No. 8 Oregon rolls to road win over 13th-ranked Utah
Bo Nix spent four quarters picking apart one of the Pac-12's toughest defenses.
Nix threw for 248 yards and two touchdowns to lead No. 8 Oregon to a 35-6 victory over No. 13 Utah, snapping the Utes' 18-game home winning streak.
The senior completed 77% of his passes, finishing with a 70% or better completion rate for an eighth consecutive game dating back to the 2022 Holiday Bowl.
“I want to go out here and make sure that it's not me tripping up the team,” Nix said. “I want to go out there and put our team in the best situation possible. I feel like when I do that, they have my back and they go out and perform at a high level as well.”
Troy Franklin tallied 99 yards and a touchdown on eight catches for the Ducks. Bucky Irving added 83 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Oregon (7-1, 4-1 Pac-12) won in Salt Lake City for the first time since 2016. The Ducks racked up 390 total yards and forced two turnovers.
Bryson Barnes threw for 136 yards and had two interceptions, and Devaughn Vele had a season-high 80 yards on seven catches for the Utes (6-2, 3-2), who tallied 241 total yards.
Utah averaged 3.7 yards per play while surrendering 6.7 yards per play to Oregon.
“When you get beat like that, you don't want to berate your team and browbeat them,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “What happened out there was enough.”
Nix picked Utah's defense apart with surgical precision during the first half. He totaled only two incomplete passes over Oregon's first six drives.
Nix threw two touchdown passes — an 18-yard dart to Jordan James and a 3-yard strike to Troy Franklin — and rushed for a 1-yard score to help Oregon jump out to a 21-3 lead early in the second quarter.
Gaining ground proved much more cumbersome for the Utes. Utah forced Oregon to lose a fumble for the first time this season when Junior Tafuna stripped the ball from Irving as he tackled him and recovered it at the Oregon 27. The Utes turned the turnover into a 32-yard field goal from Cole Becker, who added a second field goal from 30 yards to cap Utah's final first-half drive.
Irving ran in untouched from 9 yards out to extend the lead again early in the third quarter. Johnson then intercepted Barnes a second time to set up a 5-yard run from Traeshon Holden to put the Ducks up 35-6 midway through the third.
NO. 5 WASHINGTON 42, STANFORD 33 ❯❯ Michael Penix Jr. threw four touchdown passes and the visiting Huskies held off a fierce comeback attempt to beat the Cardinal for their 15th straight win.
A week after being held without an offensive touchdown in a win over Arizona State, Washington (8-0, 5-0 Pac-12) got its passing game going well enough to hold off Stanford (2-6, 1-5).
Washington was stuck in a tight game entering the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-8 while leading by only two points. Penix then converted with a 15-yard pass to Germie Bernard and then found Devin Culp wide open for a 24yard score that made it 3526.
But Rome Oduzne lost a fumble in the red zone with Washington in position to put it away in the fourth quarter and Penix threw an interception in the end zone after the Cardinal cut the deficit to two points on Justin Lamson's 2-yard run.
The Huskies then got a key stop on a trick play when receiver Tiger Bachmeier's pass on fourthand-2 from the Stanford 28 was dropped by an open Jayson Raines with 3:20 to play.
Dillon Johnson then scored on a 13-yard run to put the game away for Washington.
Penix threw for 369 yards and connected on two TD passes to Ja'Lynn Polk and another to Odunze. ARIZONA STATE 38, WASHINGTON STATE 27 ❯❯ DeCarlos Brooks ran for 67 yards and three touchdowns in his first start of the season and the Sun Devils broke a six-game losing streak with a home win over the Cougars.
Cameron Skattebo had 121 yards rushing and a touchdown for ASU (2-6, 1-4 Pac-12), which had a season high in points and also had season highs with 502 yards total offense and 235 yards rushing.
Cameron Ward passed for 315 yards and a touchdown and ran for two scores for Washington State (4-4, 1-4), which has lost four in a row for the first time since 2014.
Ward, who entered the game ranked fifth in the FBS in total offense at 335.4 yards per game and sixth with 316.7 yards passing per game, moved the Cougars to the Arizona State 2-yard with two minutes remaining but threw a incomplete pass on fourth down and Arizona State ran out the clock.
Trenton Bourguet passed for 274 yards for the Sun Devils, who had not won since beating FCS Southern Utah 24-21 in the season opener.