0regotr#€meralt)
Monday, January 4,19991 Volume 100, Issue 69
Paradise Lost
t 'ik lu u .. ... . ityun Yamasbin) /for the Emerald
I ailoack Herman Ho-Ching lost two first-quarter fumbles, and the Ducks commited six overall, leading to 23 Colorado points and an embarrasing 51-43 loss in the Aloha Bowl on Christmas Day
By Rob Moseley
Oregon Daily Email!
ONOLULU — As Colorado
fiddled with the Ducks’
JL Christmas wishes, Oregon head coach Mike Bel
loth burned.
With the Ducks in Hawaii for the Dec. 25 Aloha Bowl, Col
orado ruined the trip to paradise with a 51-43 win over then
No. 21 Oregon in front of an estimated Aloha Stadium
crowd of 35,000 that saw the second-highest point total in
college bowl history.
The combination of six Oregon turnovers leading to 23
Colorado points and what Bellotti felt was the Buffaloes’
constant holding of Duck receivers had the head coach
seething after the game.
“1 believe were a better team than Colorado, just not today
because of the turnovers,” said Bellotti, who also fumed after
Oregon’s 38-6 loss to Colorado in the 1996 Cotton Bowl.
“We made way too many mistakes early. We dug ourselves a
very deep hole, and I’m very proud of my football team for
Colorado 51, Oregon 43
coming hack.”
After Damon Wheeler’s 52'yard in
terception return for a touchdown gave
Colorado a 44-14 lead early in the second half, Oregon
outscored the Buffaloes 29-7 and got the ball back on its own
43-yard line for a chance to tie the score with three minutes,
11 seconds remaining.
Pacific-10 Conference co-offensive player of the year Akili
Smith completed 24 of 46 passes for 456 yards, two scores
and two interceptions on his way to being named Oregon’s
game MVP, but he couldn’t recapitulate the late-season hero
ics he had demonstrated so many times this season.
After throwing an incomplete pass on first and second
downs, Smith was sacked by Colorado’s Hannibal Navies be
fore his fourth-down pass attempt fell between two receivers,
thus ending not just the drive but Oregon’s chances at a
miraculous comeback, as well as Smith’s short but storied
two-year career in Eugene.
Turn to LOSS, Page2B