Oregonian: Weather, poor play combine to soak Ducks

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A 'bad day' against the Golden Bears might have ended the chance for a Pac-10 title for UO

JOHN HUNT

Take an ineffective passing game, mix in problems along the offensive line, and add water. Lots of it. That concoction left a bad taste in the mouth of the Oregon Ducks, who left a soaked Memorial Stadium on Saturday as 26-16 losers to California, their Pacific-10 Conference title hopes all but washed away. "It was a bad day, obviously, to play football," said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, whose team indeed had a very bad day on offense and fell to 6-3, 4-2 in the Pac-10.  The 23rd-ranked Ducks didn't gain any yardage on offense until the second quarter. They were outgained 264 yards to 76 in the first half and got 44 passing yards from quarterback Jeremiah Masoli.  And yet they were the beneficiaries of some crazy wet-football bounces. Four times the ball squirted away from a Cal ballcarrier in the first half and landed in the hands of Ducks, who could not take advantage against a tough Bears defense.

"We were pretty much playing in a swamp," said Oregon center Max Unger after the Bears (6-2, 4-1) manhandled the Ducks on the line of scrimmage.  Using a three-man rush almost exclusively, the Bears held Oregon's lateral running game in check, flushed Masoli out of the pocket numerous times and -- with the luxury of dropping eight defenders into coverage -- left Masoli no option but to run for his life.  "Give Cal credit," Bellotti said. "They stymied us at the line of scrimmage."  And when the Ducks weren't stymied, they made major errors of their own. They snapped the ball over the punter's head for a safety, fumbled away a punt inside their 10-yard line and threw an interception just before halftime that gave Cal a first and goal.

Bellotti and several players said they gave this one away, but it was more a case of two teams handing gifts to each other with sopping-wet wrapping paper and only one team being able to open them.  "The turnover battle means nothing," offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. "It's the response to the turnovers that's key."

It started OK for the Ducks, as the first quarter was played under an Oregon-like drizzle. Linebacker Spencer Paysinger made a diving interception of a pass by Beaverton native Kevin Riley on Cal's first drive, and it took the Ducks four plays to go 46 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead. The extra-point was botched as holder Tim Taylor couldn't squeeze the snap.  Cal answered with a nine-play drive held together by two third-down conversions to make it 7-6. (Oregon would go 0 for 7 on third down in the first half and 0 for 2 on fourth down.)  After a three-and-out for Oregon, Cal running back Jahvid Best ran 50 yards only to fumble the ball away at the end of the run. But not only did the Ducks fail to convert that turnover to points, they also gave two points away. A high snap from Zach Taylor sailed over punter Josh Syria's head and out of the end zone, putting Cal up 9-6.

And as the rain picked up in the second quarter, the ball really started bouncing funny.  Nate Longshore, who came in after Riley sustained a concussion, bobbled a snap on a field goal attempt. Then Best fumbled again. Masoli returned the favor by throwing an interception on the Bears' goal line. Shane Vereen, Best's backup, fumbled the ball high into the air, and it was scooped up by Nick Reed for the second consecutive time.

Through all this, the 61,432 fans watched drearily as neither team could score. That changed at the end of the half, and Oregon's 2008 fortunes perhaps changed with it.  With a minute left before halftime, the Bears lined up for their first punt of the day (Oregon already had four, plus the safety-causing snap). The Ducks put the punt block on but couldn't get to it. They got the ball, though, on their 34-yard line.  Masoli skipped his way to a 14-yard gain, and Oregon suddenly was near midfield. Then, on second down with about 30 seconds left, Masoli tried to hit tight end Ed Dickson, but Cal linebacker Worrell Williams picked it off and returned it 50 yards to Oregon's 3-yard line.  Three plays later, Longshore hit Nyan Boateng with a two-yard touchdown pass that gave the Bears a 16-6 halftime lead.

In the second half, Oregon made adjustments in its running game that paid off. Behind Jeremiah Johnson, the Ducks -- the fifth-best rushing team in the nation -- ran for 141 yards in the quarter. And when Johnson scored on a 17-yard run with 3:49 left in the third, after the teams traded well-held field goals, the Ducks were within 19-16.

Then, from a most unlikely source, the Ducks fumbled away their chance at victory. Punt returner Jairus Byrd, whose 87-yard touchdown return gave Oregon a win at Purdue in Week 3, booted a punt, and Cal recovered at Oregon's 6-yard line.  Marcus Ezeff, the man who jarred the ball loose from Oregon receiver Cameron Colvin in the final seconds of last year's 31-24 Cal win in Eugene, recovered it to set up a two-yard touchdown run by Vereen.  Oregon could not come back from that, not on a day when its offense was so hamstrung by an ineffective offense.  The passing game was nearly nonexistent. Masoli could not find receivers against Cal's secondary, usually because they were not open.

That idea of combating Cal's 3-4 defense with some straight-ahead running by LeGarrette Blount? That never took hold. Blount had four carries for one yard, moving his 235 pounds laterally most of the time. "We were struggling, they schemed pretty well against us," Unger said. "They had our number for a while."  The key number is two -- losses in the Pac-10. Oregon is no longer among the one-loss teams as it returns to Autzen Stadium in a week to face Stanford. The going probably will be a little easier and the ball probably a little drier, but the Ducks will have to bounce back from a very bad day in Berkeley.