Oregon football is a team that is trending up. It was another dominant performance on Saturday at Autzen Stadium. Over the last two weeks, Oregon has not shown any let-up in its performance on the field. The Ducks scored on six of their drives to pull away quickly for a 38-9 win. Most of the scoring for Oregon came in the first half.
Quarterback Dillon Gabriel finished the game 18-for-26 for 291 yards and two scores in the first half. Oregon quarterbacks found nine different receivers led by Gabriel who found both Justius Lowe and Tez Johnson for touchdowns. Johnson also had 102 yards in receiving yards. Jordan James and Noah Whittington were efficient on the ground. Whittington scored on a play where he took out a defender at the two-yard line before heading into the endzone in a highlight play of the game. James and Whittington combined for 149 yards on the ground.
The Illinois Fighting Illini took until the second half to really get anything going on offense. The first half saw Illinois with just five first downs to Oregon's 18. The ground game for Illinois was pretty one dimensional as well with just 60 yards in the first half, 34 of which came on a long play from running back Aiden Laughery.
The Oregon defense also played from start to finish, following the first drive by Illinois. The Ducks had the upper hand forcing a three-and-out and allowing just five yards of ground offense. Illinois struggled to figure out the Ducks' defense and by the time they did, the game was in hand for the top-ranked team in the country.
Oregon had 32 solo tackles to go with three sacks and seven pass breakups led by Nikko Reed with three. The defense also had five hits on the Illinois quarterback.
The Ducks head to Michigan next week to meet the Wolverines in the Big House. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. PT on CBS.