On Saturday, Stanford football fell to #13 Oregon on the road in Eugene by a final score of 45-27. Oregon quarterback Bo Nix led the way for the Ducks throwing for 161 yards and 2 touchdowns while also rushing for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns. Oregon running back Bucky Irving was three yards shy of a 100 yard game, rushing for 97 yards on 10 carries. Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee went 19-33 for 166 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. Oregon improves to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 1-3 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-12.
“Obviously not the result we wanted tonight,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “Didn’t play well enough to get the result, yeah we had a couple guys get banged up, down to one of our backup tackles before the game started and during the game, but that’s not an excuse. Our guys game out, they fought hard. We’ve gotta find a way to start better, start faster. Defensively, the second half of these games, we played really well defensively. We’d gotten stops, made some big plays, we’ve had pass deflections.
“First half, especially first quarter, we’ve given up too much. Offensively, tough to get going. We gotta find a way to start faster in all phases. To give ourselves a chance to stay competitive. When our quarterback had time, made some big-time throws, guys made some big time plays, Casey Filkins played really hard, fought for every yard, defensively they had a tough scheme, and really good players.
“But this is first few games for our season, haven’t been what we expected, have not been what we want, there are some things that we have options to do that we’re gonna look at, but I like the way our guys fight and all the way until the end, even after replacing a couple guys, our guys fight all the way and come back down, so still in Pac-12 play, lost the first three games of our conference schedule. We’re gonna be better by the end of the year than we are right now. That’s the stance that we’re taking, we got the guys to do it, we gotta get healthy, and then come back and we’re gonna play our best football of the year at our home.”
Stanford got the ball to start the game, but their opening possession was a three and out as they were unable to get anything going offensively. Ryan Sanborn would punt a 48 yard punt that was returned for two yards to the Oregon 34 yard line.
Thanks to a 12 yard run and an 18 yard run from Irving, Oregon got the ball to the Stanford 21 yard line. However, thanks to a series of penalties committed by the Ducks, Stanford would hold Oregon to a field goal as Camden Lewis’ 38 yard kick was good. 3-0 lead for Oregon with 10:00 to go in the 1st quarter.
Stanford and Oregon would then trade punts all the way until Stanford once again punted on a 4th and 1 from their own 16 yard line, giving Oregon the ball on their own 41 yard line with 16 seconds left on the clock. After a 10 yard rush from Noah Whittington to the Stanford 49 yard line, it looked like Stanford might trail by just three points at the end of the 1st quarter. It wasn’t to be as Oregon got one final play off right before the clock hit all zeroes, as Bo Nix completed a 49 yard touchdown pass to Chase Cota, making it a 10-0 Oregon lead at the end of the 1st quarter.
To start the 2nd quarter, Stanford’s next drive would be a quick three and out as the Cardinal were unable to get anything going offensively. Oregon would return the favor as they too would be unable to score on their drive thanks to a 10 yard holding penalty. The Ducks were really getting killed by penalties.
With 12:19 to go in the 2nd quarter, Stanford started with the ball on their own 19 yard line and finally started to show some signs of life. Casey Filkins would get a 10 yard reception as well as a 20 yard rush while Brycen Tremayne had a clutch 12 yard reception on a 3rd and 8 to keep the drive alive. Stanford ultimately had to settle for a 23 yard field goal from Josh Karty, but it was now a 10-3 game with 7:37 to go in the half.
On the next Oregon drive, the Ducks quickly got into Stanford territory thanks to a 32 yard run from Nix. On 3rd and 9 from the Stanford 10 yard line, Nix then connected with Troy Franklin for a touchdown in the corner of the end zone that was initially ruled incomplete but overturned as a touchdown. It was now a 17-3 Oregon lead with 4:22 to go in the half.
Stanford’s next drive was a disaster as Tanner McKee threw the ball to Benjamin Yurosek, who fumbled the ball and had it recovered by the Ducks and returned to the Stanford 4 yard line. From there, the Ducks easily scored a touchdown as Nix rushed for four yards into the end zone. It was now a 24-3 Oregon lead with 3:59 to go.
Oregon wasn’t done scoring in the half. On 3rd and 21 from the Stanford 22 yard line with less than 30 seconds to go in the half, Sean Dollars had a 20 yard gain to the Stanford 2 yard line. Thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct foul on Stanford defensive back Patrick Fields, the ball was moved to the one yard line and an automatic first down. Oregon would then score a touchdown as Jordan James rushed into the end zone for a one yard touchdown with one second left on the clock. This made it a 31-3 Oregon lead at halftime.
In the second half, Stanford would perform much better, but after getting down by so many points, the entire second half was basically garbage time. Stanford would score their first touchdown of the game on a drive that started on their own 25 yard line with 7:47 to go in the 3rd quarter. On 1st and 10 from the Oregon 42 yard line, McKee would find Filkins for a 42 yard touchdown reception where Filkins danced along the sidelines without going out of bounds. This made it a 31-10 Oregon lead with 5:01 to go in the 3rd quarter.
Rather than get a stop and maybe build some momentum, Stanford’s defense was unable to get a stop on the next drive as Bo Nix had an 80 yard touchdown run to make it a 38-10 game with 4:46 to go in the 3rd quarter.
To the credit of the Stanford offense, they would respond with a touchdown of their own as McKee found Elijah Higgins for a 28 yard touchdown pass to make it a 38-17 game with 2:12 to go in the 3rd. Stanford’s offense was finally looking like it had life after an inert first half.
On the next Oregon drive, the Ducks quickly got into Stanford territory thanks to a 28 yard reception by Franklin and a 12 yard rush up the middle from Whittington. Dollars would cap off the drive with a two yard touchdown run to make it a 45-17 lead for the Ducks with 14:31 to go in the game. In the end, Stanford would tack on 10 more points as Karty nailed a career-long 53 yard field goal and Mudia Reuben caught an 18 yard touchdown pass from Ari Patu. 45-27 would be the final score.
For Oregon, this was just another day in the office. After getting destroyed by Georgia in week one, they’ve bounced back nicely and look like the team everyone thought they were at the beginning of the season. Nix is the real deal and really gave Stanford a lot of trouble as all dual quarterbacks seem to do. Just an all-around good day for the Ducks. They were hoping to get some payback on Stanford after what happened last year and they got the job done.
As for Stanford, this loss is disappointing in that they essentially were out of the game at halftime. The offense took too long to get rolling and the defense got shelled in the first half. That’s a recipe for disaster.
On the somewhat bright side, Stanford’s offense did wake up in the second half and they showed signs of what they could be if they just put it together for four quarters. Plus, they didn’t lose the turnover battle. It was a tie. Oregon had the one fumble recovery while Stanford had an interception late in the 4th quarter by Tristan Sinclair. Stanford wasn’t as sloppy with the ball, allowing them to find the end zone once they did find a groove.
It's no secret that this 1-3 start is not what Stanford was hoping for. At the same time, it is what it is at this point. They have had a tough schedule as all three of their losses have come to teams who were ranked inside the top 20, one of whom is now looking like a top five team in the nation (USC). When coming off a 3-9 season, it’s going to be tough to beat teams of that quality. Especially when the games are early in the season and they’re on the road.
What Stanford needs to do is learn from this stretch, not let it bog them down the rest of the season, and build on the good things they did do in this game like taking better care of the ball and making some electric plays on offense in the second half.
Up next for Stanford will be a home game against Oregon State on Saturday, October 8th. That game will kick off at 8:00 PM PT on ESPN and KNBR 1050 AM radio.
Note: Stanford offensive guard Barrett Miller went down in the first quarter of the game. David Shaw said he is most likely out for a few weeks and that he is not expected to play against Oregon State.
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