Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PUSHING IT — It's the first weekend of the 2023 college football season (or at least, Week 1 of college football, which is not to be confused with Week 0. ... Yeah, we're as confused as you are), and Oregon has already nearly committed Duck-icide against its beloved mascot Puddles.
The Ducks feather-dusted in-state FCS foe Portland State with an 81-7 win Saturday, a scoring record that ran a-fowl of the mascot's tradition of notching push-ups for every point scored at Autzen Stadium.
Add it up, and Puddles swam away with 546 push-ups — and we hope he got some egg-stra Icy Hot for the muscular mallard.
The Ducks were led by Bo Nix, who completed 23-of-27 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, and Bucky Irving added 119 yards and two touchdowns as the Ducks averaged 10.1 yards per play. With the win, Oregon flew away with a previous modern-era scoring record of 77 against Southern Utah in the season opener in 2017 to reach the mark.
If you do the math — accounting for a 2-point conversion on the first touchdown and a field goal — that adds up to 8+15+22+29+36+43+50+57+64+67+74+81. In other words, 546.
Whew. We're tired just typing that out, but not as tired as the Duck or Oregon's offense, which punted just once.
Puddles may not be done any time soon, either. The Ducks, ranked No. 13 in the latest Associated Press Top 25, travel to Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday to face Texas Tech — the Red Raiders just gave up 35 points in a loss to Wyoming — before hosting Hawaii, which allowed even more in a 37-24 loss to Stanford.
Hey, at least it's not 81.
But #SkoDuck might be #SwoleDuck by the end of the season, nonetheless.
Yesterday's Have You Seen This?
Mountain climber inches along ledge of highest peak in Europe
An awe-inspiring video is drawing attention to a mountain climber maneuvering a ledge on the highest mountain peak in the European Union.
