Big Plays Made The Difference In Victory at ASU
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Oregon and Arizona State played for more than four hours Thursday, an agonizing test of nerves for players, coaches and fans alike, filled with massive momentum swings, hair-pulling moments of frustration and huge plays by both sides.
Ultimately, one team made a couple more plays when it mattered most. The fourth-down touchdown throw by Vernon Adams Jr. to force overtime carved out its own little place in Oregon football lore, but it was not alone.
Not to be overlooked was the interception by Tyree Robinson that set up Adams’ scrambling, back-foot heave to Dwayne Stanford late in regulation, or Bralon Addison’s fingertips catch in the back of the end zone for a touchdown in overtime, or of course the interception by Arrion Springs to clinch a 61-55 thriller for the Ducks in Sun Devil Stadium.
“It feels really good to finally put a full game together, and finish,” said Stanford, who also caught a touchdown pass in the first overtime. “We had multiple guys making plays down the stretch, and that felt great.”
As Oregon reviews its fifth win of the season, before returning to practice Monday to prepare for next Saturday’s game against Cal, there will be much to agonize over. Efforts to provide a creative spark offensively, using both Addison and Royce Freeman behind center, were largely unsuccessful. Tackling problems that plagued the defense early in the season reared their ugly head again.
But when the Ducks have been at their best in recent years, they’ve had athletes able to make big plays in key moments with the ball in their hands, and timely efforts on defense to stanch any bleeding. For everything else that played out over those four hours in Sun Devil Stadium, ultimately that formula proved successful again.
“It’s a great feeling,” Springs said. “Everybody’s excited. We forget how it happened; we just know we won the game. That’s all that matters in the end.”
Oregon’s early lead Thursday night was a product of big plays: Freeman’s 64-yard touchdown run for a 10-0 lead, and Darren Carrington’s 39-yard touchdown reception against blown coverage for a 17-7 advantage. Arizona State pounded away at Oregon’s defensive front with the run and found some holes in the UO secondary to build a 31-20 lead, but the Ducks answered the challenge when Charles Nelson returned a kickoff 100 yards – on a night the safety also had 15 tackles – and Kani Benoit ran 62 yards for a touchdown that put Oregon up, 34-31.
The visitors weren’t done, even after ASU rallied again to lead 41-34. Say this for the Ducks: In a wild slugfest Thursday night, the Sun Devils landed several damaging punches. Bruised and battered, Oregon couldn’t be knocked out. Arizona State had the ball and the chance to add on to its touchdown lead, when Robinson drifted back into coverage, stepped in front of a receiver and intercepted a pass to keep the staggering Ducks on their feet.
“We’ve been criticized the whole year, and if we didn’t finish this one we were really going to hear it,” Robinson said. “The defense, no matter how long it took we were going to finish. Coach (Don Pellum) preaches, ‘longer, stronger,’ and we have to believe that. That’s what we did.”
The UO offense still had to make Robinson’s interception matter. The Ducks faced third-and-16 three plays later, when Adams dropped a pass over a defender into the hands of Freeman along the sideline for a 28-yard gain; watching a healthy Adams drop pinpoint passes like that only makes the memory of his late incompletion at Michigan State, with a bum finger, all the more frustrating. But the Ducks have had no time to dwell on that, and they sure didn’t Thursday.
With 23 seconds left, it was fourth-and-the-game from the 8-yard line. The Sun Devils had been bringing massive pressure all night, and it was no different after this play was snapped. Adams scrambled around and backpedaled out to his right. Most of his receivers, and thus the defense, flowed that direction as well. Stanford, though, went against the grain, drifting back and to the left as Adams leaped off his back foot and lofted a pass toward the back of the end zone.
Does Stanford’s catch, after colliding with UO tight end Johnny Mundt and still coming down in bounds, rank up there with Akili Smith to Pat Johnson at Washington in 1997? Joey Harrington to Justin Peelle, which also forced overtime at Arizona State, in 2000? Jeremiah Masoli to Ed Dickson, forcing overtime at Arizona in 2009? Marcus Mariota’s game-winner to Josh Huff in the 2013 Civil War?
History will make that determination. But in that moment, in that game, it was a hell of a play.
“I didn’t know if Vern saw me or not,” Stanford said. “He threw it and I just tried to go get it.”
Adams had yet another all-time throw in the third overtime, hauled in by Addison for the 61-55 lead. For the compulsory two-point attempt, Adams lined up in the slot and Addison took the snap, the latest and last effort to catch ASU off-guard, with little success. It was left to the defense, then, to keep the Sun Devils from winning on a touchdown and two-pointer of their own.
A 22-yard pass to open the possession made the outlook dire. With two running backs having run for over 100 yards on the night, ASU’s incompletion on first-and-goal seemed sure to be followed by a handoff or two. Instead, the Sun Devils ran a slant against Springs. He’d given up a touchdown on the same route in the first half. This time, the pass from Mike Bercovici led his receiver too much; Springs ended the game with an interception, just as another young cornerback, Ugo Amadi, effectively did in Oregon’s previous win at Washington.
The Ducks certainly didn’t make every play Thursday night. But they made the biggest plays, in the biggest moments.
“We really showed heart, that we never quit,” Adams said. “We’ve got to keep taking it one game at a time, get ready for Cal and keep this thing rolling.”
