Prukop Passes Next Test

EUGENE, Ore. – The difference between Dakota Prukop in his UO debut and in his second game as a Duck, on Saturday against Virginia, was like night and day.

And that had nothing to do with the kickoff times of the two games.

Prukop, Oregon's graduate transfer quarterback, looked more comfortable running the UO offense in the Ducks 44-26 win over the Cavaliers on Saturday evening. He amassed 331 passing yards on 21-of-31 completions, throwing three touchdowns for the second week in a row.

Prukop also played with a loose confidence in his second UO start, airing out long bombs to Devon Allen and pitching the football in run plays after he'd already escaped the pocket.

"Much more comfortable," Prukop said. "I started off a little tight, but loosened up real quick."

Coming off the season-opening win over UC Davis, Prukop said, the UO offense had three goals: play with more discipline, improve the tempo and hit more big plays. The Ducks used their tempo to unleash an avalanche of 24 straight points late in the first half, and hit for big plays of 32, 55, 77 and 85 yards.

"So we did two of those things tonight," Prukop said. "We still had some discipline issues, but they weren't the same as last week. We'll clean those up. But I'm really pleased with the tempo we played at. …

"What you saw in the second quarter, that's when we really started grabbing it by the throat. What we've got to continue to do is, when the defense gets tired like that, there's one more gear we can hit to amp it up faster, try and close out the game."

Through two games, Prukop has already completed touchdown passes to six different receivers. On Saturday, Prukop had TD passes to Dwayne Stanford and Pharaoh Brown in the second quarter, and then a 77-yard bomb to Devon Allen in the third.

The touchdowns to Stanford and Allen were on third down, as Prukop completed 8-of-10 passes for 195 yards in that situation. In the first quarter, Prukop spun out of a sack, scrambled away from the pressure and passed to Darren Carrington II for 22 yards on third-and-10, setting up a Tony Brooks-James rushing touchdown.

"It's a neat deal to line up at quarterback, look to your left and right and have 100 percent confidence in every player at every position," Prukop said. "Not a lot of guys can say that. Most guys are going out there looking for their one guy; we have four or five of those guys."

Prukop's comfort level was perhaps never more apparent than on a couple pitch plays in the second quarter. On Oregon's first play of the period, he was nine yards upfield and about to be tackled, then pitched out to Stanford for 14 more yards.

"Those aren't exactly designed calls, but we set everything up to get our playmakers the ball," Prukop said. "When I'm running the ball, let's try to get it to somebody else, because I'm the slowest of the receivers and backs."

University of Oregon Athletics

Players Mentioned

Devon Allen

Tony Brooks-James

Pharaoh Brown

Darren Carrington II

Dakota Prukop

Dwayne Stanford

Related Videos