Dead-eye Duck
Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota threw for 377 yards and six touchdowns, tying a school record, as the No. 2 Ducks pulled away in the second half to beat Cal 59-17 at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
Funny thing about playing Oregon ’s No. 2-ranked football team. One minute an opponent can be hanging in there, under the illusion that a competitive game is taking place, and the next minute all is lost.
That’s what happened to Cal on a chilly Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. The Bears were indeed hanging in there, trailing just 24-17 early in the third quarter, but when it was all over Oregon was a 59-17 winner.
Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota tied a school record with six touchdown passes, three of them to wide receiver Josh Huff. Mariota completed 27 of 34 passes for 377 yards.
“That’s a great team,’’ Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. “It can really get away from you in a hurry. We did a good job of containing the run for the most part, but they made huge plays in the passing game that cost us.
“You pick your poison with them.’’
Fighting hard but losing was of scant consolation for the Bears, as they plunged to 3-8 with one game remaining in Tedford’s worst season as Cal’s coach. Oregon took a little time to shake loose of Cal but in the end remained perfect at 10-0 and 7-0 in the Pac-12.
“It’s very disappointing,’’ Tedford said. “We were playing well. We stopped them on the first series (of the second half) and scored. It was a very tight game. It was very competitive, and all of a sudden, as they do, in the second half they can really make a lot of big plays.’’
Oregon’s path to a possible date in the national championship game on Jan. 7 was made a little difficult by Cal through 2½ quarters, but by the end of the third quarter, a sense of inevitability settled in as the Bears absorbed another defeat in a discouraging season.
The game slipped out of reach when quarterback Marcus Mariota threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Huff with 2:36 to go in the third quarter, with Cal defenders Josh Hill and Michael Lowe trailing.
At this point the Ducks were up 38-17, and Cal simply didn’t have enough offense to play match-this with the Ducks. It got worse early in the fourth quarter when Mariota pitched his fifth touchdown pass of the night, this one 14 yards to tight end Colt Lyerla for a 45-17 lead.
The game turned in Oregon ’s favor midway through the third quarter with a bit of irony.
Freshman defensive lineman Arik Armstead, who initially gave a verbal commitment to Cal in January but recanted and signed with Oregon, put a big rush on quarterback Allan Bridgford and forced an interception.
Linebacker Boseko Lokombo returned the gift to the Cal 35-yard line, where Mariota passed to Huff for the touchdown. Huff got around right end, eluded a defender and sprinted into the end zone with 6:20 left in the third quarter.
That gave the Ducks a 31-17 lead, a lead that held up when Cal was unable to capitalize on Brendan Bigelow’s 57-yard kickoff return to the Oregon 34.
The Bears began the second half in the best way possible – by racing down the field for a touchdown that brought them to within 24-17 early in the third quarter.
Isi Sofele gained 53 yards on a 74-yard drive and took the ball into the end zone from 4 yards out for the score that confirmed the Bears were here to compete.
The key to Cal’s surprisingly effective defense in the first half was getting off blocks well and maintaining what players and coaches call “gap integrity,’’ meaning the Bears did not allow Oregon’s dangerous ball carriers room to cut back and find open ground.
The consequence of Cal’s early stout defense was that the Heisman Trophy campaign of Oregon’s super back Kenjon Barner took a serious hit. He had little room to run throughout the game and finished with 65 yards.
“After what they did last week to USC, I thought our guys did a good job in the run game,” Tedford said.