The three nightmare games were '98, 2000, and 2007. Ken Simonton down the sideline for the victory in double overtime. James Rodgers scooting around right end on the fly sweep, shrugging off Kwame Agyeman two yards deep in the backfield. In 2000 the Joey Harrington-led Ducks were number five in the country and favorites for the Rose Bowl. Joey had the worst game of his career and Oregon had to settle for a Holiday date with Texas.
65-38 salved a lot of wounds, but even after knocking the Beavers out of the run for the Roses two years running, the Ducks are still just 5-5 over the last ten years. Usually they're favored. Oregon leads 57-46-10, but the modern Ducks can put the Beavs in the rear view mirror for a long, long time with a win tomorrow.
OS fans say Oregon is all hype and excuses. They like to say the Beavers finish better and work harder and have more character. They'd like nothing better to see their team ruin a dream season, have the solar orange and black back into the Holiday Bowl with a 6-6 record. This is a team that lost last week at Stanford 38-0, lost three weeks ago to lowly Washington State, 31-14 in Reser Stadium. In the alternate weeks, however, they've played pretty well. OSU busted up #20 USC 36-7. Cal gave Oregon all kinds of trouble, but the Beavers dismantled the Bears on Halloween weekend, 35-7.
After recruiting and spring ball and fall camp, the optimists among us thought this dream season was possible. The defense looked fast and fierce. The quarterbacks were finding their spots, hitting Maehl on the deep ball, looking confident on the zone read. Eighteen starters were back. This could be a special year, we thought. Some of us blogged it and message boarded it. National championship contenders, even without Masoli, we insisted. Goe, Hunt, Jaynes, Wilner and Steele shook their head. No one wins in the PAC-10 without experience at quarterback, they said. Too many question marks at defensive line and secondary. The early game in a hostile environment in front of 102,000 looked like a worry to the experts. Remember how they tanked at Boise State last year, or how they were exposed at the Rose Bowl versus Ohio State? Kirk Herbstreit picked Stanford to win the conference. Phil Steele tabbed Oregon State. One of the PAC-10 writers (probably Wilner, or the LA Daily News' Scott Wolf) had the Ducks ninth in the league.
The true believers believed. More than any other year we thought this would be the year, that Chip Kelly had a group with outstanding maturity and senior leadership, with the depth and talent to meet the inevitable challenges. The schedule looked good. Those last five games looked like a gruesome hurdle, but you had to like how it was graduated, with two breathers early, a modest road test, the first conference game against one of last year's lower tier teams, and then the first tough challenge, Stanford at home. The first potential loss looked like USC on the road in game eight, but by then the new quarterback would have time to get comfortable, and the team would establish its identity.
Everything broke right. They stayed remarkably healthy. They avoided an overlook or a letdown, and caught a break when a couple of opponents lost a key guy or two. The team responded beautifully to adversity, even got a timely bolt of lightning to settle themselves when things were going off the tracks in Tennessee. Stanford got out 21-3, a nightmare start, but the Ducks went to work, and the Cardinal couldn't take enough dives to keep up.
Young players and first-year starters made key contributions. Cliff Harris and Josh Huff made big plays at just the right time. Veterans like Brandon Bair, Spencer Paysinger and Casey Matthews anchored the defense. John Boyett and Kenny Rowe continued to be the playmakers they showed themselves to be last year. The offensive line maintained their road-grading, well-conditioned consistency. Role players like Zac Clark, David Paulson and Drew Davis played fierce. Davis threw a key block on two dozen touchdowns. Jeff Maehl became a star, setting a school record with twelve touchdown catches. LaMichael James fought through the bruises and bumps, a marvel of consistency and electric talent, a frog-leaping touchdown-scoring magician with an unstoppable desire to win games and make first downs.
But the unflappable soul of this Duck team turned out to be Darron Thomas. He hasn't had a bad game all year, leading drives, distributing the ball, making plays when the team needed him most. He overcame mistakes quickly and focused on winning. He was calm and consistent. He absorbed what Kelly and Helfrich taught him. He was fiercely, remarkably composed and tough.
Thomas turned out to be a better leader and a better passer as a first-year starter than anyone could have hoped. I doubted him. I expected the other guy to win the job. But as reports trickled in from training camp it was clear: he was the real deal. He was ready now, and what he didn't already know he would learn quickly. Nothing rattled him. No stage was too big. He had three simple goals, make plays, get better and win games.
Now these Ducks are a few hours away from completing the greatest regular season in school history. The form chart for the natty we'll fill out later. There's plenty of time to contemplate a clash with the undefeated juggernaut from the vaunted SEC, or whoever emerges from the polling, politicking and computing.
Right now, we just want to beat the Beavs. Because losing to them this time would be a dull ache and bitter memory that would linger for a long, long time. And they know it, which would make it even worse.
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