Quack attack: No. 25 Oregon rolls to 41-20 win over No. 12 BYU

EUGENE, Ore. — On the first play of the game, BYU quarterback Jaren Hall lined up a perfectly timed pass to wide receiver Chase Roberts, the breakout star of last week's 26-20 double-overtime win over Baylor.

It was all downhill from there for the Cougars.

Bo Nix threw for 222 yards and two touchdowns and ran for three more scores as No. 25 Oregon routed No. 12 BYU 41-20 in the Cougars' first trip to Autzen Stadium since 1990.

Thirty-two years after then-No. 4 BYU lost to the Ducks 32-16 a few short weeks after a win over then-No. 1 Miami, history found a way to repeat itself.

This time, the Cougars' winning streak over Pac-12 opponents, which included a 5-0 record against the conference last year, went up in smoke, along with any hopes of a perfect season (and likely whatever outside shot there may have been at the College Football Playoff or a New Year's Six bowl).

Mar'Kiese Irving had 71 yards on eight carries for Oregon (2-1), which was 7.2 yards per play and 4.5 yards per rush for the team before pulling most of its starters in the fourth quarter.

Jaren Hall threw for 305 yards and two touchdowns, including an 18-yard TD toss to Kody Epps to open the fourth quarter. Epps finished with a career-high five catches for 45 yards for BYU (2-1), and Christopher Brooks ran for 28 yards and a late touchdown for the Cougars.

Ben Bywater pulled down his first career interception, and Max Tooley added a team-high eight tackles.

For his part, BYU coach Kalani Sitake took accountability for the loss.

"You've got to give a lot of credit to Oregon; they showed up ready to play," Sitake said in a makeshift visiting media tent after the game. "More ready than we did, especially at the beginning. I didn't have this team ready; that's on me. We have to start better and start faster.

"We just dug ourselves in too much of a hole to climb out of a win; that's on me. The players played their hearts out with great effort. We've got to find ways to take advantage of mismatches on our end, and to have better production on the field. That's in all three phases."

After Roberts' 35-yard catch, BYU totaled just 9 yards through two drives and Oregon was off and running. The Cougars' offense couldn't establish the run, averaging just 2.5 yards per carry for 61 yards, and defensively couldn't stop the Ducks' 212 yards on the ground.

"We've got to crunch the run game," Bywater said. "They came out hot and ran it down our throats. No excuses, it's just something we've got to work on."

It was about as bad of a start as offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick could've dreamed up.

Kearns High graduate Jeffrey Bassa stopped Hall on fourth down, and after a three-and-out on BYU's second drive, Oregon took advantage of a late hit on the fair catch to set up its own scoring drive, a penalty-filled 28-yard field goal by Camden Lewis for a 10-0 advantage.

Bassa finished with five tactkles, the third-most on the team, while former Orem High star Noah Sewell added two stops for the Ducks.

Hall found a wide-open Isaac Rex over the middle to pull the visiting Cougars within a field goal on a 28-yard touchdown to open the second quarter and pull within 10-7. But Oregon rattled off 28-unanswered points to pull away for good.

"It seemed like whenever we made a mistake, Bo Nix and the offense capitalized on it," Sitake said. "And then we were missing tackles. That's not our type of play. We had a lot of players missing tackles.

"It was from top to bottom, not just one position. That's my fault. I've got to get these guys better, and focus on the fundamentals of the game."

But the attempted rally was short-lived. Nix found Troy franklin with a 50-yard downfield bomb to set up his second 2-yard rushing touchdown eight plays later, then capped off the first half with a 15-yard TD strike to Terrance Ferguson in the final minute for a 24-7 halftime lead.

Last week against Baylor, BYU held the Bears to 289 yards on 80 plays — a 3.6 yards-per-play average. In one half against a BYU defense missing edge rushers Tyler Batty and Early Tuioti-Mariner, Oregon totaled 258 yards on a whopping 8.3 yards per play.

Hall led the Cougars offense to a 6.7 yards-per-play average, but keeping up was the battle.

Against the Ducks, BYU was also hurt by penalties, giving up five penalties with a couple of personal fowls, err … fouls, for 49 yards in the first half. The Cougars finished with seven penalties for 64 yards on the game.

Nix opened the second half with a 6-yard rushing touchdown to cap the first drive of the third quarter, then found Ferguson again for a 9-yard strike with 1:53 left in the third to go up 38-7 before making way for redshirt freshman Ty Thompson at quarterback.

BYU made a brief spurt with touchdowns by Epps and Brooks, but it was too little, too late to send a statement — whatever that would've been — on a national stage.

"We had a lot of momentum going, so I think it would've meant a lot for us to come in here and get a win in this great environment," Hall said. "But it doesn't change who we are as a team.

"We've got to learn from today, and come back and be better. Football is a game where you'll make mistakes, but it's about how you deal with it."

Related topics