Cook did manage to accumulate 108 yards rushing on 18 carries.

The Huskies defense did third-string quarterback Marcus McMaryion absolutely no favors, limiting him to 12 completions on 26 attempts, for 148 yards and two interceptions (and zero touchdowns). McMaryion got the unenviable start due to injuries to quarterbacks Darell Garretson and Conor Blount.

Meanwhile, Huskies sophomore quarterback Jake Browning added to his increasingly-gaudy 2016 stats, throwing for three touchdowns and running in another score. He now has 30 combined touchdowns on the year, in only seven games.

Both Oregon schools return to their respective homes next Saturday, taking on Pac-12 opponents. The Ducks will host the Arizona State University Sun Devils, while the Beavers will host the Washington State University Cougars.