It was a Hollywood scenario that went north.
The star midfielder suffered a setback, but still found a way to put his team in a position to win the game against an unlikely opponent. No. 6 Oregon and its candidate Heisman Trophy Bo Nix All are ready to watch just one such moment unfold at Autzen Stadium.
Problem for Ducks?
It’s the number 25 Washington and Michael Penix Jr. who put pen to paper and went into action on Saturday night, all but ending his opponents’ hopes of reaching the College Football Finals in a wild way 37-34 discomfort during descent at Eugene.
Highlight: #25 Washington stuns #6 Oregon
Michael Penix Jr. dueled Bo Nix when Washington overthrew Oregon.
Nix, who threw 280 yards and accounted for a total of three touchdowns, played brilliantly for most of the game, but couldn’t get the crucial third draw with 4:04 remaining in the final half and every game. things are in balance. To make matters worse, he had his helmet straight to his right leg and needed assistance to tiptoe off the pitch.
It’s just a loophole that Penix Jr. and Huskies needed, and they took full advantage. Just three plays in the next drive, the Indiana transfer team threw a beautiful bullet along the touchline directly into the hands of sophomore Taj Davis, who brought it 62 yards home, here will be his only match in the competition (and one memorable one at that) tying everything at 34 each.
However, The Ducks still have a shot, but Nix is still in the injury tent receiving treatment for a leg injury. Backup Ty Thompson, a former top player, trotted across the field, rushing at a pivotal moment with national implications on the line. The red shirt freshman’s lone pass attempt missed goal during the drive and ended up taking fourth and short at their own 34-yard line.
Freshman coach Dan Lanning, who has been aggressive throughout the season, opted in after making three previous short-distance runs in fourth place. However, it was with Nix in the game, using the elder’s size and bruising power to muscle all of them.
Instead, it all relied on full-back Noah Whittington (108 yards, one TD in 20 tries), who was served while running up the midway from the shotgun but his foot slipped out of his body to reverse the situation. .
Lanning later said: “It certainly wasn’t the result we were expecting. “This match is 100% my fault. Our players put in a phenomenal effort.”
Oregon reserve Noah Sewell eventually finished Washington’s next lap in a favorable position, but Peyton Henry’s 43-yard goal overcame the post to ultimately be the winner of the race. game.
Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer said after the game: “We’re just a team that always comes back and keeps fighting. “It shows itself in four quarters.”
Penix, who made a costly intercept on the line earlier in the fourth half, hit 408 yards and two touches in the air – the most any QB Huskies have ever made against opponents. their blue and yellow shirts.
“He doesn’t like hitting that block,” added DeBoer with a smile, knowing that Penix ended up getting the team into the last three-round zone on their next hit after the pick.
However, Nix still had one more glory to go before the clock ran out, shockingly leaping out of the medical tent onto the field to the cheers of the loyal crowd present. He has a timeout in his pocket and 51 seconds on the clock, but he hasn’t been able to muster up some of the preemptive spells he’s cast over the course of the past eight games.
Sadness ended Oregon’s 23-game winning streak at Autzen, the third-longest in the country, and started from scratch. with a win over ranked team Washington in 2019. The Ducks have dominated the competition lately, with 15 wins in their past 17 games, but couldn’t get the job done in their first meeting with two new coaches. of the two sides.
Losing is also everything, but it’s guaranteed that the Oregon College Football Playoff hopes will be gone too, with the rest of the competition for the last four places nationwide.
The Ducks can still win the Pac-12 and make it to the Rose Bowl in January, but will need to beat 13th place Wyoming at home next week, Oregon State in Corvallis, and then the winner USC–UCLA The match will take place next week – fit in Pasadena.
Meanwhile, the Huskies have to kick themselves for taking an inexplicable loss in the desert to State of Arizona earlier in the season or otherwise, they’ll definitely be on the list to advance to Las Vegas for the collegiate championship. As it stands, the season has remained fairly successful for DeBoer, with the potential to hit double digits in the winning column for the first time since 2018 and at the very least restore some balance to one of the Pacifics. their most meaningful. Northwest Scrambles.
Maybe not many people think things will work out in 2022 or even leading up to the weekend but that could be why they don’t allow the screenwriters to control the end of the ball games. college rock anywhere but the silver screen.
No. 25 Washington defeated No. 6 Oregon in a tit-for-tat game
RJ Young reacts to Washington’s upset win and explains why Huskies shouldn’t be ignored.
Three takeaways from the game:
Land of Lanning
While some first-time head coaches can become a little more conservative as the pressure mounts against a tough opponent, that’s not the case with Lanning. The Ducks chief remained as aggressive as ever on Saturday night, concealing the fact that his team was up against a higher ranked opponent or on an eight-game winning streak, which helped they nurtured the desire to attend the College Football knockout round.
In the same way he did in the big win over UCLA at Autzen last month, Lanning picked up a surprise free-kick in the first half. The attempt was narrowly unsuccessful, which later led to problems in other ways, but you have to admire that circumstances did not alter the decision-making process.
Some of Lanning’s thoughts must have been the lack of defensive stops both sides could make early in the game, while also noting that the Huskies don’t really give particular teams a chance and keep Add a player back to the front with an eye on the kicker.
Contradictory thinking is also not limited to starting a car. As time shortened in the second half and Oregon was driving around the midfield, Lanning called the 4th and 2nd half timeouts with 31 seconds left. Given that Washington has plenty of time to work and has the nation’s best pass, it’s certainly a gamble to take it, not a bet with the positional advantage going the other way.
There was a bit of hesitation, however, as the foul continued on the pitch and Nix managed to get in the middle with a keeper to barely get the first kill. Not many people would have the stock to buy it in such a location but Lanning certainly did. The Ducks started getting a goal-scoring effort out of the incident and, although it slipped, at least a little momentum went into what must have been a burned-out dressing room.
However, the impetus to hit it such points came back to bite the UO in the fourth inning as Whittinghton slipped in his own territory, all but one attempt to score for the Huskies in a tie game. and what proved to be the winning point.
Go to wrestling
Best catch of the night? It might not even be a catch.
Immediately after Oregon’s inside kick effort before halftime, Washington coach Kalen DeBoer did what many coaches would do in such a mid-court situation: attack with a big play. . In addition to the play action, Penix threw a bullet down the pound marks aimed at Jalen McMillan. The receiver eventually succumbed to it, but not before Christian Gonzalez nearly snatched it for a frantic interception and one of the game’s more remarkable plays.
Huskies quickly run to the line to run a play and prevent replay for a longer review, but it’s not often that you see a generous person literally struggling defensively to secure a catch. Achieving the big 34 yards goal then led to a goal on UW’s field, which proved to be the final three points the team had taken into the locker room at halftime.
Western implication
When it comes to conversation topics in Pac-12 territory, chances are that things almost always lead to repeated exchanges about conference reorganization and media rights after USC and UCLA depart. in the future for Big Ten. Those are certainly important topics in light of the health of the league and the future of the remaining 10 members.
But Saturday night’s result at Autzen seems particularly significant for those in the West, as it showcases the league’s two top shows (through 2024) battling under the lights in a single match. big in prime time slot, more than bring many big dramas and plays. Even better than the tough, back-and-forth fighting nature of the game is who takes the lead.
The Ducks and Huskies have represented the Pac-12 in the College Soccer Qualifiers before, and both look set to hold the top of the leaderboard for many seasons to come given the resources available. Each has two great brands, a rich history, and ambitions that continue to make waves nationally as well as they want to promote locally.
However, their competition has been rather one-sided lately, leaning heavily on Oregon despite the program of changing coaches every few years. In order for this to be a true non-Western top rival without Trojans or Bruins to play cards, the Huskies will need to make things interesting more often.
Based on what we’ve seen in DeBoer’s first foray into the series – and his history of winning nearly everywhere he’s been in the past – it’s encouraging for those In the Pac-12 office, the people rowed around Montlake and between the neutrals throughout the footprint that could only be a little bit of balance between the two teams in the future.
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Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He’s covered college athletics for nearly two decades at agencies like NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFFischer.
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