#8 Oregon slows Huskies attack in 34-17 win

LaMichael James gets into the end zone against the Huskies in the first quarter.

It was supposed to be a night of celebration for the Huskies as the Oregon Ducks came into town for the last game to be played at Husky Stadium before renovations start on Monday. Prior to the game, Don James and the 1991 national championship squad were honored by the more than 69,000 in attendance. The Oregon Ducks had other things in mind.


In what was to be a battle of offenses, the defenses stood tall throughout the first half. With 30 seconds remaining in the first half, Washington had the ball inside the Oregon 1 yard and Keith Price connected with Michael Hartvigson for Price's first of two touchdowns on the day. The connection brought the Huskies within one touchdown and the momentum seemed to be in the home teams favor but the Ducks responded with a 12 play, 90 yard drive which took little more than 2 and 1/2 minutes. After several Darron Thomas passes, Kenjon Barner took it into the end zone for a 1 yard touch down run to give Oregon two scores of separation.


Washington would not make be denied though as they responded with a 75 yard drive of their own. On 1st and goal from the 10, Keith Price dropped back and hit freshman, Kasen Williams near the sideline with a beautiful catch toeing the out of bounds line. They would get no closer however as the Ducks responded with 10 more points to give the final score of 34-17. 


The Oregon defense stymied a powerful Washington offense early. Eddie Pleasant intercepted Keith Price twice in the first half on overthrown balls which lead to 14 Oregon points. Throughout the day, Washington tried to get their running game in stride but Chris Polk was limited to 80 yards on 24 carries and did not find the end zone. It was a stark contrast to the previous week when Polk scored 5 touch downs in their win against Arizona. At the same time, the defense got to quarter back Keith Price 6 times for sacks, knocking him out of the game briefly on the final sack of the game. Despite completing  24 of 35 passes, Price only through for 143 yards. Late in the third, Price hit a swing pass to Hartvigson but Terrance Mitchell came up in coverage and ripped the ball from him, putting Oregon on the Washington 23 to start their next drive. After a pair of false starts, Oregon was unable to capitalize on the turn over and Alejandro Maldanado missed a 46 yard field goal. When asked about his offenses' performance, Washington coach Steve Sarkisian stated, "Offensively, we didn't perform well enough to win. You can't have three turnovers. You can't have six sacks. You can't give a team like Oregon short fields and expect to beat them."


Price's counterpart Darron Thomas controlled the Duck offense, completing just over half of his passes for 169 yards and a single touch down to Tight End David Paulson. Joining him in the backfield was LaMichael James who played his first full game since a gruesome elbow injury against California. James rushed for 153 yards and a touch down and looked to be back at 100% just in time for the show down with Stanford next week. The Huskies had a tough time tackling Oregon's play makers and often times, the Ducks would find themselves in space after breaking tackles on momentum shifting plays. 


This win for Oregon marks the 8th consecutive victory in the series for the border rivals. It is the longest streak in the rivalry's history. Looking ahead, the Ducks travel to Palo Alto next week for what is anticipated to be the Pac-12 game of the year against Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal. Washington will also be on the road to face USC, who are coming off of a dominating win against Colorado.