Duck-Husky rivalry has changed

EUGENE —

Kenny Wheaton was sounding very much like the current University of Oregon football players, downplaying the rivalry with Washington.

In a tent outside Autzen Stadium, Wheaton — author of the most memorable play in Oregon football history — had just finished signing autographs as part of the “Sports Illustrated College Football Experience” before the Ducks’ 53-16 victory over Washington on Saturday.

“You’ve got to respect everyone, you have no choice,” said Wheaton, when asked if the UO-UW rivalry was still alive. “If you want to be successful, that’s the only way you’re going to be successful. Every game is a rival game.”

Wheaton’s interception return for a touchdown at Auzten in 1994 sealed a win over Washington and sent Oregon on its way to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 37 years. For the Ducks, it was just the fourth win in 18 games against the Huskies and snapped a five-game Washington winning streak over Oregon.

“But times have changed,” Wheaton said Saturday. “It feels good to be a Duck.”

Now, the Ducks have won 12 of the last 16 against Washington, and the last seven in a row — their longest win streak over the Huskies — all by 20 or more points.

After “The Pick,” as Wheaton’s famous interception is popularly known by UO fans, the Ducks were on their way up — and the Huskies were on their way down. Now Oregon, 9-0 and off to its best start in the program’s history, is on top, and Washington is somewhere near the bottom.

Washington won national championships and Rose Bowls. Now the Huskies are the owners of the longest bowl drought in the Pac-10.

The Ducks, ranked No. 1 in all the polls, are coming off another Rose Bowl year and will play for the national championship in January if they win their last three games of the regular season.

Under head coach Chip Kelly, Oregon is focused and businesslike from week to week, and emotions were not running especially high this week because of the rivalry.

But apparently they were running high for Washington, which made the Ducks look beatable in the first half Saturday.

“There was a lot of emotion, a lot of animosity, and they (the Huskies) came to play today,” said Oregon center Jordan Holmes. “We just had to keep chopping away. The tree ended up falling down, it just took a little longer than usual.”

The first half was not Oregon football as we have come to know it this season. No points in the first quarter and no touchdown until five minutes left in the second quarter? The 35-point favorite leading just 18-13 in the third quarter?

The state-record football crowd of 60,017 at Autzen was eerily quiet.

You got the feeling that if the Huskies had their regular starting quarterback (Jake Locker was out with a cracked rib and redshirt freshman Keith Price took over) and an offense with more firepower, things could have been much different on Saturday.

Perhaps the ingredients were right for a trap game: Oregon coming off a momentous win at USC, and Washington reeling from a humiliating home loss to Stanford.

But the Ducks improved drastically in the second half, taking a 32-16 lead in the third quarter on a 14-yard, change-of-direction touchdown run by LaMichael James.

Later in the quarter, quarterback Darron Thomas put the game away, deftly faking a cutback to fool a UW defender on a 7-yard touchdown run.

Forget Oregon’s four fumbles, and its 10 penalties for 107 yards. The Ducks’ hyper-speed, nation-leading offense simply crushes tired teams in the second half. Oregon has outscored opponents 87-7 in the fourth quarter this season.

“We ran 47 snaps in the first half, and we know the cumulative effect of that will eventually wear you down,” Kelly said. “We don’t look up at the scoreboard until the end of the game.”

The Ducks got an emotional lift with the return of running back Kenjon Barner, who finished with 60 yards and scored a late touchdown.

“The first half we made sure we got all the mistakes out of the way,” Barner said. “We know we can’t just show up. We have to eliminate the mistakes.”

Thomas completed 24 of 33 passes for 243 yards, and James continued to look Heisman-worthy with 121 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

By the way, the Heisman Trophy was on display Saturday as part of the Sports Illustrated College Football Experience, and fans were getting their photos taken with it.

But after the first half, it seemed as if the Heisman had no business being in Eugene.

“We are human,” James said of the Ducks. “Everybody might think we’re not, because we score so many points, but we are. That was a sloppy game. We had so many penalties and we still scored that many points. You’ve got to finish. Things aren’t always going to go your way.”

Oregon finished on Saturday, but the Ducks have much loftier goals than beating a rival that has not been much of a rival in recent seasons.

“The Pick” remains the most revered play in Oregon history.

But this season, the Ducks might have opportunities to make even more memorable plays — on a much bigger stage.

Ducks smash Huskies 53-16 after slow start

EUGENE — Running back LaMichael James felt it, and so did the rest of the top-ranked Ducks.

There was something inexplicably amiss at the start of Oregon’s 53-16 victory over northwest rival Washington on Saturday. Something completely out of character for the nation’s most prolific offense.

“I don’t know, it was something. We weren’t really playing up to standards the first two quarters,” said James. “Our tempo wasn’t good, I was having some mishaps and other players were having some mishaps. Sometimes you’re going to have those games.”

The Ducks (9-0, 6-0 Pac-10) were held scoreless in the first quarter for the first time this season. Their first points came on a 29-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Of course they went on to thoroughly recover, outscoring Washington 35-10 in the second half. James ran for 121 yards and three touchdowns, while Darron Thomas threw for a score and ran for two more.

Oregon attempted a 26-field goal but Nate Costa bobbled the hold and tried to run it. Costa, Thomas’ backup at quarterback, was knocked out of bounds near Washington’s bench and appeared to injure his right knee.

There was no immediate word on Costa’s condition after the game.

— The Associated Press