University of Oregon
Stanford
No. 5 Oregon Surprised By Stanford, 49-42
10/20/01 | Football
By LANDON HALL
AP Sports Writer
EUGENE, Ore. - Through six games and three quarters, Oregon looked like a very real threat to make good on its goal of playing for the national championship.
In that pivotal final quarter Saturday against Stanford, though, the Ducks came back to Earth with a spectacular thud.
Kerry Carter bulled his way into the end zone from the 3 with 1:10 left as the Cardinal beat fifth-ranked Oregon 49-42 in a game that had everything but aliens landing on the Autzen Stadium turf.
"It was all about heart, you know?" said Stanford backup quarterback Chris Lewis, who replaced injured Randy Fasani and guided the Cardinal back from a 42-28 fourth-quarter deficit. "It's such an honor to come into this stadium and beat a phenomenal team."
Stanford (4-1, 3-1 Pac-10) outscored Oregon 21-0 in the quarter by turning one of two blocked punts and an interception by Joey Harrington into touchdowns. But after Carter scored from a yard out with 5:32 to go, the Ducks' Seth McEwen deflected Mike Biselli's extra point with 5:32 left, leaving Oregon with a 42-41 lead.
All Oregon (6-1, 3-1) had to do was salt away the clock, but on third-and-1 from his own 30, Harrington was hit by safety Tank Williams and the ball floated into the hands of diving defensive end Marcus Hoover at the 33.
"Not my call," Harrington said of the play. "Second-guess all you want. ... We tried."
On third-and-goal from the 3, Carter was stopped at the line of scrimmage, but got a push from his line to get into the end zone for his fourth score.
Lewis, who came off the bench last season to help Stanford beat No. 5 Texas 27-24, started slowly but completed 12 of 26 passes for 189 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
"Basically, all I did was get the ball in the hands of my money-makers," Lewis said. "It took me the whole game to get my rhythm. The first few series, I felt like a junior high school quarterback."
Harrington has directed nine fourth-quarter comebacks, but the farthest he could guide the Ducks in the final seconds was the Stanford 37. He threw four straight incompletions, with the final pass sailing out of the end zone as time expired.
"I know, `Captain Comeback,"' Williams said of Harrington's moniker. "We had to go out and play our best defense."
Not only did Stanford stop Oregon's nation-best 23-game home winning streak, it ruined an undefeated record by the Ducks for the eighth time since 1964. The Cardinal kept the Ducks from getting to the Rose Bowl with a 1995 win, but this one dashed Oregon's dreams of a national title.
"This puts a damper on everything," said Keenan Howry, who had nine catches for 152 yards and two touchdowns and also returned a punt 69 yards for a score.
"My goal will always be to win a national championship, and maybe it gets pushed back a year now," Oregon coach Mike Bellotti added. "I told them, `You don't hang your head. We can still control our own destiny in this conference."'
A sensational duel between Harrington and Fasani ended when Fasani sprained his right knee in the second quarter, and the game quickly gave way to an unpredictable battle decided by special teams.
Oregon went ahead 35-21 on Howry's punt return with 7:37 left in the third quarter. After Stanford came back with a 28-yard scoring pass from Lewis to Teyo Johnson, the Ducks' Onterrio Smith ran the kickoff back 96 yards to put Oregon ahead 42-28.
The Cardinal got new life by blocking the next two punts by Jose Arroyo. The first one, by Alex Smith, produced nothing, as cornerback Rashad Bauman hit Stanford tight end Brett Pierce so hard in the end zone he knocked the ball away on fourth-and-goal from the 7.
Stanford converted Amon Gordon's blocked punt into a touchdown, however, when Lewis hit an open Luke Powell for 24 yards to pull the Cardinal to 42-35 with 9:09 to play.
Stanford surprised the Ducks with an onside kick, recovering the ball at Oregon's 40. Eight plays later, Carter scored from a yard out to get within a point.
After the earlier extra point was blocked, Stanford didn't mess around with another kick on the go-ahead score. Johnson outleaped Bauman for the 2-point conversion pass for a 49-42 lead.
Harrington was 22-of-41 for 270 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. But he was only 13-of-30 after the first quarter.
"We lost," he said. "Doesn't matter how or why who, we lost."
Both teams put up points and yards at an astonishing rate in the first quarter, and the game was tied at 14 just 11:34 into the game.
Harrington passed for 173 yards and three touchdowns in the opening period alone, and his 39-yard pass to a diving Howry gave Oregon a 21-14 lead late in the quarter.
Stanford responded with a 4-minute scoring drive, but Fasani was injured on a second-and-9 scramble from the Oregon 14. Ducks lineman Zach Freiter drilled Fasani at the 9, but the helmet-to-helmet hit hurt both players.
Fasani left with a sprained right knee and spent the rest of the game on the sideline with a large brace on it. He already wears one on his left knee from an old injury. Freiter left with a blow to the head.
Lewis came in and, on fourth-and-1 from the 6, handed off to Carter for the touchdown to tie the game at 21.
Howry returned five punts for 186 yards, breaking the Pac-10 record of 166 set by Washington's Joe Jarzynka in 1988.
