Oregon vs. Utah – Three-Headed Monster Came to Play

Having previously lost their current starting quarterback to a season-ending injury, it looks like the University of Oregon Ducks football team got a jump start from their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback alum who came back for a visit.

With Oregon legend Marcus Mariota watching the game from the sideline, the Ducks offense was finally able to get untracked for the first time since the team lost Justin Herbert. Oregon ran for 347 yards and two touchdowns, and added two touchdown passes as well, culminating in a 41-20 win over the University of Utah Utes on Saturday.

Senior running back Royce Freeman, junior running back Tony Books-James, and senior running back Kani Benoit represented the proverbial “three-headed monster” that Utah simply had no answer for.

Freeman ran for 139 yards on 20 carries, Brooks-James had 105 yards rushing – and a touchdown run – on just six carries, and Benoit had 71 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.

Freshman quarterback Braxton Burmeister got to play the role of “caretaker” for the offense, handing off to a trio of running backs that are as good as any in the nation. Burmeister’s 47 yards passing were plenty sufficient for the day, and he even chipped in with his first touchdown pass in three weeks. And, he completed a game without throwing an interception for the first time in any game he’s started this season.

Meanwhile, senior wide receiver Charles Nelson only had two catches for nine yards on the day, but still managed to pull off one of the most exciting plays of the day. Late in the third quarter, with the Ducks up 20-13, Nelson took the ball on a reverse, briefly lost his footing, but then regained his balance and threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Jacob Breeland.

That gave the Ducks a 27-13 lead with just over three minutes left in the third quarter, and represented a deficit that Utah could not overcome. Oregon held Utah to only three yards rushing in the second half, and shut the door on any hopes the Utes had for a comeback, allowing only 42 yards of total offense on Utah’s final three drives of the game.

From the moment that Burmeister connected with freshman tight end Cam McCormick on a five-yard touchdown pass, capping the Ducks opening drive of the game, the Ducks never relinquished the lead. Utah cut Oregon’s 17-6 halftime lead after they opened the second half of the game with a touchdown drive, but that was the closest they’d get for the remainder of the game. After that score, Oregon responded with 17 unanswered points over the next three drives, giving them a 34-13 lead with 12:24 left in the fourth quarter.

Oregon will definitely savor this win, as it snapped their three-game losing streak and put head coach Willie Taggart only one win away from bowl eligibility in his first year with the program.

But the Ducks won’t be able to enjoy this win for too long, as they head to Seattle, Washington this weekend, to take on the 12^th ranked University of Washington Huskies.