Ducks start slow, win seventh in a row
Once Oregon shook off a sluggish start, there was no stopping the Ducks’ high-powered offense.
Bo Nix threw three touchdown passes and ran for three more scores to lead No. 8 Oregon to a 42-24 victory over California on Saturday for its seventh straight win.
“It’s nice when you don’t perform your best, you miss a few opportunities in the red zone, and you still do what we did on offense,“Nix said. “It’s a good thing, but we still have to get back to work and be hungry.”
The Ducks broke open the game with three touchdowns in a span of less than seven minutes of game time spanning halftime and rolled to another win.
Oregon scored three touchdowns in the second quarter to take charge of the game. Nix ran it in from the four on the opening play of the second quarter.
He bounced back from an interception near the goal line on the next drive to lead the Ducks to two more scores in the quarter, scoring on a one-yard run and then throwing a 12-yard pass to Bucky Irving, set up by Trikweze Bridges’ interception of Plummer to make it 21-10.
Oregon then took the secondhalf kickoff and scored another touchdown when Noah Whittington took a short pass from Nix and turned it into a 29-yard score. That gave Oregon its third touchdown in a span of 6:29 on the game clock.
Oregon hasn’t lost since a season-opening 46-point loss to Georgia, winning six of the seven games by at least 15 points.
The Golden Bears lost their fourth straight game as their defense could do little to slow down Nix and the Ducks and the offense couldn’t keep up. Cal has lost 22 of its last 23 games against teams ranked in the top 10.
“We have to make them earn it more than we did,” Golden Bears coach Justin Wilcox said. “They have a very good team, a lot of talent out there. Defensively we had too many uncharacteristic coverage busts and when we were in good shape we didn’t do a good enough job getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hand.”
Nix threw for 412 yards and accounted for six touchdowns combined through the air or on the ground. The Ducks gained 586 yards for the game, the most against the Bears in six seasons under Wilcox.
Arizona State 42, at Colorado 34: Trenton Bourguet threw for 435 yards and three touchdowns — all of which went to tight end Jalin Conyers — and Xazavian Valladay ran for three touchdowns as the Sun Devils racked up 557 total yards and held off a late push. The Sun Devils scored a touchdown on each of their first two drives, going a combined 139 yards in 15 plays.