Oregon Daily Emerale
Monday, November 1, 2004
“Call and boo on my telephone, don’t do
it to the players. That’s a very jaded fan. ”
Mike Bellotti on the crowd booing the offense during Oregon’s victory over Washington
■ In my opinion
JON RO LIMAN
ROUGHING THE PASSER
Four weeks,
four wins,
but Ducks
inconsistent
Oregon continued a four-week trend of in
consistency Saturday against Washington.
While the Ducks excelled on one side of the
ball, they struggled to execute on the other.
Despite its troubles, Oregon continued anoth
er four-week trend as well: winning.
The Duck defense carried a sputtering of
fense to a 31-6 victory against the Huskies at
Autzen Stadium. While the score is indicative
of a blowout, the outcome remained in ques
tion until late in the fourth quarter.
Oregon held Washington to 256 yards of to
tal offense and put the game away with four
minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when
defensive end Chris Solomona intercepted a
swing pass from Washington quarterback
Casey Paus and returned it 10 yards for
a touchdown.
Solomona fought off a block and snared the
ball with his right hand before lumbering into
the end zone.
“We’d been going over it throughout this
week about (Washington’s) backs flaring
out,” Solomona said. “(Defensive line) Coach
(Steve) Greatwood said whenever you see the
back flare out of the corner of your eyes, they
are going to throw it there. I saw the back go,
and I just followed him. Robby (Valenzuela)
put some pressure on the quarterback, and I
made a big play. ”
To that point, the Oregon defense did every
thing it could to compensate for numerous of
ferfsive mistakes.
For the game, the Ducks held the Huskies
to 45 yards rushing and caused seven
turnovers. This performance came a week af
ter Oregon held Stanford to minus-eight yards
rushing and sacked Cardinal quarterbacks
10 times.
Middle linebacker Jerry Matson, who fin
ished with six tackles, said the Oregon defense
has a chance to be as good as it was in the mid
1990s, when the Ducks earned a trip to the
Rose Bowl.
“If you’re an offensive coordinator, you know
that your job is going to be tough when you
play us,” Matson said. “We got the game ball
on ESPN last week, and I know this was as
good a job, if not better. We are a good defense,
and hopefully we keep on playing even better
than this and really become a ‘Gang Green’
type of defense that’s a notorious thing for a
long time. ”
Defensive end Devan Long led the way for
Oregon with eight tackles, including three for
loss. The Anacortes, Wash., native said the
defense thrives on athletes working together.
“We just went out there and played as a
team, and that’s how good defenses
play,” Long said. “There’s no single person,
no egos. ”
As well as the defense played, the offense
was equally as poor in the second half. After
scoring 17 first-half points, Oregon struggled
with mistakes and missed opportunities in the
final two quarters.
For the game, Oregon managed only 24
points and 292 yards offensively against the
Pacific-10 Conference’s second-worst defense,
ROETMAN, page 14A
■ Duck football
m
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Defensive end Devan Long hits Washington quarterback Casey Paus as he attempts a pass. The Ducks
applied constant pressure to the Husky signal caller, leading to four interceptions.
Defense mars Huskies
in Ducks' 31-6 victory
For the second week in a row, the Oregon defense has controlled
the tempo of the game, making up for several mistakes on offense
BY CLAYTON JONES
SPORTS EDITOR
A superb defensive effort helped push
Oregon past rival Washington in a very slop
py 31-6 victory Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
The victory was even sweeter for the
Ducks (5-3 overall, 4-1 Pacific-10 Confer
ence), as they have lost to the Huskies (1-7,
0-5) the past two seasons, including a game
at Autzen where Washington danced on the
“0” at the 50-yard line after their victory.
Once the game clock wound down and
the game ended Saturday, a majority of the
Oregon players ran out to the middle of the
field and did their own dance on the “O”
while the Washington players walked past.
“It’s kind of a pride thing,” Oregon quarter
back Kellen Clemens said. “This our house.
Autzen Stadium is where we live. Dancing on
the ‘O’ is kind of our way of celebrating that
we stood strong today and held the fort.”
The defense was key for Oregon, forcing
seven turnovers, holding the struggling
Huskies to 256 yards of offense and coming
up with big plays when Washington was
driving late in the game.
“I’m sick of it, just sick of it," Washing
ton head coach Keith Gilbertson said of his
team’s inability to score. “It’s a nightmare
that we keep reliving.”
Two of the top defensive plays for the
Ducks came in the fourth quarter when the
Huskies were still hanging around at 17-6.
During the first play of the quarter, Wash
ington quarterback Casey Paus threw a pass
toward the goal line, but linebacker Ramone
Reed stepped in, picked it off and ran back
to the Oregon 10-yard line.
“That might of been the biggest play of the
game because they had all the momentum,”
Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “His in
terception seemed like a touchdown to me. ”
Reed said he just followed Paus’ eyes.
“The quarterback was looking (to the)
strong (side of the field),” Reed said. “I saw
the guy go underneath, and 1 jumped it, and
he threw it right to me. ”
The play that put the nail in Washington’s
coffin was an interception by Oregon’s Chris
Solomona late in the fourth quarter that was
returned for a touchdown.
Paus was looking to his right and threw a
pass toward the sideline, but Solomona
stuck his hand in the air, tipped the ball to
himself and ran it the rest of the 10 yards to
the endzone.
Oregon’s Devan Long said the intercep
tion was a perfect way to end the game.
“It’s always nice to secure your win,”
Long said. “To get a pick for a touchdown ...
pad your stats, it’s great."
Long also had a sack on the day, moving
him up to fourth on Oregon’s all-time sack
list with 19.5.
The Ducks defense made up for what was
an unusually sub-par performance by an of
fense that has racked up more than 1,500
yards in the last three games.
While Oregon piled up 220 yards on the
Huskies in the first half for a 17-3 lead, the
offense sputtered in the second half, only
managing 72 yards.
“We made it a lot tougher (on ourselves),”
Bellotti said. “We dropped some passes of
fensively, and 1 think some of those mistakes
hurt us. 1 don't think we supported Kellen
Clemens the way I would like to see.”
The Duck offense started strong, scoring on
a 14-play, 80-yard drive during its first posses
sion of the game. The drive was capped off with
a 16-yard pass to freshman Cameron Colvin. It
was Colvin’s first collegiate touchdown.
The Pittsburg, Calif., native said it was his
time to step up.
“The coaches are saying I’m not a rookie
anymore,” Colvin said. “I’ve been learning
my material ... and the offense. I’m just
playing my role.”
Clemens said that Colvin benefited from the
matchup that Washington presented him.
“Cameron, because of their defense, had
some one-on-one opportunities, and we got
him the ball,” Clemens said. “Fortunately, he
made some big plays when we needed them.”
Clemens, who entered the game leading the
Pacific-10 Conference in total offense, passed
for only 134 yards against the Huskies.
“We need to play better offensively than we
did in the second half,” Clemens said. “On a
lot of plays, we were just right there. We had a
couple drops. We had one or two missed
blocks where if you get that block, Terrence
(Whitehead) or Dante (Rosario) are off for a
big gain. It’s frustrating when that happens.”
Clemens moved into seventh place all-time
at Oregon in total offense and passing yards
during the game. He passed Tony Graziani in
FOOTBALL, page 13A
■ Duck volleyball
Husky fans,
top offense
help undo
hazy Ducks
Despite an improved defense,
Oregon saw a three-game loss
to No. 1 Washington on Friday
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
Purple flooded the stands of McArthur
Court as No. 1 Washington gathered its 15th
sweep of the season and washed out Oregon
on Friday.
The Huskies, who nearly lost to Oregon
State in a five-game shootout the day before,
showed a lack of composure against the
Ducks in the first game. Washington re
grouped and took the match in three games,
30-27, 30-19, 30-20.
Washington (18-0 overall, 10-0 Pacific-10
Conference) combined its league-leading of
fense with a mediocre defense to hand the
Ducks their eighth-straight loss.
“(Washington’s) system in not very compli
cated," Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira said.
“It’s one where there’s an efficiency compo
nent to it. They run their plays and rely on hit
ters being playmakers and hitting a variety
of shots.”
Coach Ferreira denounced his team’s down
fall to tiring rallies and distractions that corre
lated to an unsuccessful attack.
“One thing was fatigue, one thing was fo
cus,” he said. “The moment you lose focus
you get impatient, and then you no longer
sustain that ability to be somewhat methodi
cal about the execution.... As you get fatigued
you have to increase your mental focus.”
Defense kept Oregon (9-11, 1-9 Pac-10) in
the match as it overshadowed the Huskies’
seven team blocks with 11.5. Junior Kelly Rus
sell collected 13 digs and a match-high seven
block assists, and sophomore Kristen Bitter
recorded six.
In the backcourt, senior libero Katie O’Neil
led Oregon with 16 digs, and sophomore
Allyson Leavitt added 14.
“Ally really helps in the back row along
with Katie,” Ferreira said. “(Leavitt) is
easily one of our better overall defensive
players. Kelly was the other one that played
well again.
“I think our players are just getting better at
understanding the defensive system and exe
cuting a scouting report, so I was really
proud about how they executed and
played defensively.”
Despite Oregon’s respectable defensive per
formance, the Ducks could not contain Wash
ington’s hitting core of young and old. Junior
Brie Hagerty led all attackers with a match
high 21 kills and .421 hitting percentage.
Freshman Christal Morrison distributed an
equal effort with 14 kills and 15 digs. Senior
Kaitlin Leek added 12 kills and 10 digs. Senior
libero Candace Lee, a former Churchill High
School player, recorded 32 digs.
Leavitt posted a team-high 11 kills on 46 at
tempts for the Ducks and rotated through
every position on the floor. She has been the
stabilizer of Oregon’s offense with 35 kills in
the past two matches.
“1 think we looked really good,” Leavitt
said. “We’re playing smarter, and it’s not so
urgent. When people get on like Kristen with
huge blocks, we get fired up.”
Sophomore middle blocker Kim McNally
contributed eight kills and was effective in 40
VOLLEYBALL, page 13A