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Gerhart
Rings in Midnight Against Cinderella Duck Defense
by Zach
Bigalke
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| Oregon
Ducks |
VS |
Stanford Cardinal |
| 42 |
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51 |
Coming into the season, the defense was supposed to be the ugly
stepsister in the Oregon Ducks' Cinderella story. Traditionally,
high-flying offenses have been hampered in
Eugene
by a bend-but-don't-break defense that far too often bends too far. After
losing several key players to graduation and the NFL, everyone knew that
any success
Oregon
enjoyed in 2009 would be dependent on Nick Aliotti preparing his new
charges for the battle.
For the first eight games of the season, Aliotti's
crew had exceeded every expectation. Opening the year at
Boise
State
, the Ducks might have lost the game... but they also held a potent
Broncos offense, ranked second in the nation in scoring and in the top
fifteen in total offense, to just 19 points. Kellen Moore was held under
200 yards passing, and the Ducks defense kept Jeremiah Masoli and the
offense in a game that by all indications should have never even been
close.
As the season progressed, the defense carried the
team back from ignominy to prominence. As the offense started to wind back
up to 2008 form, the defense bent a little. But this year, the slipper was
fitting and the defense wasn't breaking. Tight wins at home against Purdue
and
Utah
rebuilt some confidence for the
Oregon
crew ahead of a tough Pac-10 season.
The Ducks continued their momentum, opening their
conference schedule at home with a 42-3 rout of a highly-touted
Cal
team to take charge of the Pac-10 race out of the gate. The next week, it
was
Washington
State
who came to Autzen and was laid to waste 52-6. Even when defender after
defender went down, the unit never wavered in its performance. They
traveled for the first time in over a month to UCLA and came home with a
24-10 win; this was followed the next week by a 43-19 trouncing of
Washington
up in
Seattle
. So, after throttling USC last weekend, the Ducks' trip to Stanford on
Saturday was supposed to be a confirmation game -- signifying
Oregon
's ascent to the top of the conference.
By the final whistle in
Palo Alto
, the only thing that had been confirmed was the reality that, in 2009,
the Pac-10 is right in the argument as the deepest conference in the
nation. At Stanford Stadium, Toby Gerhart and the Cardinal were the clock
that pealed midnight for the
Oregon
defense. Aliotti's boys, who had looked fleet as a carriage against so
many opponents, lumbered like a pumpkin as Gerhart methodically bowled
forward across huge tracts of land on down after punishing down. Finishing
with a career-high 223 yards on 38 carries, Gerhart singlehandedly carved
more than a third of his team's points out of Oregon's hide.
But this win was hardly Gerhart's alone. Freshman
quarterback Andrew Luck, one of the most efficient passers in the nation
as a rookie, provided balance to the running attack. Luck needed little of
such things on Saturday, completing 60% of his twenty passing attempts for
251 yards and two touchdowns. Reeling all day and on their heels as the
bigger Stanford line repelled every charge, the defensive line for
Oregon
manufactured little pressure at the point of attack and lost the battle in
the trenches. Once Stanford's bigger athletes got to the second level, the
diminutive Duck defenders were finding it difficult to match up with their
size.
This time it was Masoli and the offense that
desperately tried in vain to keep
Oregon
in the ballgame. The junior quarterback played as well as one could have
asked, completing 21-of-37 for 335 yards and three touchdowns without an
interception... and that statline was diminished by a half-dozen crucial
drops by his receivers. He also picked up 55 yards and another touchdown
on the ground. Running back LaMichael James, the freshman installed as the
feature back after Blount’s debacle in
Boise
, put up another fine day himself, getting his by-now requisite 125 yards
on 18 carries and picking up a touchdown. In addition, he caught four of
Masoli’s passes for another 89 yards, finishing with over 200
all-purpose yards. The Ducks, all told, outgained Stanford by 65 yards on
offense.
But the horses on
Oregon
’s defense were exposed as mice this weekend, rendering all that
offensive output effectively useless in the end. Not all is lost, though.
Hopefully Roses can prove a sufficient smelling salt to revive this team
and wake it from its stupor. Even with this setback, the Ducks are well in
control of their Pac-10 fate. Destiny is all in their hands -- win out
against
Arizona
State
, at
Arizona
and in Autzen against
Oregon
State
in the Civil War game and
Oregon
is Pasadena-bound.
The loss stings, but all it leaves left is for
Aliotti and crew to head back to
Eugene
and start searching anew for another glass slipper to bring its magic to a
patchwork Ducks defense that finally played to the level of its parts in
Palo Alto
...
Submitted 11/07
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