Eugene, OR – After being favored by 41 points, the Oregon Ducks underwhelmingly defeated the San Jose Spartans 35-22 Saturday.
The Ducks started off hot, putting up a quick 14 points in the first quarter after a 3-yard TD run by Cyrus Habibi-Likio and a 66-yard TD reception from Jacob Breeland.
After closing out the first quarter 14-0 the game took a shift for Oregon, who’s offense struggled to move the ball the rest of the contest and was outscored in the rest of the game 22-21.
After the game, Oregon QB Justin Herbert (7) stated, “We weren’t clicking, we weren’t in it early on and it showed”.
Despite Justin Herbert (7) posting another impressive stat line throwing for 309 yards and three touchdowns, he described his offense’s play as “pretty sloppy”. Herbert threw two interceptions and continually found himself on a different page from his receivers, connecting on only 16 of 34 attempts.
Fortunately for Oregon, Jim Levitt’s defense looked stronger than ever allowing 1 yard per carry to the Spartan offense. The star at the front of the show was Redshirt Junior LB, Justin Hollins, who racked up 8 tackles, two of them being for losses, an interception, a forced fumble and a sack to cap it off.
Oregon would finally put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter after Justin Herbert connected with wide receiver Johnny Johnson III on fourth down 22-yard TD pass. Johnson’s touchdown would be the final score for Oregon.
The Ducks may be 3-0 as they close out their non conference schedule, but at what cost?They clearly have not been challenged yet this year and have not been prepared for the highly competitive Pac 12 opponents that are quickly coming. Oregon was never in any real danger of losing today’s game, rather they fell asleep a few times.
Oregon will be tested for the first time this season as the No 9 ranked team in the nation, Stanford, heads to Eugene next Saturday, September 22, 2018.
