Page 4B
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 31, 2015
College Football
Oregon outlasts Arizona State in wild 3OT game
By JOHN MARSHALL
Associated Press
TEMPE, Ariz. — Bralon
Addison got his foot down
just in time, barely missing
the back line of the end zone.
Arrion Springs timed his move
just right, snagging an inter-
ception in the same end zone.
Two big plays on a night
¿lled with them may have
saved Oregon’s season.
Addison scored on a
20-yard pass in the third
overtime on a play upheld by
review and Springs intercepted
Mike Bercovici’s pass in the
end zone, lifting Oregon to a
wild 61-55 win over Arizona
State Thursday night.
“We knew this we going
to be a back and forth type of
thing,” Oregon coach Mark
Helfrich said. “We didn’t
know it was going to be 61-55
back and forth.”
Two teams clinging to hopes
in their respective divisions, the
Sun Devils and Ducks traded
explosive plays in a game that
featured 1,243 total yards and
177 combined plays.
It came down to a pair of
plays in the third overtime.
Addison appeared to touch
the back line on his TD catch,
but one view of the play was
blocked by a camera and the
of¿cials upheld the original
call upon review.
After Oregon (5-3, 3-2
Pac-12) failed on the manda-
tory 2-point conversion,
Springs sealed it with an inter-
From Thursday
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Oregon’s Arrion Springs (1) starts to celebrate after intercepting a pass intended for
Arizona State’s Tim White (12) during the third overtime of an NCAA college football
game Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, in Tempe, Ariz. Oregon defeated Arizona State 61-55.
ception, sending the Ducks
racing onto the ¿eld.
“I knew it was coming the
whole way — the whole way,”
Springs said.
Oregon had 501 total
yards and needed another big
play just to get into overtime.
Dwayne Stanford pulled it
off, grabbing Vernon Adams’
fourth-down,
desperation
pass for an 8-yard touchdown
despite being run into by
teammate Johnny Mundt.
Charles
Nelson
had
a 100-yard kick return
touchdown, and Adams
threw for 315 yards and four
touchdowns. Royce Freeman
added 112 yards rushing and
two touchdowns — one in
the second overtime — in
Oregon’s ninth straight win
over Arizona State.
Despite their struggles —
No. 7 in the preseason poll to
unranked — the Ducks still
have a shot at the Pac-12 North
title should they keep winning
and No. 8 Stanford falters.
The Sun Devils (4-4, 2-3)
had 742 total yards — one
short of the school record —
and scored touchdowns in the
¿rst two overtimes, yet still
couldn’t stop the Ducks when
they needed to.
Bercovici threw for 398
yards and ¿ve touchdowns,
and added an 18-yard scoring
run in the second overtime.
Demario Richard ran for 136
yards and scored two touch-
downs.
The difference for the
Sun Devils was the mistakes:
numerous defensive break-
downs, three missed ¿eld
Oregon
Arizona St.
61
55
goals, key penalties and
Bercovici’s two interceptions.
“That one hurt about as
bad as any one since I’ve been
here,” Sun Devils coach Todd
Graham said.
Using white sheets to
protect their offensive signals
— after Utah accused the Sun
Devils of stealing signs on
Oct. 17 — the Ducks hit big
plays right out of the gate.
Adams
hit
Darren
Carrington for a 46-yard
completion on the game’s
second play, setting up Aidan
Schneider’s 24-yard ¿eld
goal. Later in the quarter,
Freeman raced for a 64-yard
touchdown. Carrington later
broke free after a defensive
breakdown, scoring easily on
a 39-yard touchdown pass to
put the Ducks up 17-7.
Arizona State wasn’t bad,
either.
Bercovici drilled a 3-yard
touchdown pass to Devin
Lucien against tight coverage,
and then found Gary Cham-
bers down the sideline for a
39-yard score before halftime.
It turned into a game of
“can you top this?” in the
second half.
Zane Gonzalez hit a
28-yard ¿eld goal and Richard
scored on a 22-yard run after
an interception by Kareem
Orr. Bercovici followed with a
1-yard TD pass from Richard,
but the Ducks snatched
momentum right back.
Nelson raced for his
100-yard kick return TD
and Kani Benoit scored on
a 62-yard touchdown to put
Oregon up 34-31.
Arizona State’s turn.
Gonzalez hit a 33-yard
¿eld goal after an interception
in the end zone by Reggie
Daniels was overturned on
replay. A misdirection play set
up a 5-yard touchdown pass
from Bercovici to Kody Kohl
to make it 41-34 Sun Devils.
An interception on an ill-ad-
vised pass by Bercovici gave
the Ducks a chance in the fourth
quarter and they capitalized
with Stanford’s improbable
touchdown catch. Bercovici’s
second interception, on an
attempted slant pattern, ended
the game — and probably
Arizona State’s chances at the
Pac-12 South title.
“As a quarterback, it’s
on myself to make sure it’s
complete or throw it away,”
Bercovici said. “That’s on me
at the end of the game to put it
in jeopardy like that.”
———
Thursday’s scores
North Carolina 26, Pittsburgh 19
Buffalo 29, Miami (Ohio) 24
W. Michigan 58, E. Michigan 28
TCU 40, West Virginia 10
Friday’s scores
Harvard 14, Dartmouth 13
UConn 31, East Carolina 13
Louisville 20, Wake Forest 19
Louisiana Tech 42, Rice 17
Utah State 58, Wyoming 27
No. 13 Utah hosts familiar faces No. 8 Stanford vs. Washington St
surprisingly signi¿cant match-up
By KAREEM COPELAND
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY
— There may be no two
coaching
staffs
more
familiar with each other
than those at No. 13 Utah
and Oregon State.
First-year
Beavers
coach Gary Andersen
played center at Utah and
was defensive line coach
at Idaho State while Utah
coach Kyle Whittingham
was defensive coordinator
there. The two were on the
same staff twice at Utah
with Andersen serving as
defensive tackles coach and
defensive coordinator while
Whittingham went from
defensive coordinator to
head coach.
When Oregon State (2-5,
0-4 Pac-12) visits Utah (6-1,
3-1) on Saturday night with
the Utes aiming to bounce
back from their only loss of
the season, it will mark the
second time Andersen has
faced Whittingham in his
¿rst year at a program. The
¿rst time was in 2003 when
Andersen was the head
coach at Southern Utah.
Whittingham
said
Andersen has always been
organized, detailed, intelli-
gent and has a great rapport
with players. There’s a lot
of similarities in the way
Pac-12
Oregon St.
#13 Utah
Beavers
Utes
(2-5, 0-4)
(6-1, 3-1)
• Saturday, 4 p.m.
• at Salt Lake City, Utah
• TV: PACN
the programs run.
“We hung on to a lot of
stuff that Urban (Meyer)
did, who probably copied
it from Lou Holtz who
probably copied it from
somewhere else,” said
Whittingham. Both were
on Meyer’s staff in 2004.
“I’m sure Gary took a lot of
that with him. Stuff that has
been good over the years,
so why not use it.”
There are seven other
coaches on the Oregon
State staff with Utah
ties. Defensive backs
coach Derrick Odum,
defensive line coach Chad
Kauha’aha’a and graduate
assistant Kameron Yancy
all played and coached at
Utah. Defensive coordi-
nator Kalani Sitake was the
Utes’ defensive coordinator
from 2012-14.
Utah co-offensive coor-
dinator Aaron Roderick
was Andersen’s offensive
coordinator for Southern
Utah in 2003.
“I’m very, very happy
for Kyle, because it’s been
a grind to get where they
are today,” Andersen said.
“We won’t speak this week,
not because of me, because
he doesn’t like that stuff.
I’ll still throw him a couple
joking texts and different
things. You talk to him, and
he’s excited for the success
his team is having.”
There
isn’t
much
concern that either side will
bene¿t from the relation-
ships. Whittingham said
things are tweaked every
year even if principles and
philosophies haven’t been.
“It’s all about players,”
Whittingham said. “Players
are 90 percent of it. Coaches
are not dumb. They’re
going to change signals,
make modi¿cations and do
whatever they can, but they
know what we know and
we know what they know. I
don’t think that’s as big of a
factor as people make it out
to be.”
———
Top 25 Schedule
Saturday
No. 3 Clemson at N.C. State, 12:30 p.m.
No. 8 Stanford at Washington St., 7:30 p.m.
No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 21 Temple, 5 p.m.
No. 10 Iowa vs. Maryland, 12:30 p.m.
No. 11 Florida vs. Georgia, 12:30 p.m.
No. 12 Oklahoma St. at Texas Tech, 12:30 p.m.
No. 13 Utah vs. Oregon State, 4 p.m.
No. 14 Oklahoma at Kansas, 12:30 p.m.
No. 15 Michigan at Minnesota, 4 p.m.
No. 16 Memphis vs. Tulane, 4 p.m.
No. 17 Florida State vs. Syracuse, 9 a.m.
No. 18 Houston vs. Vanderbilt, 4 p.m.
No. 19 Mississippi at Auburn, 9 a.m.
No. 22 Duke vs. Miami, 4 p.m.
No. 24 UCLA vs. Colorado, Noon
By NICHOLAS K.
GERANIOS
Associated Press
This didn’t have the look
of a particularly signi¿cant
game a few weeks ago.
Three straight wins by
Washington State have
left Saturday night’s game
against No. 8 Stanford
as arguably the Cougars’
biggest home game in more
than a decade.
Stanford
(6-1,
5-0
Pac-12) is the only unde-
feated team in league play,
but it’s Washington State
(5-2, 3-1) that’s right on the
heels of the Cardinal. Not
Oregon. Not California. It’s
Washington State that could
take control of its destiny in
the Pac-12 North race should
it manage to knock off the
Cardinal.
The last time Washington
State was in contention for
the conference lead this late
in the season was 2003.
Aside from rivalry games
against Washington, it could
be considered the Cougars’
most signi¿cant home game
since 2002 when Washington
State went to the Rose Bowl.
The last time the Cougars
beat a Top 10 team was No.
5 Texas in the 2003 Holiday
Pac-12
#8 Stanford
Washington St.
Cardinal
Cougars
(6-1, 5-0)
(5-2, 3-1)
• Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
• at Pullman, Wash.
• TV: ESPN
Bowl.
Stanford coach David
Shaw said he has been
impressed by how Wash-
ington State rebounded from
a season-opening loss to
FCS Portland State to win
¿ve of six games.
“These
guys
have
bounced back from that
and become a real, real
good football team,” Shaw
said. “Offensively, their
quarterback is playing at a
high level. He’s got weapons
around him. They are
protecting him better.”
Washington
State
quarterback Luke Falk has
thrown for 2,885 yards, with
26 touchdowns and four
interceptions this season.
The Cougars have scored
more than 40 points in each
of their past three games,
including last week’s 45-42
win at Arizona.
Seven different receivers
have at least 20 receptions for
the Cougars and Gabe Marks
leads the Pac-12 with 57
catches, good for 717 yards
and 10 touchdowns. Marks
caught a school-record
four touchdown passes last
weekend against Arizona.
Stanford has won six
straight games since an
opening loss to North-
western, scoring more than
40 points in four of them. The
Cardinal have won seven
straight over the Cougars
and may unleash even more
of Christian McCaffrey on a
defense that remains Wash-
ington State’s weakness.
McCaffrey is leading the
nation with 259.7 all-pur-
pose yards per game, more
than 40 yards per game over
the next player. McCaffrey
needs just 57 yards rushing
to reach 1,000 for the season.
McCaffrey is the ¿rst
Stanford player since 1991 to
post 100 yards receiving and
rushing in the same game,
which happened last week in
a win over Washington.
“We’ve got to do a good
job this week to stop the
running back,” Washington
State defensive lineman
Destiny Vaeao said. “This is
the best offensive line we are
going to face in conference.”
NFL
Seahawks, Cowboys meeting between unexpected four-loss teams
By SCHUYLER DIXON
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas —
Two preseason NFC playoff
contenders are set to play, both
with four losses before the
halfway point of the season.
Dallas is just a little more
desperate than Seattle.
The Cowboys (2-4) are
on their second backup
quarterback trying to get a
win without Tony Romo,
and running out of time to
get the two they probably
need to have a realistic shot at
defending their NFC East title
when he’s eligible to return
from a broken left collarbone.
Now Dallas is on its second
starting running back since
letting NFL rushing champion
DeMarco Murray go to Phila-
delphia in free agency.
“We’re ¿ghting to get
a win,” Dallas cornerback
Brandon Carr said. “They’re
in the same boat as us. We’re
both urgent in the same
mindset of every single day
throughout this week, just
chip away one day at a time,
leading up to Sunday.”
At least the Seahawks
(3-4) have more wins than
losses since an 0-2 start by the
defending NFC champions.
And while Dallas has lost four
Week 8
Seattle
Dallas
Seahawks
Cowboys
(3-4)
(2-4)
• Sunday, 1:25 p.m.
• at Arlington, Texas
• TV: FOX
straight without Romo and
All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant
to drop to last place in the
NFC East, Seattle is coming
off a dominant win over San
Francisco to avoid the same
spot in the NFC West.
“We’re not thinking
desperate and I’m sure
they’re not either,” Seattle
quarterback Russell Wilson
said. “I know we’ve had some
tough losses, and I know they
have had tough losses, too.”
At least the Cowboys
have a chance to get Bryant
back for the ¿rst time since
breaking his right foot in
the opener. He practiced this
week for the ¿rst time since
the injury, and the team was
optimistic he would play.
The return of Bryant could
be a boost for Matt Cassel
in his second start ¿lling in
for Romo. Cassel replaced
Brandon Weeden, who lost all
three starts in Romo’s place.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) and
running back Marshawn Lynch (24) during the second
half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco
49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015.
Darren McFadden will
make his ¿rst start at running
back for Dallas after rushing
for 152 yards in last week’s
27-20 loss to the Giants.
Joseph Randle was the starter
for six games, but injured his
back early against New York.
He was away from the team
during the week dealing with
unspeci¿ed personal issues.
The
Cowboys
also
spent all week dealing with
questions about polarizing
defensive end Greg Hardy’s
shoving match with special
teams coach Rich Bisaccia
right after former Dallas
return man Dwayne Harris
had a winning 100-yard
kickoff return in the fourth
quarter for the Giants.
“When things like that
come up in the course of a
season, you’ve got to be able
to stay together, more so even
when you’ve lost four in a
row,” tight end Jason Witten
said. “We’ve shown that in
the last couple of years that
it’s a close group, mentally
tough, and work together.”
UNDER
PRESSURE:
Seattle defensive end Michael
Bennett is coming off the best
game of his career when he
had 3 1-2 sacks against the
49ers and he’s tied for the NFL
lead with 6 1-2 for the season.
But Dallas’ talented offensive
line is coming off what Garrett
said was its best game.
“It’s one of those games
where you get challenged as
a defensive line to see where
you’re at as a team,” said
Bennett, the brother of former
Dallas and current Chicago tight
end Martellus Bennett said.
TURNABOUT:
The
Dallas defense had one of its
best games of the season in last
year’s 30-23 win at Seattle,
allowing just nine ¿rst downs
and 206 yards. The Cowboys
even had a takeaway — an
interception of Wilson. They
haven’t forced one during
the current losing streak, and
all of their NFL-low three
takeaways came in a Week 2
win at Philadelphia.
FOLLOW ME: Richard
Sherman is starting to make
a habit of following the top
receiver on the other team.
And that could be Bryant, who
had never missed more than
four straight games before the
current ¿ve-game absence.
“It’s a fun challenge when
I’m asked to do it,” Sherman
said.
AMERICAN CONFERENCE
EAST
W L T
Pct PF PA
New England 7 0 0 1.000 249 133
N.Y. Jets
4 2 0 .667 152 105
Buffalo
3 4 0 .429 176 173
Miami
3 4 0 .429 154 173
SOUTH
W L T
Pct PF PA
Indianapolis 3 4 0 .429 147 174
Houston
2 5 0 .286 154 199
Jacksonville 2 5 0 .286 147 207
Tennessee
1 5 0 .167 119 139
NORTH
W L T
Pct PF PA
Cincinnati
6 0 0 1.000 182 122
Pittsburgh
4 3 0 .571 158 131
Cleveland
2 5 0 .286 147 182
Baltimore
1 6 0 .143 161 188
WEST
W L T
Pct PF PA
Denver
6 0 0 1.000 139 102
Oakland
3 3 0 .500 144 153
Kansas City 2 5 0 .286 150 172
San Diego
2 5 0 .286 165 198
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
EAST
W L T
Pct PF PA
N.Y. Giants 4 3 0 .571 166 156
Washington 3 4 0 .429 148 168
Philadelphia 3 4 0 .429 160 137
Dallas
2 4 0 .333 121 158
SOUTH
W L T
Pct PF PA
Carolina
6 0 0 1.000 162 110
Atlanta
6 1 0 .857 193 150
New Orleans 3 4 0 .429 161 185
Tampa Bay 2 4 0 .333 140 179
NORTH
W L T
Pct PF PA
Green Bay
6 0 0 1.000 164 101
Minnesota
4 2 0 .667 124 102
Chicago
2 4 0 .333 120 179
Detroit
1 6 0 .143 139 200
WEST
W L T
Pct PF PA
Arizona
5 2 0 .714 229 133
St. Louis
3 3 0 .500 108 119
Seattle
3 4 0 .429 154 128
San Francisco 2 5 0 .286 103 180
———
Thursday’s Game
New England 36, Miami 7
Sunday’s Games
Detroit (+4) vs. Kansas City at London,
6:30 a.m.
San Francisco (+8) at St. Louis, 10 a.m.
N.Y. Giants (+3) at New Orleans, 10 a.m.
Minnesota (+1) at Chicago, 10 a.m.
Tennessee (+3.5) at Houston, 10 a.m.
Tampa Bay (+7) at Atlanta, 10 a.m.
Arizona (-6) at Cleveland, 10 a.m.
San Diego (+3) at Baltimore, 10 a.m.
Cincinnati (+1.5) at Pittsburgh, 10 a.m.
N.Y. Jets (-3) at Oakland, 1:05 p.m.
Seattle (-6) at Dallas, 1:25 p.m.
Green Bay (-2.5) at Denver, 5:30 p.m.
Open: Buffalo, Jacksonville, Philadelphia,
Washington
Monday’s Game
Indianapolis (+7) at Carolina, 5:30 p.m.