Oregon wins on the road 80-77 in OT

#17 Oregon beat #25 Kansas St. in Manhattan, KS last night. Bryce Taylor (pictured), led the Ducks with 18 points. Catron had 15, Leunen and Porter scored 14.

Oregon had never, in its 105-year history, been in this position: on the road, facing a ranked opponent outside its conference.Overwhelming? Maybe at first. Then the Ducks got over it.

This was a big win for Oregon in their first real test this season. Next up for the Ducks is Utah on Dec. 8th at the Rose Garden in Portland (Pape Jam).

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Oregon 80 - Kansas St. 77 OT

Weekly Poll Results

The question was, "Who will win the Oregon vs UCLA Match Up"

	Answer	Votes	%
	Oregon	3	60%
	UCLA	2	40%
	Total	5

Next weeks question is, "Can the Ducks beat the Beavs?"

Let the voting begin.

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San Francisco 79 - Oregon 110

Oregon's offense put on one of the best performances in school history, but it was the defensive effort by the Ducks (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 12 AP) that drew the most praise.

Maarty Leunen recorded his third-straight double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, six other players scored in double digits and Oregon beat San Francisco 110-79 on Saturday night.

The Ducks' point total tied for the sixth highest in program history.

Tajuan Porter added 17 points for Oregon, while Malik Hairston scored 16, Joevan Catron 14, Bryce Taylor had 13 LeKendric Longmire 11 and Kamyron Brown had 11 points. Catron also had 14 rebounds.

"I thought the guys did a great job in the second half of really playing the type of defense they're capable of playing," Kent said."The matchup zone really helped us in the second half. To hold a team to 28 percent from the field is probably where we need to be on most nights."

Oregon shot 55% for the game. It was quite the show. The Ducks travels to Manhattan, KS to take on Kansas St. on Thursday. It will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 6:00 pm local time.

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Oregon 0 - UCLA 16

As good as the Duck defense was, it couldn't make up for the lack of any offense. It was embarrassing. Enough said.

Civil War next week at Autzen.

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Oregon vs UCLA Preview

Fate has allowed us another opportunity. The Rose Bowl is ours for the taking. With the Sun Devils losing yesterday, we need to win out and we'll go to Pasadena on New Year's Day.

It will be a huge test of the Duck's resolve in the face of adversity. I cannot remember a year in which we have lost as many key players to injury. The latest, and probably most devastating was Dennis Dixon.

After the let down against Arizona, we will need to come out with an offensive game plan suited to Brady Leaf. If we can mix it up and keep the Bruins guessing it will allow Jonathan Stewart to establish his running game. Protecting Leaf will be critical to Oregon's success tomorrow.

The defense will need another one of their gutty performances and the special teams cannot make the same kind of mistakes that cost us dearly against the Wildcats.

The Ducks character will be tested tomorrow. I have a feeling that UCLA has looked past this game now that Dixon is done for the year and is thinking more about their final game against USC on December 1st. Our fate will be what we make of it.

Oregon 27 - UCLA 10

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Thanksgiving Photos

I have uploaded the photos I took yesterday to my Flickr site for your enjoyment. Here are a couple of examples to whet your appetite.

Upper right, is Noah playing hide & go seek and below to the left is Max, Dave & Kasey playing Boggle.

It was a good time with lots of family and great food. Thanks for putting up with me for a few days Chris & Jolene!

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. If you are traveling, please be safe.

Oregon 87 - St. Mary's 99

Kamyron Brown scored 20 points, Maarty Leunen had 17 and 11 rebounds, and Tajuan Porter 13 before fouling out for Oregon (4-1) in a losing effort last night.

Patrick Mills had the best scoring output by a freshman in St. Mary's history with 37 points, and also had five assists, two steals and only one turnover that came with three minutes to go.

Next up for the Ducks is San Francisco at Mac Court, this Saturday at 7 pm local time.

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W.I.I. Original

Here is the original photo. Alexander Graham Bell is in the lower right corner. He designed many different types of kites. This was taken at Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada in the early 1900's.

BCS Standings

Oregon fell to 9th in the BCS and the AP polls that were released today. We knew this would happen. Time to suck it up and win the last 2 regular season games.

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Oregon 85 - Portland 61

Malik Hairston scored 24 points and the Ducks (No. 11 AP) beat the Pilots 85-61 on Saturday night.

Maarty Leunen added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Ducks, who have opened the season with four straight victories.

The Ducks were without starting guard Bryce Taylor, who sprained his right shoulder in practice the day before. They were also without center Ray Schafer, who broke bones in his left hand this past week.

Oregon pulled away from the smaller Pilots early in the second half, and Tajuan Porter's 3-pointer made it 35-44 with 16:12 left. Porter made a school-record 110 3-pointers as a freshman last season.

Hairston's 3-pointer made it 63-46 and the Pilots could not keep up.

"They were flying around in the first half and rebounding," Portland coach Eric Reveno said. "And then I think they wore us down."

Hairston is averaging 22.5 points through Oregon's first four games.

Porter finished with 15 points for the Ducks. Freshman Kamyron Brown, who started in place of Taylor, had 10 points and 10 assists.

Oregon travels to Moraga, CA to take on St. Mary's next Tuesday at 7:00 pm local time.

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Oregon 34 - Arizona 24

It's hard not to be disappointed after last nights loss. Dennis Dixon is probably done for the season and with him went Oregon's hope for a shot at the National Championship.

The Ducks still have a lot to play for, the Rose Bowl would be a nice consolation prize. If USC takes out Arizona St. and we win the last two games things will seem much brighter.

Can the coaching staff come up with a game plan with Leaf at QB? Is Leaf even going to play next week after twisting his ankle? Is Freshman QB Justin Roper ready to lead the Ducks if Leaf can't play? Can the coaching staff implement a new offensive scheme built around Leaf or Roper?

The next two weeks will speak volumes about the Oregon program. There are too many talented individuals to give up on these kids (or the team on themselves). I hope the coaching staff and the fans appreciate what the Ducks have done this season.

Update: Dixon tore his left ACL and will have season ending surgery sometime in the near future. Typical recovery time is 6 months. We wish you the best Dennis!

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Weekly Poll Results

How many touchdowns will Jonathan Stewart have against Arizona?

One 12% (3 votes)

Two 31% (8 votes)

Three 23% (6 votes)

Four 15% (4 votes)

Five or more 19% (5 votes)

Total voters for this poll: 26 Jonathan didn't have any touchdowns last night. Time to move on. The new poll asks the question, "Who will win the Oregon vs UCLA matchup?" Let the voting begin. GO DUCKS!

Oregon vs Arizona Preview

Substance over style. There seems to be a lot of talk in the media about Oregon's last three match ups. It revolves around our relatively "weak" schedule in these last 3 games. The writers are talking about "style points", basically, how many points you win by and the turnover ratio.

They seem to forget one thing, you have to play the game first. I think the Oregon players have the right attitude and aren't caught up in the media hype. Like Jeff Kendall said last week, "we're just a bunch of fat kids living our dream."

The Ducks will remember last year at Autzen when Zona came to town. They will have the focus and intensity to take it to the Wildcats this year in "their house." Oregon will play the type of game that has defined their season. Solid defense and an offense that keeps the opponent guessing. Dixon and Stewart will have a huge game and the rest will be history.

Substance will win this game and Oregon has it.

Oregon 45 - Arizona 17

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Oregon 97 - Western Michigan 88

Malik Hairston had a career game Monday night, leading No. 11 Oregon to a 97-88 victory over Western Michigan.

Hairston scored 29 points on 9-of-11 shooting to pace the Ducks (3-0). It was a career-high for the senior forward out of Renaissance High School in Detroit, who also set a career-high with four blocks.

Joevan Catron recorded a career-high 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Maarty Leunen added 18 points and eight rebounds and Bryce Taylor scored 17.

Oregon shot 56 percent overall and 48 percent from the 3-point line, though it struggled at times from the free throw line, making just 31-of-45 (69 percent).

Next up for the Ducks is Portland. Oregon will travel the 100 miles on I-5 this Saturday at 7:00 pm local time.

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Oregon 80 - Pacific 64

Tajuan Porter scored 28 points as the 12th ranked Ducks defeated Pacific last night in Eugene.

"Today, I felt like I needed to take on the scoring load," Porter said. "They played tough defense but I really just took it upon myself to score."

Porter went 10-for-15 from the field with five 3-pointers. The 5-foot-6, 150-pound sophomore also found success driving to the basket for layups.

Malik Hairston added 20 points for Oregon (2-0), while Maarty Leunen had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Bryce Taylor scored 10 points. The Ducks shot 48% from the field.

Oregon plays Western Michigan tonight in Mac Court at 7:30 pm local time.

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Latest BCS Standings

The latest BCS poll was just released and it has Oregon at #2. All of the polls today agreed with the top two choices.

Kansas is moving up fast and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they lost to Missouri when they meet in a couple of weeks.

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Oregon 100 - Pepperdine 70

Tajuan Porter, sophomore point guard, had 17 points and a career-high nine assists in the Ducks' 100-70 season-opening win against Pepperdine in the World Vision International tournament on Saturday night.

It was Oregon's 16th straight season-opening win, the longest streak in the Pac-10 Conference. It was also the Ducks' first game in four season without Brooks, the scoring and assist leader on last season's team that reached the NCAA tournament regional finals.

Bryce Taylor and Malik Hairston also scored 17 points each for Oregon.

"We played a great basketball game,'' Porter said. "We shared the ball well and the new guys played well also. We're just glad we got the first game out of the way and now we have to move on.''

Oregon shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and made 6-for-9 from beyond the arc. The Ducks finished the game shooting 52 percent, and outrebounded the Waves 58-40.

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Kirk Herbstreit's Top 5 Teams

Thanks Ohio St.

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Road to New Orleans

All the Duck Highlights from last weekend in the huge win over ASU.

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Reader Request

A reader of this blog left a comment asking if I had recorded the Gameday show last weekend (broadcast from Eugene 11-3-07). I didn't, but I thought I would do him a favor and post this to see if I could help him locate someone who had.

If you recorded the show to your pc using a TV capture card please leave a comment below so that I can help this desperate Duck fan.

Thanks and Go Ducks!

Wish and a Prayer

Beano Cooke hopes Oregon will play in the National Championship game. He damn sure isn't the only one.

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Mid Week Exam

More Dennis Dixon "Heisman talk."

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Good Call - Bad Call?

Kirk Herbstreit gives his opinion on some recent college football polls that have been posted on ESPN. Nice props at the end of the video for Dennis Dixon.

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Kirk Herbstreit's Top Five Teams

Kirk has the Ducks at #3, just like all the polls.

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ASU vs Oregon : Condensed Version

Just in case you missed the game, ESPN has posted the "condensed version" for your viewing enjoyment. It is a little over 12 minutes long and has every scoring play from Saturdays game.

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BCS Standings

The new BCS poll, just released, has Oregon at #3 also.

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New AP & USA/Today Polls

The Ducks moved up to #3 in both polls. The BCS will be announced around 5 pm PST today and I will update the blog at that time.

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Weekly Poll Results

Ducks winning margin over ASU?

1-10 29% (5 votes)

11-20 47% (8 votes)

21-30 6% (1 votes)

31-40 12% (2 votes)

ASU should have stayed home... 6% (1 votes)

Total voters for this poll: 17

The folks that voted in the 11-20 range were the winners as the Ducks won by 12. Next poll will be until the Nov. 15th game against Arizona. The question is, "How many touchdowns will Jonathan Stewart have against Arizona?" Let the voting begin!

ASU vs Oregon Video Highlights

Video is courtesy of ESPN. They seem to be having trouble with their embed codes so I had to convert this before posting. Enjoy!

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Ducks Stun Sun Devils 35 - 23

Dennis Dixon led #5 Oregon to an exhilarating 35-23 victory over #4 ranked Arizona State yesterday.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, a record crowd of 59,379, watched their high flying Ducks win the biggest game in Autzen history. The game was not as close as the score would indicate as we had a few miscues that could have led to even more Oregon points.

Dixon threw for 189 yards and 4 touchdowns while Jonathan Stewart scored twice, once on a beautiful 33 yard run in the 3rd quarter and again on a pass from Dixon. Jaison Williams had 5 receptions, 2 for TD's, both in the first half.

The defense had another stellar game. QB Rudy Carpenter was sacked 9 times, we gave up only 110 yards on the ground and had 1 interception and recovered 1 fumble.

Injuries seem to play a part in every Oregon game this year. Middle linebacker, John Bacon, was lost for the season with a torn ACL, WR Garren Strong went down (injury unknown at this time) and the scariest moment of all was when Dixon grabbed his knee after being hit in the 4th quarter. After the game, coach Mike Bellotti said, "Dennis is going to be fine," he would have gone back in if we felt he was needed."

Celebrations in Eugene continued after the game when it was learned that #2 Boston College lost to Florida State 27-17.

The Ducks get a needed rest before taking on Arizona in Tuscon on November 15th. ESPN will broadcast the Thursday night game at 6pm local time.


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Corso Puts On the Duckhead

Did you have any doubts?

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College Gameday: Saturday Preview

The Gameday crew is in Eugene and talks about Saturday match ups. This was taped Friday afternoon.

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ASU vs Oregon Video Preview

This match up preview was on CBS Sportsline this morning. Enjoy!

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ASU vs Oregon Preview

As with most crucial match ups this season, the Ducks will need another outstanding effort by the defense to come away the victors tomorrow.

The Sun Devils like to wear the defense down by employing the power run game. ASU ran the ball 53 times against Cal last weekend. Keegan Herring and Dimitri Nance combined for 181 yards and three touchdowns on 45 of those carries. On the season, the Sun Devils have are now averaging 26 more runs than pass attempts per game. The Ducks defense will need to contain both of these explosive backs.

QB Rudy Carpenter likes to roll out of the pocket on play-action sets and at times has shown poor decision making skills. With the Ducks experienced secondary look for some interception opportunities. Keeping continuous pressure on Carpenter will force these mistakes.

ASU will have a tough time keeping up with the track-meet style Duck offense. Dixon, Stewart and company will mix it up and keep the Sun Devils guessing. I don't believe that ASU's 7th ranked defense will hold up to the pressure and speed of Oregon's offense.

Final score; Oregon 42 - Arizona State 21

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How Did Jonathan Stewart Earn His Nickname?

Any die-hard Duck fan can tell you that Jonathan Stewart's nickname is "Snoop", but how did he get it?

See the itty-bitty seventh grader. He's 5-foot-3, maybe 135 pounds in his football uniform after a good Northwest drenching, just a spot of a shy child whose mother calls him "Snootie Pie."

The itty-bitty seventh grader isn't smiling. He's no longer the star of his football team, no longer the running back whom no one could take down. Suddenly, he's hitting the ground quicker and harder.

"Everybody had just started growing and I was still a pip-squeak," Jonathan Stewart recalled. "All my friends were bigger than me. I was like, 'Man, I'm not as good as I was in youth football.' It was kind of discouraging for me.

The itty-bitty seventh grader became a physical marvel, a chiseled 5-11, 230-pound mass of speed and power and potential, with eye-popping measurables -- the most celebrated recruit in Oregon history.

"Snootie Pie" became "Snoot" among Stewart's close circle of family and friends, but that erroneously transformed into "Snoop" in high school and college.

Call him what you like, I just call him amazing.

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Hide and go Seek

Nice little video about Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart's amazing ability to fake out just about everyone.

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ESPN's Mid Week Exam

The first minute of the video looks at Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart. Which one makes the better NFL draft prospect? We all know the answer to that one but it's great that both of them are getting so much media attention. Now they need to come out and rip apart ASU.

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