Ducks deflate preseason hype but hold on to top Boise State in ragged opener

Three errors kept this game from being the blowout it was supposed to be and 12 explosive plays saved it from being a disaster.

Oregon beat Boise State 34-27 in a ragged opener, surrendering a long touchdown drive on the first series of the game. The visiting Broncos, a longtime nemesis that had beaten the Ducks three times in four previous games, marched down the field 75 yards on 11 plays, the key one being a 23-yard pass from Maddux Madsen to a pesky Rasean Jones on 3rd and 9.

Madsen scrambled for six on 3rd and 5 to reach the Oregon 22, the Ducks losing contain on the right side. Then the cool customer from Lehi, Utah found Cam Bates for a 13-yard touchdown, a simple fade to the right corner of the end zone that the highly touted Webfoot secondary defended poorly.

New offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer compounded the Visitors' momentum with an ill-designed, poorly executed pass behind the line of scrimmage on 4th and 2 from the Boise State 45. The play lost two yards when Bronco cornerback JeRico Washington made a sure tackle in open space on the oldest of Oregon's 5-star receivers, Evan Stewart.

Stewart would go on to catch eight passes for 72 yards in what became a stellar day for the Duck receiver group, including a 37-yarder over the middle on 3rd and 10 early in the third quarter that led to UO's tying field goal, but he also made a bid to be the goat in what could have been a frustrating loss.

His muffed punt in the second quarter set the Broncos up at the home 38 on the first play of the second quarter, though it was a weird play-- Boise State's gunner clearly violated the one-yard halo rule, and the fumble should have been waved off.

Instead, the blue-clad Duck destroyers quickly cashed it in with a well-executed screen pass to jumbo running back Sire Gaines (6-0, 217) who bounced off a shoulder tackle to cruise 38 yards to the end zone for a 14-7 lead.

Three of Stewart's touches went for negative yards in the game. He bobbled another punt in the fourth quarter but recovered it himself. On Boise's second possession he fair caught a punt at his own three, an abject mental error and an extraordinarily low percentage decision. He should have ducked out of the way and let the ball bounce, probably into the end zone.

The senior from Frisco, Texas spent all of last season rehabbing a torn patellar tendon, and his first game back was marked by highs and lows. Another low came on a trick play in the second half. The 6-0, 175 wideout took a pass behind the line of scrimmage from Dante Moore, set up to throw it long to Jeremiah McClellan behind the defense in the end zone, but the ball was underthrown. McClellan tried to scramble back to it but his feet gave way, grabbed by the dreaded invisible Turf Monster, incomplete.

The senior from the Lone State State said during training camp that he felt faster than ever with improved acceleration, but his day showed some rust, some of it mental.

Also creaky and in need of some caffeine, Zyn, Adderall or Ritalin was Oregon's discipline around penalties. The Home squad committed 10 for 90 yards, some of them costly. They jumped offsides on defense on 4th and 6. They committed a false start on offense on a critical third and two, leading to a punt. Two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties came after the whistle, one a retaliatory punch, and two pass interference calls gifted chunks of yards to the visitors.

The errors and glitches kept the Broncos in the game, a game the No. 2 Ducks dominated statistically but struggled to put away. To their credit, they didn't panic when they fall behind by ten, although the Autzen crowd grew frustrated, murmuring and subdued.

Dante Moore rallied them with a crucial touchdown drive just before half, scoring in 43 seconds with a 9-yard pass to McClellan, an eight-yard burst up the middle by Jordon Davison, and a clutch grab over the middle by tight end Jamari Johnson for a 27-yard score that brought the somnolent national championship contenders within three at 17-14.

That's as fluid and focused a tight end play as anything Kenyon Sadiq made last year as a first-round draft pick. Johnson pirouetted back to the ball and bounced off two tacklers for the score on a route down the seam, a play that no doubt got triple underlined in the notebooks of several NFL scouts.

Dakorien Moore put the game away for the Ducks with 8:04 to go in the fourth quarter. On second and 1 he took a crossing route near the left sideline, used a stop/start move to elude two Bronco defenders and zoomed 62 yards to the end zone to make it 34-27, which proved to be the final score.

That was the key in the end. The uber-talented Ducks made Boise State work hard for their yards, holding them to 93 yards rushing and 2.6 yards per carry, limiting Maddux and his receivers to 181 yards and 6.2 yards per pass. Only the two failed fourth down attempts and the muffed punt kept it close.

Offensively, the Ducks used their superior speed and burst to create 12 big plays that accounted for 371 of their 497 yards and led to most of their 34 points. Jordon Davison broke free for a 40-yard run. McClellan caught a 51-yard bomb down the right sideline and turned a block from Johnson into another 51-yard gain with a screen pass to the left.

Dante Moore turned in a solid day distributing the football, 28-37 passing for 378 yards and three touchdowns, 76 percent completions and a passer rating of 188.25.

From here the Ducks have two imminently winnable games with Oklahoma State and Portland State before a September 26 showdown with 2-0 USC in The Coliseum on September 26. It will take a much cleaner effort to beat the Trojans, who pummeled PAC-12 foe Fresno State on Friday night, 39-0.

Yesterday the Ducks won without a good grasp of situational football or the rules. Put in short-field situations, the defense was effective but not the stifling, intimidating unit they were supposed to be. The Broncos went 4-4 in the Red Zone but they were held to field goals twice.

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