Oregon Ducks Defense Run Over In Loss to USC Trojans
Oregon started sluggish on Offense and USC spent the night disrupting tempo in a big win.
The Oregon Ducks and USC Trojans are fighting for a win. USC can become Bowl Eligible with a victory that will be a little sweeter since it is against Oregon. The Ducks need to play a complete game for a shot at the victory to keep their own Bowl Hopes alive in 2016, but the Ducks have more work to do and can’t get caught looking ahead to next week and Stanford.
Tony Brooks-James earned the start in Los Angeles over Royce Freeman and Justin Herbert saw his fourth career start, his second on the road this season. Oregon won the coin toss and watched several penalty flags in their first series resulting in a punt. USC found good field position to start from inside the Ducks 45 yard line.
The USC Trojans would strike first with a field goal on their first possession and a touchdown on the ground from Ronald Jones II who went up the middle for 23 yards giving the Trojans a 10-0 lead over Oregon halfway through the first quarter.
The Oregon Offense in three drives saw a total of 24 positive yards and a ball that went through the hands of Darren Carrington that could have been a touchdown. USC would start their third drive with good field position.
Ronald Jones II saw his second score of the game after the Ducks thought they had another stop on third down, but a penalty on Arrion Springs gave the Trojans a first down and USC a 17-0 lead on the Oregon Ducks.
Oregon had six penalties on the Offensive Line in the first quarter, two stopped the Ducks fourth drive of the game leading to a punt. The Ducks would stick the ball on the 3 yard line and come through in a big way holding USC and getting the ball back to the Oregon Offense. The USC punt put the ball on the USC 25 yard line.
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The Ducks found the end zone. Charles Nelson needed just one play to scramble 25 yards, but Aiden Schneider missed the extra point, his first miss after 102 straight making it 17-6 USC. The Oregon Defense put together another solid effort to push USC back. Ugo Amadi made a big play on third down to force another USC punt.
The Oregon Ducks again were stagnant on Offense, but Ian Wheeler for the second time in the game punted the ball to the 3 yard line forcing the Trojans with another long field. The Defense would again pick up confidence forcing third and long and an incomplete pass. USC was forced to punt again.
USC added a touchdown before halftime to make it 24-6. The Trojans held the Ducks to just six first downs in the first half. USC had 16 first downs through two quarters and would be the first to see the ball in the second half.
The Trojans scored first in the second half, but Oregon answered on a drive of their own. Justin Herbert found Pharoah Brown off the right side for the touchdown to make it 31-13 USC.
On the second USC drive of the half, Brenden Schooler picked of Sam Darnold setting up Oregon with the chance to get back into the game. Justin Herbert missed a pass to Johnny Mundt on 4th down to end the threat and the chance to cash in on an interception. USC took over from the 13 yard line.
They drove the length of the field and Sam Darnold showed off some Vernon Adams magic before throwing a touchdown to Taylor McNamara for a touchdown to extend their lead to 38-13.
Oregon through three quarters saw seven series of 3rd and 10 or longer and had just one conversion in 45 minutes of play.
Ronald Jones scored is 4th touchdown of the night to push the Trojans lead to 45-13 with just over 12 minutes left in the game. Oregon put Dakota Prukop in the game and he led the Ducks on a scoring drive that saw him roll into the end zone over a USC Defender for a touchdown to push the lead back to 25 at 45-20.
The night from the start belonged to USC. Even though both teams started sluggish Sam Darnold had a better night than Justin Herbert and the Trojans Ground Attack ran for over 200 yards and 4 touchdowns. USC racked up close to 600 yards on Offense. The loss for the Oregon Ducks meant that Mark Helfrich would have to lead the Ducks to wins in their final three games for a chance at a bowl game.
Oregon will host Stanford and hold Senior Day festivities next weekend, November 12th. Kickoff between the Ducks and Cardinal is set for 1pm Pacific Time on Pac-12 Network.