sports
Surprise — Oregon humbles Cal
»y uoug Levy
Of the tmerald
After his Bears tied Arizona
31-33 Oct. 1, California football
coach |oe Kapp said his team sniff
ed roses and proclaimed, 'We re
in the conference race.”
Saturday at Autzen Stadium,
Kapp inhaled the foul smell of
defeat as Oregon used two trick
plays and a new-found running
game to pin a 24-17 defeat on the
Bears.
The Ducks, 2-3 and 1-0 in this
year's wacky Rose Bowl race, con
trolled the offensive line of scrim
mage against Cal, 2-2-1, 0-1-1,
enroute to 279 rushing yards.
"We controlled the line of
scrimmage the best we had in any
of our games this year," said
Oregon coach Rich Brooks, who
won his first Pac-10 opener in
seven tries.
The 279 yards were part of 449
yards total offense. One has to go
back to Reggie Ogburn and 1980
to find numbers like that.
It was two trick plays that really
set Oregon apart from the Bears.
First, third-string tight end Dave
Christensen, his arm discovered
by Oregon coaches in practice, hit
speedster Lew Barnes with a
48-yard scoring bomb 1:34 into the
first quarter.
Three minutes and 11 seconds
later, quarterback Mike (orgensen
sneaked one yard to put the
Ducks up 12-0.
jorgensen's touchdown was set
up by something offensive coor
dinator Bob Toledo called "the
swinging gate" play.
With Oregon on the Cal 48 and
the Bears in a defensive huddle,
Jorgensen took a Ryan Zinke snap
and pitched wide to Barnes, who
romped 41 yards past the stunned
Cal defenders. Jorgensen scored
three plays later.
"I first used that play in a game
against South Carolina," said ex
Pacific coach Toledo. "The key is
Photos by Dave Kao
■ • • to Lew Barnes on the right sideline, who outran two Cal
defenders into the end zone.
to catch the other team off
balance. We did, and it looked
like 22 guys running the Boston
Marathon."
Brooks certainly liked Toledo's
idea. "I couldn't wait to use those
plays," he said with a grin.
Besides trick plays, Oregon kept
Cal off guard with passes on the
first six snaps of the ball.
"I'm glad we did that," said of
fensive tackle Scott Shepard. "All
those passes at the start took
some of the pressure off us (the
offensive line). A lot of times we
try and establish a running game
first, and if it doesn't work all the
pressure is on us."
On this day, the passing game
set up the run, and Oregon's
backs continually burst into the
Cal secondary. Sophomore
fullback Todd Bland rambled for
65 yards on 13 carries, Ladaria
Johnson for 63 on nine.
"We finally established a
semblance of a running game,"
said Brooks.
Defensively the Ducks did
something they failed to do in a
44-34 loss to San lose State — stop
ped the third down conversion.
The Bears converted just four of
15 times on third down, San Jose
State burned Oregon on 13 of 19
third-down conversions.
As the defense shut down Cal,
the offense churned out the yar
dage. Oregon led 12-0 six minutes
into the game — the Ducks had
scored just 12 points in the first
quarter in their first four games
combined.
It was 14-10 Oregon at half, and
it could have been worse. The
Ducks blew no less than five scor
ing opportunities, including a
first-and-goal at the Cal one-yard
line which vanished in the form of
a Kevin Willhite fumble.
The fumble was recovered by
Cal linebacker Ron Rivera, the
Bears' version of Superman. All
Rivera did was recover that fum
ble, make 12 tackles, steal the ball
from Jorgensen on a sack, and in
tercept a late handoff on his way
to a 36-yard touchdown run.
"You are one great goddamned
player," Brooks told him after the
game.
Brooks had more to say after the
game than Kapp. "Give Oregon
full credit — they just beat us," he
said.
It was as simple as that.
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Dave Christensen gave Oregon a quick 6-0 lead with this option
pass...
Defense didn't rest
While Oregon's offense was
rolling up 449 yards against Cal
in a 24-17 win, the Duck
defense was excelling on the
other side of the ball.
The Bears’ offense only
mustered one touchdown
against Oregon, shredded for
44 points by San Jose State a
week earlier. Cal had 265 yards
passing, but just 65 on the
ground, and the Ducks in
tercepted two Gale Gilbert
passes while forcing three
fumbles, two of which they
recovered.
The keyf Rich Brooks, Steve
Baack, Don Brown and E.J. Duf
fy were all in agreement. The
Ducks tightened up on Cal
when third down came
around.
In a 44-34 loss to the Spar
tans, Oregon's defense was on
vacation during third downs.
Brooks was sure the tur
naround was pivotal.
"We stopped Cal on a lot of
key third down plays, the thing
we didn't do a week ago," said
Oregon's coach.
"I don't know if people
noticed, but on third downs
we held up three fingers We
knew what we had to do," said
Duffy, the outside linebacker
who had two unassisted
tackles and a sideline
tightroping interception to halt
a Bear drive. "I think this is the
first time the offense and the
defense came together in the
same game."
The Ducks held Cal to four of
1S on third-down conversions,
and when Cal completed
passes or broke runs, sure
Oregon tackling prevented
back-breaking plays.