OREGON STATE 7/0/3/0 - 10
OREGON 17/35/10/7 - 69
EUGENE, OREGON - Oregon avenged their 2016 loss to their ancient rivals, Oregon State, by racking up nine touchdowns and three field goals at Autzen while limiting the Beaver offense to just 10 measly points. Royce Freeman broke a record formerly held by Oregon State’s Ken Simonton, becoming the PAC-12’s all-time career rushing touchdowns leader with 60.
Willie Taggart utilized some of the most prolific offensive players in Duck football history (Justin herbert, Royce Freeman, Dillon Mitchell and Aidan Schneider) to race past the Beavers for possibly the most one-sided game in Civil War history. Before Oregon’s 69-to-10 victory, the highest deficit between the two had been 44 in 2008, the Ducks had exceeded that before halftime.
Oregon capped off the opening drive with a 31-yard field goal from Schneider, Freeman then fueled an 8-play drive that ended with him in the end zone, and on the next drive Herbert connected with Mitchell on a 29-yard touchdown pass to put the Ducks up 17-0 late in the first quarter. Oregon scored on eight of its first nine drives, and after Oregon State scored their first, and last, touchdown of the game, the Ducks scored 35 unanswered points in the second quarter to sink the Beavers.
That scoring run included: a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Breeland, three back-to-back scoring runs from Freeman, slot receiver Jaylon Redd, and Herbert, respectively. Then a 53-yard touchdown pass to Dillon Mitchell punctuated the offensive onslaught with 2:13 remaining in the second.
The Ducks added 10 more points to their lead by tacking on a 25-yard field goal and 11-yard Justin Hollins interception return for a touchdown, which was setup in large part to a deflection from Jalen Jelks. The Beavers finally broke the 55-point run by kicking a field goal, but then Kani Benoit put the cherry on top with a 47-yard rushing touchdown.
The Beavers struggled to get anything going on offense. Their first drive nearly ended with a safety, and their second ended even worse when Ugochukwu Amadi forced a fumble that was recovered by Thomas Graham Jr. Quarterback Darrell Garretson threw a 43-yard touchdown to Timmy Hernandez to cut the lead to 14, but for the remainder of the opening half the Beaver offense amounted to three punts, an interception to Graham Jr, and a missed field goal.
After Garretson threw a pick-six in the third quarter, the Beavers managed to scrap together their final scoring drive with a 24-yard field goal. Herbert finished 13-of-23 for 251 yards and three touchdowns through the air and another on the ground; Freeman and Benoit each had 122 rushing yards, the former tallying two touchdowns and the latter with one; and Dillon Mitchell led all receivers with his 119 yards and two touchdowns. Troy Dye captained the Duck defense and had a team high eight tackles.
Oregon Offense (total: 577 - pass: 266 - rush: 311)
Oregon State Offense (total: 211 - pass: 113 - rush: 98)
Oregon Defense (forced turnovers: 3 - INT: 2 - FUM: 1)
Oregon State Defense (forced turnovers: 0)
UO (7-5, 4-5) OSU (1-11, 0-9)