Oregon Ducks Football Defeats The Arizona Wildcats 49-22

Oregon handily defeated the Arizona Wildcats in the desert, 49-22.

The Ducks again used their run game against a suspect defense to put the game out of reach by the third quarter.

Arizona won the coin toss and elected to receive to start the game. They marched down the field, only to fumble the ball on the Oregon 11 yard line. The Ducks could not capitalize on the early gift and only gained 20 yards before being forced to punt. The Wildcats advanced to the Oregon 21 and successfully converted a 38-yard field goal. Their lead at 3-0 would be Arizona’s only lead of the game.

Oregon’s next drive had runs by Bucky Irving get modest gains, and a Bo Nix pass to Moliki Matavao took the Ducks to first down on their own 45. Noah Whittington’s first touch of the game then took it to the house.

Oregon would score touchdowns on their next six drives, only punting late in the third quarter. Bo Nix, Moliki Matavao, Jordan James, and Bucky Irving all ran for touchdowns in this stretch.

Many of these drives were set up by Bo Nix’s passing. Nix had no passing touchdowns, but was very sharp today with accurate short and long passes and no interceptions.

Matavao with his first career touchdown:

Jordan James has now had three straight games with a TD.

Bo Nix rushed for 70 yards and three TDs.

If the Wildcats were to have any hope of an upset, they had to win the turnover battle. They did not, and coughed up two fumbles and one interception, while the Ducks had no turnovers.

Bo Nix ran for his third rushing touchdown late in the third quarter, and with the game out of hand for AZ, his work was done.

The WIldcats would score a meaningless field goal and touchdown in garbage time, and that took us to our final score.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Bo Nix was 20-25 and passed for 265 yards. Oregon used 10 receivers in the game. Seven McGee had the most receptions with four, for 34 yards, while Chase Cota had three for 60 yards and Kris Hutson had one reception for 60 yards.

Oregon used six runners in rushing for 306 yards on the night. Oregon’s total offensive output was 580 yards to Arizona’s 356. The Ducks ran 41 times and passed 29 times.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

After committing 14 penalties last week against Stanford, Oregon pared that down to six penalties for 56 yards.

The Oregon Ducks take a five-game win streak into their bye week. Physically, they are in remarkably good shape and in relatively good health. In two weeks they battle Chip Kelly’s UCLA team in Eugene, before hitting the road for games at California and Colorado.