Ducks Versus Boise State: Sometimes, To End a Curse, You Have to Create One of Your Own

A team of seniors, transfers and one-and-done players came together with tremendous heart in Oregon's seesaw 37-34 victory over the Broncos Saturday night in Autzen Stadium. In a game of devastating momentum swings against a fierce running attack, the Ducks kept coming back.

They had the ball last and scored, with Atticus Sappington nailing a 25-yard field goal as time ran out, two seconds to play at the snap. For the second week in a row Dillon Gabriel engineered a fourth quarter drive to win, this one an 11-play, 61-yard drive with 3:36 to play in a tie game.

It was exactly how a team might exorcise a 16-year-old curse. Prior to last night Oregon was 0-3 in their history against the Broncos, with painful losses in 2008, 2009 and 2017. This time, Boise State was flagged for a targeting penalty and failed to knock the quarterback out of the game. This time the Ducks got the big explosive plays to win.

Let's take a look at the 5 critical factors and how this victory was made. Teams that

out-rush their opponents win 75 percent of the time (Broncos 221-110)

win the turnover battle win the game just under 75 percent. (Boise State 2-0)

lead at halftime win the game just shy of 80 percent (BSU led 20-14)

pass for more yards win 80% (Ducks 243-148)

score first win 82% (BSU 3-0, 42-yard field goal in their first possession of the first quarter. Ducks received the opening kickoff and went three and out.)

Teams that win all five factors went 146-1 in 2021-22, according to Zach Barnett of Football Scoop.

In this game Oregon "lost" in four of the five critical factors and fumbled the ball away twice in the fourth quarter. They gave up 192 yards rushing to the Broncos superb running back Ashton Jeanty. Yet they won the game. What compensated for these deficits were explosive plays and two touchdowns in special teams:

1st quarter, 5:17 to play, 1st and 10 on Oregon 28, Dillon Gabriel 67-yard pass to Evan Stewart. Trailing 3-0, this got the Ducks down to the 5. Noah Whittington powered inside for 4 yards, then Gabriel scored on 2nd and 1 on a keeper around the left side.

2nd quarter, 9:35 to play. Tez Johnson alertly picks up a bouncing punt and returns it 24 yards to the Bronco 34. First play from scrimmage, Gabriel hits Stewart for a 34-yard touchdown.

Trailing 20-14 with 8:15 to play in the third quarter, 3rd and 8 with the blitz coming, Gabriel hit Traeshon Holden on a slant pattern. Holden shook off a tackler and zoomed 59 yards for a 20-20 tie (the extra point doinked off the right upright).

Late in the third quarter, the Ducks got their first lead of the game when Tez Johnson fielded a punt at his own 15, shed a tackler, made a move and raced 85 yards for a score with a convoy of blockers. 27-20 Oregon.

Oregon then coughed up fumbles on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter, Ashton Jeanty dashing for TDs of 70 and 8 yards to lead 34-27.

On the ensuing kickoff, however, Noah Whittington broke out of the pack near the 30, cruising 100 yards for a tying touchdown with 9:59 to play. He dropped the ball a half-yard from the goal line but an alert Oregon special teams player picked it up in the end zone, so the touchdown stood.

With the game on the line the defense forced two punts. After the second with 3:36 to play the Ducks drove 61 yards in 10 plays for the winning field goal. A 14-yard completion to Kenyon Sadiq got the offense going, then a Boise pass interference penalty got them down to the BSU 28. Jordan James scampered for 6, 3, and 11 yards to the 8. From there, they set up the winning field goal with a couple of conservative runs.

Defensively, pass defense by Jabbar Muhammad, Brandon Johnson and Nikko Reed paced a great effort by the Oregon secondary. They held Mike Madsen and his receivers to 148 yards, making the Broncos oddly one-dimensional. On series where they could get the visitors behind the chains, the secondary responded with big plays one-on-one against receivers.

The Broncos punted 8 times and settled for field goals twice. The Ducks held them to 9-19 on third downs.

Gabriel was 18-21 passing for 243 yards and two touchdowns, but he and the Oregon offensive line have to get better at recognizing and picking up the blitz. They've were sacked 4 times, 7 times over two games. Through 2 games the senior transfer from Oklahoma is completing 84.3% of his passes, phenomenal accuracy. But the lapses in pass protection and pocket awareness must be corrected.

The Oregon offensive line looked better in the second half with Iapani Laloulu moved back to center.

Dan Lanning said, “Hats off to Boise State, I thought they played a hell of a game. They created some takeaways, I think really the difference tonight was special teams.”

“I told Atticus (Sappington) early on when he missed the extra point that you’re going to have an opportunity to kick again for this team and it’s gonna be the difference for us and it was. Their back is special, that guy is a really really great back.”

“Proud of our guys for showing resilience, that was really a comeback game for us in a lot of ways. A guy makes a mistake, somebody else makes up for that mistake later on so there was a lot of back and forth a lot to learn from this game.”