Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, October 10, 2005
“I told them they’ve got to know what it feels like
to do this — to accomplish something — because
I’m going to hold them to it. ”
Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti, on what he told his players at halftime prior
to defeating No. 6 Washington 31-28 in Seattle on Nov. 8,1997.
Ducks scorch Sun Devils, improve to 5-1
■ Game recap
Ducks dig
deep into
playbook
BY SHAWN MILLER
SPORTS EDITOR
Oregon offensive coordinator Gary Crowton
might have said, “Let’s open the bag of tricks
and introduce the Arizona State fans to a little
tiling we call ‘trickeration’.”
Or maybe he just felt tired of not seeing any
deceptive, fling-it-down-the-field plays.
Whatever the reason, Oregon (5-1 overall, 2-1
conference) brought out the fun bag en route to
a 31-17 victory over then-No. 17 Arizona State
(3-3,1-2) Saturday night in Tempe, Ariz.
“(Crowton’s) mind is yet to open up,” Oregon
quarterback Kellen Clemens said. “We are just
out there having fun.”
Wide receiver Demetrius Williams ran for 22
yards on the Ducks’ opening play, weaving
through defenders before smacking into a fellow
Duck near midfield.
“It’s real fun when you have an offensive co
ordinator who is open to anything,” Williams
said. “You’ll come to the sideline and say,
‘Coach, we can do this.’ And he doesn’t care. He
goes with it.”
Oregon brought out the flea-flicker for the first
time in a while, and it worked. For 61 yards to
Williams inside the Arizona State 10-yard line.
“(Clemens) made a great play and I just felt it
was my duty to go make a play for him,”
Williams said.
Terrence Whitehead took a forward lateral
from Clemens for a six-yard touchdown on the
following play to tie the game at 10 midway
through the second quarter.
“We were trying to show the defense some
different stuff,” Whitehead said. “Trying to be
balanced and go with whatever works for us.”
The Ducks even brought out the halfback
pass, which failed to reach Clemens, who had
slipped out down the left sideline.
“I told Terrence he’s 0 for 2 now on passes,
and I don’t think he liked that,” Clemens said.
With exception of the miscue on the throw,
FOOTBALL, page 10
■ Game notes
Defense steps up to slow down Arizona State
BY SHAWN MILLER
SPORTS EDITOR
When two ranked teams — each averag
ing more than 35 points per game — met in
Tempe, Ariz., Saturday night, it wasn’t run
defense that people were focused on. But, as
the 62,789 fans in attendance filed out of the
stadium, it was all they could talk about.
The Ducks allowed only 53 net rushing
yards to the Sun Devils. In fact, the stingy de
fense gave up only nine rushing yards in the
third quarter and 14 in the fourth.
“A lot of it was some great, great, great
coverage by our secondary and the rest was
some nice stunts, good calls from our defen
sive coordinator,” Oregon cornerback Justin
Phinisee said.
Prior to the game, the Sun Devils ranked
fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference in
rushing offense, averaging 170.4 yards per
game. Coming into the night, the Ducks
ranked fourth in the conference in rush
defense, surrendering 117 yards per game on
the ground.
On the flip side, the Ducks rushed for 234
yards, the most this season. Running back
Terrence Whitehead keyed the attack with
122 rushing yards and one touchdown.
“Rushing is an emphasis every week,”
said Whitehead, who also caught nine pass
es for 100 yards and one touchdown. “We
might not get it done every week, but today
we got it done.”
Kicked out
Oregon’s starting placekicker was side
lined with a quadriceps injury. No problem.
Matt Evensen, whose primary duty has
been kickoffs this season, filled in by kicking
three field goals of more than 40 yards.
“Everybody helped out... it was always a
good snap, a good hold,” Evensen said.
Entering the season, the placekicking posi
tion was one of the most uncertain areas of
the team. The questions were answered in
the first two weeks as Martinez connected
on 11 field goals, including a school-record
six during a 47-14 victory over Montana in
the home opener.
Martinez aggravated his quad during last
week’s win against Stanford and the game-time
decision was that he was unable to play.
“About 10 minutes before the game,”
Courtesy
Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Ducks to a 31-17
victory over Arizona State on Saturday.
Evensen said.
Evensen logged two long distance first
half field goals. He got the Ducks on the
scoreboard with a 42-yard field goal at the
11:52 mark in the second quarter and boot
ed a 51-yard kick to close the half, giving
Oregon a 13-10 lead. He connected on anoth
er 42-yarder on Oregon’s first possession of
the second half.
The night didn’t begin well for Evensen,
whose first collegiate field goal attempt —
from 55 yards — was blocked by Arizona
State defensive tackle DeWayne Hollyfield to
end Oregon’s first possession of the game.
Evensen missed a 47-yard field goal to the
right in the third quarter.
Avoiding self-sabotage
Oregon escaped its fair share of destruc
tive behavior.
Quarterback Kellen Clemens threw his
second interception of the season to the Sun
Devils’ Jamar Williams on the Ducks’
second drive. Williams returned the ball
to the Oregon eight-yard line. Arizona State
was forced to kick a 34-yard field goal to
put the Sun Devils up 10-0 midway through
first quarter.
On the Ducks’ next series, running back
Jonathan Stewart fumbled the ball in the red
zone. Oregon had driven from its six-yard
line in 10 plays and converted three third
downs before the turnover.
Arizona State safety Zach Catanese picked
off Clemens in the third quarter at the
Oregon 40-yard line. However, Oregon’s Justin
NOTES, page 10
■ In my opinion
No excuse for excuses following poor performance
Flying 30,000 feet above the ground en
route to Tempe, Ariz., I was expecting to at
tend a college football game that would be de
cided by one team’s offense manipulating the
other’s defense.
Riding down the press elevator long after the
game was over and my game recap had been
written, I didn’t expect to hear the excuses.
An Arizona State assistant athletic director
for media relations let it out.
“I saw this one coming,” he said.
Saw what coming? The team deflated after
nearly upending top-ranked USC last week? Or
overlooldng an Oregon squad that had lost 35-0
in the second half to the same USC team one
week earlier?
Nope. Injuries was the excuse.
He went on to list just about every player
who had missed the game because of an injury,
or who hadn’t played 100 percent of the game
because of what might have been an injury. I
guarantee you that if the guy who runs out to
get the tee following kickoffs had a hangnail, I
would have heard about it.
As I was riding back
to my hotel, the radio
was tuned to “Devil
Talk.” I didn’t catch
much of the show —
seeing as it was nearly
12:30 a.m. by the time jj
I exited Sun Devil 9
Stadium — but what I |
did hear was complain- 1
ing fans. ■
So it got me thinking:
Why do the fans have to
find blame, and why
SHAWN MILLER
FULL-COURT PRESS
the Oregon offense
sputtered. But I am not
alone.
I have had general ad
mission season tickets
at Autzen Stadium for
I the past 10 years. So I
I know what it is like to
I sit next to ignorant fans
I who find excuses to boo
■ or blame their team
whenever they feel more
knowledgeable than the
coaches. Too many
does the program have to find an excuse after
a loss? Can another team ever just outplay
your team?
Evidently not. I will be the first to admit that I
recently found myself wondering how certain
offensive coordinators who called the same se
ries of plays every time Oregon had the ball
could have a job in Division I football.
I will go even further. As a fan, I put a lot
of blame on Andy Ludwig last season when
times, I ve sat near some drunk mor«n who
boos when Oregon sits on the ball deep in its
own territory while the clock winds down to
ward halftime.
Listening to the postgame show on the radio,
callers always phone in to talk about how they
thought a certain play should or shouldn’t have
been called, or to say that a certain player didn’t
do his job running the play.
This is a world filled with blame and excuses.
There simply doesn’t seem to be the possibility
that someone earned the win by outplaying and
outperforming the opposition.
That isn’t more prevalent anywhere than in
college football, where the number-one
excuse for a loss is injury problem. Well, the
thing is, a football player runs at full speed
and smashes into another player running to
ward him at full speed. Injuries are going
to happen and the programs that work
through them are usually the teams standing
atop the polls.
It is time for people to stop complaining if
their team doesn’t perform perfectly and time
for the excuses to end. There comes a time
when fans and players need to own up to the
fact that they just got beat.
In Saturday night’s case, one sportswriter
made an astoundingly astute observation after
hearing the Arizona State media relations mem
ber ramble on about the injuries.
“Sounds like football,” he said.
smiller@dailyemerald.com