EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 13 Oregon Ducks bounced back to the season-opening loss to No.2 LSU – where turnovers and penalties were a major contributor – with a 69-20 dominating performance over the Nevada Wolf Pack in the Ducks season opener.
Oregon (1-1) has now won seven consecutive home opening games, dating back to 2004.
The Ducks head coach Chip Kelly stressed the importance of playing a clean fast game to get back track all week in practice.
“I made a big emphasis on cleaning up penalties and turnovers,” Kelly said. “I am happy how they came out at practice and I am happy how they came out today.“
It was a game of redemption of sorts for freshman running back De’Anthony Thomas, who was coming of a two-fumble game, which came on back-to-back touches against the Tigers.
Against the Wolf Pack he led his team in all-purpose yards with 81 yards rushing and 93 yards receiving on two catches – both of which went for touchdowns.
Darron Thomas matched a school-record with six touchdown passes against the Wolf Pack. // Photo by: Alan K. Fox
De’Anthony credits his progression from practicing with players like LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner.
“It’s huge to be able to practice with LaMichael in practice every day. He’s getting better, so that makes me work harder and get better,” He said. “He’s like a big brother to me now. I never thought I’d be working behind a Heisman candidate. It’s unreal.”
Junior quarterback Darron Thomas set a school-record with five touchdown passes on the first half and finished the game with a record-tying six for the game. He completed 13 of 19 passes for 295 yards through three quarters of action to go along with his record setting performance.
James, who is coming off a season where he finished third in the Heisman running, became the first player in Oregon history to score a touchdown by rushing, returning and receiving in the same game.
He stepped in on special teams with the absence of both Barner and All-America return man Cliff Harris. James was okay with the change and just wants to contribute in anyway possible to help the team win.
“The kicker kept kicking it away from me, and finally he kicked it right to me. I just knew that I would get it [a touchdown],” James said when asked about the score on the punt return. ““Whatever the team wants me to do; I’m going to do it. When Cliff (Harris) is out, I will be there to pick up the slack.”
Nevada (0-1) head coach Chris Ault said he was embarrassed in his team’s performance and thought that the Ducks didn’t offer up anything that he had not seen or prepared for.
“There wasn’t anything they did that we have not seen, but you can’t give up big plays like that. You just can’t. It’s demoralizing,” Ault said. “They [Oregon] are a fine football team. There’s no question about it but to make it that easy for them… that’s unacceptable.”
Oregon jumped out to a 13-0 lead at the end of the first quarter – with a touchdown run by James and a 3-yard touchdown pass from Darron Thomas to Lavasier Tuinei.
“Our goal is to always go out there and execute the running game, when we get that going the passing game will come on its own—as was evident today,” Tuinei said.
After the 4-yard touchdown run by James, Oregon attempted a two-point conversion, which was stopped by the Nevada front.
The Wolf Pack looked as if they were going to close within three points of Oregon shortly after the touchdown by James, but their kicker, Anthony Martinez, had his kick blocked by Oregon’s safety John Boyett.
“First of all, it affected me. I could have blocked that thing,” Ault said. “There was no penetration at all. It was low enough for me to stand up and block it.”
The Ducks offense started to look like the team that made it to the BCS National Championship in the second quarter.
They scored on three touchdown passes by Darron Thomas in the first six minutes of the quarter – putting Oregon up 34-0 with 5:43 left in the half.
Nevada responded with a five-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Lantrip to Mike Ball.
Lantrip, who had only attempted 23 passes in his career entering the game, finished the game 21-of-35 passing with 219 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Oregon used its fast-paced offense to score again in the half with a touchdown pass from Darron Thomas to De’Anthony Thomas from 24 yards out putting the Ducks ahead 41-7 at halftime.
The scoring continued to flow for Oregon in the third quarter with two more touchdowns – a 58-yard punt return from James and a De’Anthony Thomas’ second receiving touchdown of the game.
Nevada scored with eight minutes left in the quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Stefphon Jefferson.
The score after three quarters was 55-13.
Freshman quarterback Cody Fajardo scored the first touchdown of the forth quarter on a seven-yard touchdown run for the Wolf Pack to close the score with in 35 points for Nevada.
That would be the final score for the visiting team.
Oregon scored two touchdowns in the final three minutes to seal the victory.
The first score was a 26-yard touchdown run by Ayele Forde and that was followed up with a 67-yard interception return for a touchdown by Boseko Lokombo – the first interception of the linebacker’s career.
Both Harris and Kiki Alonso were reinstated before the game after one-game suspensions, but did not see much paying time.
“They had ladders to climb and they climbed them this week, but just because you are back does not mean we are going to hand you keys to the castle,” Kelly said. “You got to earn everything in this football program.”
The Ducks now lead the all-time series 6-1 over the Wolf Pack, with the only loss coming in 1947.
Alan K. Fox can be reached at alanfoxjr@gmail.com and on Twitter @alankfox
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