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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1972)
Fouts unloads on Wildcat secondary. Photo by Wes Loder Carl Nickerson eyes tackle. mFouts, Ducks blister Arizona 34-7 By MERLIN MANN Of the Emerald Oregon needed that victory over Arizona Saturday night in Autzen Stadium. ‘‘We needed it for a lot of reasons,” said Dan Fouts half-dressed in front of his locker after the Ducks burned the Wildcats 34-7. The Ducks, indeed, needed a victory. Coach Dick Enright hadn’t yet lifted his program off the ground after a first-week loss to Missouri. The young Oregon team needed some prestige heading into a tough road trip immediately ahead. Without a victory over un-powerhouses Missouri or Arizona, the Ducks wouldn’t have rated the girls’ locker room against Oklahoma, UCLA and Washington, Oregon’s next three opponents—all on the road. But Dan Fouts had the game well at hand. The senior All-American candidate shredded Arizona’s self acclaimed stingy defensive backfield for 271 yards through the air, breaking Bob Berry’s career passing record. Fouts now has but two more records (career total offense and career touchdown passes) to overcome before he owns the Oregon record book. Even Arizona’s All-American candidate Jackie Wallace couldn’t stop Fouts. And, ironically, Fouts’ two touchdown passes were thrown over the highly touted Wallace’s head to little sophomore Bob Palm. Wallace may have lost his claim to an All-American team after his performance. Palm caught five passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns under the guard of Wallace. “I thought Wallace would be a little tougher," Fouts said afterward, “but we feel our receivers can beat anyone man-on-man. The good protection just makes it easier for the receivers.” Actually it was Fouts who made it easy for the receivers. He hit 20 of 33 passes. He picked up the defensive maneuvering and effectively picked it apart. In the first half Fouts went with swing passes to running backs releasing out of the backfield. “The defensive backs were playing man-to-man, the linebackers zone. So we went with the delays,” Fouts said. After the linebackers began picking up the receivers coming out of the backfield, Fouts adjusted again. “Then we started running a little more in the third quarter.” That’s when the game was bogged down in a punters’ dual between Palm and Marty Shuford. And then Oregon’s defense was surprisingly stingy. It didn’t yield a first down throughout the third quarter as Oregon was clinging to a 14-7 lead. And the defense didn’t allow a first down until the game was well in the Ducks’ hands with only 5:57 left in the game. By then many reserves were dotting the lineup. “Look at that defense,” Fouts said, "you can’t ask for a better one. Two first half defensive breaks led directly to both touchdowns.” The defense was smothering, but part of the Arizona problem was picking a quarterback. After sophomore starter Jerry Davis was crushed by defensive standout Fred Manuel when he was scrambling, Coach Bob Weber shuffled in two replacements and re-entered Davis when he found out the offense couldn’t budget the improved Duck defense. All to no avail. “Davis got a bruised back,” Weber said, “After that we didn't have poise offensively. They played sound football; we didn’t. Oregon’s first two touchdowns came off fumble recoveries and that hurt.” Arizona struck first and fast in the first quarter. Reserve halfback Willie Hamilton surged inside on a normal off-guard run, then suddenly broke to the out side, sped around right end and out-raced cornerback Pete Carlsen to the endzone. The 84-yard scamper was Arizona’s only chance for rejoicing. Oregon received its first break early in the second quarter when Mike Pulver recovered a Jim Upchurch fumble on the Arizona 29. Five plays later Jim Anderson carried the ball into the endzone for the tying score. With just 56 seconds left in the first half, Hamilton fumbled and Manuel recovered on the Arizona 21 setting up Oregon’s go-ahead score. On the next play Palm beat Wallace in the corner of the endzone and Fouts laid the pass between them. Palm held on just long enough for the official to signal a touchdown. Late in the third quarter Fouts kept a touchdown drive alive with a scramble for nine yards to pick up the first down. Then Fouts converted another third down play hitting Greg Specht, who tip-toed on the sideline for the 10-yard completion. On the next play speedy Maurice Anderson brought back thoughts of Bobby Moore. Anderson started with the flow of a sweep around right end. But he then stopped cut back to the left, sprinted to the sidelines, and cut the corner at the ten just inches from the sideline. The fleet junior slipped into the corner of the endzone just inside the flag for the score, a 13-yard scamper. Ironically, Arizona’s crushing blow came on its own play. Barry Dean raced through the Oregon secondary with ten minutes left in the game. Five yards in front of his nearest opponent, Dean dropped Bill Demory’s perfect pass. "We needed the big play at that point," said a dejected Weber. "We fell off a bit after that missed pass.” A minute later after Arizona was forced to punt, Fouts threw a bomb to Palm who again beat Wallace to the endzone. “In the huddle I told Palm to beat him deep. We were going for the touchdown." The 45-yard play put Oregon on top 28-7 and left only sophomore reserve quarterback Norval Turner to add another touchdown pass, to John Kerr for the icing.
