Oregon
blows opener m Ins
six seconds
By BRIAN TEN EYCK
Of the Emerald
The Ducks’ new Tennessee
defense got its first look at a
wishbone offense and their first
taste of defeat, both courtesy of
the Missouri Tigers, in Columbia
where both teams opened their
seasons.
Oregon got the early breaks as
they recovered a fumble on the
opening kickoff and marched the
short 35 years to the goal line and
first blood of the season as
Maurice Anderson plunged in
from the two. Then Tiger
quarterback Joe Cherry stopped
two of his own drives with sloppy
ball handling at crucial points
allowing the visitors a 13 point
bulge when they carried 60 paces
for the second tally of the day.
At this point the shamrock lady
began tossing her clover in the
other direction. Hugh Woodward
missed the extra point attempt
and Missouri caught fire to drive
fifty five yards for a TD with a
good conversion. Cherry then
began operating out of the power
— formation and with the help of
a pass interference penalty led
his mates down the field from his
own 39 to a 14-13 lead with forty
four seconds left in the half.
Dan Fouts pulled a minor
miracle out of his bag of passing
tricks and by the time the clock
showed two seconds the Webfoots
were close enough for Woodward
to boot it through the uprights to
move Oregon in front.
Less than a minute after action
resumed, John Mosely grabbed
an intended Fouts to Specht
aerial and carried it into the end
zone.
The joy was short lived Fouts
engineered a 71-yard drive
culminating in a 49-yard pass
play to Specht, made possible
when a defender tried too hard to
intercept or knock down the ball
and not quite hard enough to
tackle Specht. The Ducks missed
the two-point conversion when
Fouts hurried his pass.
The big board continued to
show Missouri down one until the
last six seconds of the battle.
After losing the ball through one
their many fumbles the Tigers
had to start again from Oregon’s
41 with just 29 ticks on the
timepiece. Then with the game at
stake Greg Hill managed the 31
yarder which gave the Tigers the
two-point win.
Earlier Oregon had had one
touchdown called back by
penalty when a lineman wan
dered too far down the field
during a screen pass play.
There were bright spots among
the gloom. A healthy Dave Peiper
swarmed all over the field with a
dozen tackles and as many
assists while his secondary mates
were in on nearly every play in
the first quarter. Mike Jodoin and
sophs Steve Donnelly and Mike
Popovitch were especially
noticable in the action as was
Fred Manuel until his early exit
resulting from a discussion of the
game with a Mizzou player.
The Green Machine moved as
Keecie Anderson finesses for yardage.
Photo by Wes Loder
Oregon-Arizona statistics
Team
Or»|H Arliona
• nMng pUyi 44 43
Yards Hlnxl rinhlng (Ft 171
Yard* let) rushing 34 ;»
Nat yards rushing IJ» las
Passat 1134 •)]
Passat Intarrapiad by I }
Nat yards passing 104 St
Total plays II «a
Total ottansa 4is 300
First bourns rushing 10 a
First downs pasting It I
First downs panaltias I I
Total tlrst downs 74 tl
Punting . .I-JO t 1044 t
Punl raturns I B S IS
Firsott raturns 1 15 3 103
Inlartaption raturns Ml Id
FumMaa tumblas lost 3 1 4 1
Panaltias 144 4 41
Individual
Oregon
■palling TC YO VI Nat
Pouts . 4 « II 1
14 n i to
II 43 t 43
M Andarson
J Andarson
Palm
Reynold*
Turner
MeLeon
Irown
Wtnn
Merlin
Foul*
Twrw
Wmn
Nil RNPvtus
Iter r
Ope^M
J Arx*#f >on
110 1
2 17 0 17
4 2 14 -12
4 22 0 22
2 3 12
1 0 10 *10
13 0 3
PA PC PI YG
33 20 2 2 71
2 10 1$
10 0 0
Y#» TO
1 IS
s no
S $3
f 02
3 4*
Punt in*
Pelm
No A vo
7 31 7
KtcfcoM Return*
Winn
Punt RtHNUt
Wmn
Iwttuiptw
Donnelly
Me Y#%
1 1$
No Yde
• 7$
No Ydv
I 21
Arizona
Rushlna
Davis
Shutord .
Upchurch .
Hamilton.
Damory
McCall
Boyd . ...
Brisco ... _
Pauni
Davis
Damory
Boyd
Bass Racaivin*
Patroshus ...,
Dean
McCall
Hamilton
Naumau
Naal
Puntma
Shutord
Pant daturas
Waliaca
htcaoH Rahims
Ball
Hamilton
Uttar captions
Williams
TC VG YL Nat
Ns. Yds. TO
. I 4 «
... 3 17 b
..t 3 0
1 I 0
J It 0
t II 0
No. Avo.
ID as r
No. Yds.
5 IS
No. Yds.
a tos
l I
No Yds
I •
3 t# 3 7
. .. 7 33 0 33
la 3» I IS
S *3 II «l
a *17-11
61* I 15
5 IS 31 -IS
.17 0 7
PA PC PI YG
7 I 0 IS
.11 a 1 15
a 3 0 is
well as could be expected with
their string soph fullback and
Dan Fouts not quite up to his
usual accuracy. Receivers were
able to get open consistently and
there were no fumbles lost in 64
carries.
A bright light in the punting
department flashed on too as Bob
Palm averaged 44.4 yards and
planted two over 50 yards with
good bounces and coffin
cornering several. His kicking
evaded the receivers and
resulted in very little runback
yardage.
Sooner fullback Leon Crosswhite.
Sooners (sigh)
next for Ducks
Oregon’s youthful defense gets the supreme test
Saturday.
Fresh off a 34-7 thumping of Arizona, the Ducks travel to
Norman, Oklahoma and a date with Greg Pruitt, Leon
Crosswhite, and that awesome Sooner wishbone.
If Dan Fouts can match his 20 of 33 performance in the
air and the Ducks score over four touchdowns, it might be
close.
Oklahoma’s high-powered offense, which includes a
backfield that’s six-deep in depth, doesn’t figure to get less
than 28 points and Oregon will need all the help it can get to
accomplish that measure of defensive success.
Pruitt leads the Sooner charge. Last year he averaged 9.3
yards per carry and gained 1,665 yards on the ground.
Crosswhite is a brutal blocker and leads Pruitt through the
holes.
Running the Oklahoma wishbone this year is newcomer
Dave Robertson, who threw five passes, completed them all
for 155 yards last Saturday as the Sooners whomped on Utah
State 49-0.
The defense that must stop Pruitt and his mates includes
six new starters. Perhaps the greenest portion of Oregon’s
unit is the secondary — where free safety Steve Donnelly and
cornerback Jack Conners and Pete Carlson line up.
Oregon’s linebackers—Mike Jodoin, Mike Popovich, and
Steve Herr—drew praise from Arizona coach Bob Weber
after Saturday’s game. “They hit hard . . . real hard,” Weber
said.
They'll have to.
The play along the defensive lines will be crucial. The
linebackers will have to hit harder and read the keys off
Robertson’s options.
Tim Guy and Keith Davis hold the most responsibility—
the wishbone places the most pressure at the defensive end
spots. Meanwhile the Sooner secondary faces no easy task in
trying to stop Duck receivers Greg Specht and Bob Palm.
It was Palm who zipped by all-American candidate
Jackie Wallace for two touchdown catches.
Says quarterback Fouts, “Our receivers can beat
anybody one-on-one ” Chances are the success Palm and
Specht find may depend on how much of a running i .m e
Oregon is able to come up with.
Coach Dick Enright had good news this week with the
word that fullback Greg Herd should be in action. Herd was
injured in the Ducks’ last full-scale scrimmage prior to the
Missouri game.
“Buffalo” gives the Ducks the punishing short-yardage
runner they need on third down.
Against Utah State the Sooners threw 70 men onto the
field in 91-degree heat. The Utags wilted quickly. It’s that
kind of depth that has Enright worried, because battling
Oklahoma on even terms means trying to stay up with their
; fresh troops.
Included in the Sooner ’second’ team backfield are two
ij freshmen, and one—quarterback—Kerry Jackson—gained
i over 100 yards.