Oregon Football: 3 takeaways from big rivalry win at Washington

If you listen closely, you can still hear the boos raining down from the Husky Stadium crowd on the home team as Washington wasn’t able to hold off Oregon football on Saturday night.

The Ducks hung on to win the annual rivalry game 26-16 in an ugly, rainy affair and Jimmy Lake’s team falls to 4-5 on the year while Oregon improves to 8-1 and is in prime position to make the College Football Playoff.

The run game stole the show for Oregon as it picked up the lack of an aerial attack because of the weather and Travis Dye was a monster on the ground.

Oregon just has to take care of business over the final three games and in the Pac-12 title game and the playoff is locked up.

What’d we learn from this one?

3. Oregon wasn’t rattled

When the game started, the Washington crowd was loud and it was one of the most hostile environments the Ducks had played in all season. And when the Huskies took a 9-3 lead after a safety, it felt like the top was about to pop off Husky Stadium.

But Oregon weathered the storm and wasn’t rattled.

Anthony Brown didn’t have his best game but he still did some damage with his legs and didn’t make a ton of mistakes. He was calm under center. He was helped out by Travis Dye who didn’t seem to care about the Washington defense’s distinction as a stingy unit.

Earlier in the year, if Oregon was punched in the mouth like this in a tough road environment, it may not have responded so favorably. This team is growing before our eyes.