Adversity No Match For Ducks’ Toughness

Sheets of wind and rain, a troublesome Wisconsin protection and an harm to the beginning quarterback might need derailed the Ducks. But they fought by all of that and extra to return away with a 21-7 win over the Badgers earlier than 58,940 grateful followers.

It could by no means rain at Autzen Stadium, however an atmospheric river made for powerful circumstances Saturday. The peak might need come through the second quarter, when the Ducks leaned on their run sport to interrupt a scoreless tie. Then, after quarterback Dante Moore left the sport, backup and Eugene native Brock Thomas led the Ducks to 2 extra scores.

“I’m proud of how our players played,” UO coach Dan Lanning mentioned, “in a tough environment, in a tough situation, able to just take advantage of every opportunity in front of them.”

The Ducks (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) rolled the cube in a number of methods Saturday — an onside kick to open the sport, a landing go to an offensive lineman, a faux punt for a passing landing that was negated by penalty. But ultimately, it was bodily play on the line of scrimmage that turned the tide.

With the groups locked in a scoreless tie halfway by the second half, Oregon received the ball at its 1-yard line. The Ducks proceeded to march 99 yards in 16 performs for the sport’s first landing — the primary of two on the evening for freshman Jordon Davison — as they chewed up 8:24 of sport clock.

“It’s just a mentality — 99 yards, you look at it as a positive,” mentioned Davison, who adopted up a 100-yard efficiency the week earlier than at Rutgers with 102 on Saturday, together with 9 carries for 49 yards on that first landing drive. “We look to go break their spirits. (Offensive coordinator Will) Stein, he put all his trust in us, and we went out there and did that.”

Up 7-0 at halftime, the Ducks misplaced Moore to a bloody nostril on the opening possession of the third quarter; Lanning mentioned after the sport Moore doubtlessly may have returned if wanted, however Oregon performed it conservatively. Into the sport got here Thomas, a Sheldon High grad similar to former UO quarterbacks Chris Miller and Justin Herbert.

Thomas’ first go try on a wet evening was a third-down conversion. On the following play Davison ran for his second landing.

“I’m proud of that kid,” mentioned UO senior linebacker Bryce Boettcher, who attended Thomas’ rival South Eugene High. “He’s shown it in practice every single day, so it wasn’t surprising — especially in a rain game.”

The Ducks nonetheless led 14-0 on the finish of the third quarter. At that time, Thomas had three completions whereas the Badgers had only one by three quarters.

Some of that owed to the UO protection; the Ducks had six go breakups within the sport, together with a pair every for Boettcher and Dillon Thieneman. And a few of that was because of the circumstances; like Oregon, Wisconsin leaned on its run sport within the wind and rain.

“It was a lot of fun,” mentioned Thieneman, the defensive again who led the UO protection Saturday with seven tackles. “Playing in the rain, it’s something you dream of as a little kid, coming downhill.”

The Ducks made it 21-0 early within the fourth. Despite the rain, Oregon inserted offensive lineman Gernoriss Wilson as a decent finish on the 1-yard line, and referred to as a go play the Ducks have been working towards for weeks. Wilson received open, Thomas threw him a delicate go and the offensive lineman hauled it in after a quick bobble.

“Brock was either throwing that ball for a touchdown, or he’s throwing it away,” Lanning mentioned. “So we felt confident in his decision-making in that moment. That was a look and a set that we’d been in and run the ball pretty effectively multiple times this year, so to be able to have some tendency breakers and play off of that was good. It’s looked really good in practice. We ran that play for seven weeks, and now it showed up in a moment where we could use it.”

The circumstances additionally did not maintain the Ducks from calling for a go by punter James Ferguson-Reynolds on a faux within the fourth quarter. After the Badgers had lastly scored their landing, Oregon seemed to have answered it on that play — a go from the punter to tight finish Roger Saleapaga for a 46-yard landing, which was negated by a penalty.

That was one among 9 penalties on the Ducks over the course of the sport, which Lanning talked about postgame can be some extent of emphasis as Oregon now enters its second bye week of the season. But the Ducks additionally enter that bye week with two straight wins since their loss to Indiana, with a foothold within the College Football Playoff race and with an opportunity to get wholesome coming into a grueling November.