UO Offense Gets Rolling After Early Defensive Dominance
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Oregon led 6-0 over the team that handed the Ducks their only loss of 2014. Still, at that point in the first quarter of Friday's Pac-12 championship game at Levi's Stadium, very little felt comfortable.
The offense was settling for field goals over touchdowns. The defense needed a holding penalty on Arizona to get off the field on the Wildcats' first possession. Arizona fumbled the kickoff return after Oregon's first field goal, but the Ducks only turned it into another three points.
As it turned out, there was little to worry about. The UO defense was just getting started in one of the most dominant halves of football it has ever played, giving Marcus Mariota and the offense ample time to find their rhythm in what became a 51-13 victory over the Wildcats for Oregon's first Pac-12 title in three years.
"We were able to move the ball (early), we just weren't able to punch it in," Mariota said. "We were confident in our abilities, but hats off to the guys, because they persevered even though we didn't get the points we wanted."
After Arizona's initial seven-play drive into UO territory, Oregon's defense put together as impressive a half as it has ever played. The Wildcats possessed the ball six more times prior to halftime, went three-and-out all six times, and netted a total of negative-two yards.
At halftime, Oregon had 372 yards of offense — 192 rushing, 180 passing — while Arizona had 25. "That was pretty crazy, to see that," UO all-American cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu said. "But we had a great game plan. We knew we could cover their receivers and then load the box and stop the run, and we did a good job of doing that tonight."
Mariota, meanwhile, was healthier than he'd been for either of Oregon's regular-season losses to Arizona the last two years, and showed it right off the bat. On the Ducks' first three plays, he rolled out of the pocket to throw twice, then kept the ball on a designed run. At halftime, Oregon led 23-0 thanks to three Aidan Schneider field goals and two Mariota rushing touchdowns.
"It started off slow, but we knew what we could do," said freshman all-purpose back Charles Nelson, who accounted for 148 yards. "We knew we could be dangerous, and that's what happened. We started picking up the pace, and everything just started rolling."
The passing game clicked after halftime. Mariota completed all 10 of his attempts in the third quarter, and finished the second half 11-of-11 for 118 yards. With all three projected starting receivers this offseason — Keanon Lowe, Bralon Addison and Dwayne Stanford — hampered by injuries Friday, redshirt freshmen Devon Allen and Darren Carrington started the title game. Each caught a touchdown pass from Mariota in the third quarter, and the quarterback ran for a third TD.
"We just came out too amped up," right guard Cameron Hunt said. "We were pumped up for the game; we wanted to make sure everybody knew we were here to play, and to play our way. We just needed to relax a little bit more. Once we scored a couple touchdowns, we relaxed and just started having fun."
The defense, meanwhile, found the right balance of intensity and calm from the very start. The Ducks allowed a long passing touchdown on a busted coverage in the third quarter, and another touchdown on the game's final play. Otherwise, Oregon's defense completely dominated, limiting the Wildcats to their fewest number of plays (61) and yards (224) all season.
"We were looking forward to this game," said junior defensive end DeForest Buckner, who led the Ducks with seven tackles. "You always want to get the person who knocked you down the first time.
"We came in confident we were going to shut them down. Coach (Don Pellum) was telling us, don't let emotion play with us, we've got to play with emotion. I think that's what we did. We just trusted our training, and beat them flat-out with our technique."
By the end, Arizona freshman quarterback Anu Solomon — who was so brilliant at Autzen Stadium in October — was hobbling to the locker room with a protective boot on one foot. His injury no doubt affected the Wildcats' offense, and as Oregon celebrated its victory moments after the game ended, both Mark Helfrich and Scott Frost broke away to track down Solomon and offer him words of encouragement.
But with the way Oregon's defense played Friday night, there was little any opponent could have done to change the outcome. And that gave the UO offense plenty of time to find its rhythm, and to help the Ducks avenge their only defeat of 2014.
"To be honest, we beat ourselves last game," Nelson said. "We came in thinking about the future, instead of the next play. We came out here today focused only on the goal, the process, and we just went after it."
