Fife, Clemens set to battle again in 2003
Oregon quarterbacks end
the season with as many
questions as they had
at the start of 2002
Seattle Bowl
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
SEATTLE — One year later,
the Ducks find themselves in a
familiar position.
Who will play quarterback
next season?
After both Jason Fife and Kellen
Clemens had mostly unspectacu
lar performances in Oregon’s 38
17 loss to Wake Forest in the Seat
tle Bowl on Dec. 30, Oregon head
coach Mike Bellotti and the Ducks
find themselves with a handful of
quarterback questions. Almost as
many questions as they had after
the departure last year of Joey
Harrington, who was taken third
overall in last year’s NFL draft.
“The quarterback job is open,”
Bellotti said after the game.
Fife started the Seattle Bowl but
lasted only three drives before
Clemens took over as the main sig
nal-caller for the rest of the game
until the closing minutes, when
Fife took back the reins. Fife threw
seven passes in the first half, com
pleting only one four-yard swing
pass to Keenan Howry.
Clemens showed more confi
dence when he was handed the
ball, but he was unable to engineer
the Ducks any kind of comeback
as they got within seven points at
24-17, but never closer.
“I thought Kellen did OK; it’s hard
to evaluate him without looking at
the film,” Bellotti said. “But obvious
ly we’re looking for more than OK. ”
Clemens completed 61 percent
of his passes, on 19-of-31 passing,
for 161 yards and one touchdown.
“I think we would’ve been booed
if we had taken Kellen out of there,”
Fife said. “He had the hot hand.”
Fife, meanwhile, had the cold
hand from the beginning. He com
pleted his first pass, the swing to
Howry, but later in the drive
missed Howry badly in the end
zone on a crucial third-down play.
On the second drive, Fife missed
Sarnie Parker twice as the Ducks
went three-and-out.
After another three-and-out drive
in which Fife threw two incomplete
passes, Bellotti pulled the junior in
favor of the redshirt freshman.
Clemens also completed his first
pass but missed his second at
tempt on an unsuccessful drive.
Clemens didn’t find his rhythm
until the last drive of the first half,
when he engineered a nine-play,
61-yard masterpiece with time
winding down. The drive culmi
nated in Clemens’ seven-yard
strike to Parker, a touchdown that
brought Oregon within 21-10 at
the half. Clemens was 7-for-7 pass
ing on the drive.
So now the Ducks face the same
decisions as last year, only this time
the decisions seem more ominous.
“It’s going to be competitive,”
senior wide receiver Keenan
Howry said of Oregon’s quarter
back conundrum. “It’s going to be
won in spring ball and fall camp.”
That was the philosophy last year
after the bowl season, and Fife
proved to be the stronger of the two
quarterbacks, especially after an im
pressive outing in the Spring Game.
He carried that success into the reg
ular season, posting impressive sta
tistics as the Ducks moved to 6-0 af
ter six games. But as Oregon started
playing tougher opponents, Fife
went the other way. He became
shaky, even shouldering the blame
when Oregon failed to generate
much offense at Washington State.
Clemens finally got a chance to
prove himself but threw an inter
ception on his first pass attempt
against Washington.
And that led to this week, when
Bellotti told the media he would
play both quarterbacks and stuck
to his word.
“The coaches made the deci
sion based on how we were per
forming,” Fife said of this week’s
quarterback shift.
And after a dismal loss in the
Seattle Bowl, Fife and Clemens
will be the answers to the same
questions that came up last year.
Only this year, they’ll have the
motivation of that loss to help
them find the answers.
“This will fuel our fire for next
year,” Fife said.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Adam Amato Emerald
Kellen Clemens (11) played most of the Seattle Bowl, but couldn't lead a Duck comeback.
49ers come back from 24 down to stun Giants
Bonnie DeSimone
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
SAN FRANCISCO — They say
comatose patients can still hear,
that people in the room with them
should never stop talking.
The New York Giants, up by 24
late in the third quarter of
Sunday’s NFC wild-card game,
talked trash. The San Francisco
49ers, with their vital signs appar
ently flatlined, got it loud and
clear, kept talking to each other
and kept their cool.
“I heard somebody ask who
could make a play,” 49ers receiver
Terrell Owens said of the team’s
determination as the clock ran
down. “I said I could. Then other
guys chimed in.”
Quarterback Jeff Garcia operat
ed in the two-minute offense with
the swift improvisation of an
emergency-room surgeon to lead
the 49ers back to within five
points, then connected with Tai
Streets on a 13-yard touchdown
pass with 1 minute left.
Although the 49ers failed to
convert the subsequent two-point
conversion, an errant Giants snap
snuffed a 41-yard field-goal
attempt as time ran out, giving
San Francisco a 39-38 victory. It
was the second-biggest resuscita
tion in NFL playoff history, and it
sent the crowd of 66,318 at 3Com
Park into a delirium that could
have woken the dead.
“In the fourth quarter, it seemed
like we had so much more ener
gy,” said 49ers wide receiver J.J.
Stokes. “They were taking their
helmets off, wincing, breathing
hard, d think they got winded. I
think they relaxed and took us for
granted a little bit.
“They were just a bunch of
loudmouths. All they did was talk,
talk, talk, trying to get us out of
our game. It didn’t work. They
lost. They go home.”
Garcia passed for 331 yards and
three touchdowns and rushed for
another. Owens, coming off a two
week layoff due to a groin injury,
also did double duty, throwing for
one key 25-yard gain and hauling
in nine passes for 177 yards.
The 49ers erased a 38-14
deficit, and one illustrious observ
er called it the most stirring come
back in franchise history.
“This was unsurpassed, unbeliev
able,” said former 49ers coach Bill
Walsh, now a team consultant. “As
great a game as we’ve had. We final
ly broke out after an average to
good season. This team had to
demonstrate to each other that they
could play a great team and win.”
There was speculation that a
loss Sunday would cost 49ers
coach Steve Mariucci his job.
Instead, he engineered the biggest
postseason rally since Buffalo
came back from 35-3 third-quar
ter deficit against Houston 10
years ago to win 41-38 — and the
49ers survived to face Tampa Bay
next week.
(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
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