SALT LAKE CITY -- Decide for yourself when it ended for the Oregon Ducks on Saturday night. When they showed up? Kicked off? When the offense struggled to move the ball and the defense couldn’t get Utah off the field?
No wrong answers today.
Utah pummeled Oregon 38-7. Not altitude sickness, folks. Just massive ailments on offense, defense and special teams. The Utes had a better plan, more urgency and superior execution. Up 28-zip at halftime, the Utes assistant coaches scurried out of the press box on level six at Rice-Eccles Stadium, went down the elevator to the locker room for their 20-minute intermission.
Eleven minutes later, they reappeared.
Not much to say, apparently.
Nothing to see here, either.
Oregon’s coaching staff came back to the press box, too, a full nine minutes later. Not because the Ducks’ staff talks or walks slower but because the visitors presumably had a lot more to cover at halftime on Saturday night. And now we’re about to spend a week trying to figure out what Oregon has to play for anymore.
First, though, some credit for the Utes.
Utah was terrific, wasn’t it? Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig carved up the Oregon defense, one play at a time. The Utes offensive line put a cleat in the FieldTurf and drove the Ducks toward the mountains. Mario Cristobal promised the ABC audience before kickoff that this Utah-Oregon game would be a “fistfight.” It was. Unfortunately, Oregon never threw a punch and got knocked out of the College Football Playoff race in a game played in front of 52,724 Salt Lakers.
The Oregon decision to punt to the dangerous Britain Covey trailing 21-0 with 11 seconds before halftime will forever be known as, “The Great Mistake by Salt Lake.” Oregon’s punter Tom Snee could have kicked the ball out of bounds there. He could have hesitated, let a second or two tick off, and then hammered a worm-burner toward Kyle Whittingham on the sideline. Instead he punted the thing away and Covey dashed down the left sideline and broke Oregon’s back with a 78-yard return for a touchdown.
What now?
That’s the question to ask. Because the Ducks are 9-2 and could still pick themselves up, win the North Division, grab the Pac-12 title and make a New Year’s Day bowl game. That work for you, Duck fan? It should. Because this season has been littered with injuries, setbacks and limitations. If we’re being real there were clues all over the place that suggested the whole playoff thing was teetering.
Exhibit A: The overtime loss to Stanford.
Exhibits B and C: Unimpressive one-score wins against Cal and UCLA.
Exhibit D: The fact that the Ducks entered the game with only three passing plays this season of 40-plus yards.
Oregon plays a rivalry game against Oregon State in a week. The Beavers not only know what they need to do, they are riding a one-game series win streak and will show up. OSU also beat Utah earlier this season. In a perfect world, Cristobal’s team regroups and decides it wants another shot at Utah in a potential Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 3. But I wonder right now how many games Oregon might have lost in Utah on Saturday night.
One? Two? Or maybe more?
Will the Ducks fall flat now that their playoff hopes are dashed? Will they go into a Ute-induced coma? We know Oregon has some talent. We already know it can bounce back after a tough loss. The Ducks did it after the Stanford setback. But we don’t know how the Oregon operation will react. It was manically focused on the playoff carrot until the second quarter on Saturday, when the thing suddenly turned into a billy club that Whittingham used to clobber UO into submission.
Saturday night ended early for the Ducks. Maybe it was evident to you watching on television that Utah had all the energy and a better plan early on. Maybe you saw Oregon run 11 plays in the first quarter to Utah’s 21 and figured the Ducks would figure some things out. They overcame a series of slow starts this season, but that second quarter was a 21-0 knockout.
That punt return was a heavyweight uppercut.
I saw Oregon beat Ohio State in Ohio Stadium this season. It was a wonderful moment for the program. I watched them extinguish the ghost of Chip Kelly. It was a nice win in Pasadena. I saw them rise to the occasion and keep their playoff chances alive. This is a program that has raised expectations to the highest levels of college football. Also one that has had some difficult setbacks.
It lost linebacker Justin Flowe to injury in Week 1.
A month later, it saw CJ Verdell’s season end.
Now the Ducks may have to play on without Verone McKinley III.
Maybe Oregon could learn from the guy who broke its heart on Saturday night. Before the punt return Covey went on a two-year mission and missed a couple of years of college. He had two season-ending injuries and took a medical redshirt. He’s been in college at Utah since 2015 and is still technically only a redshirt junior.
“I ain’t leaving until Covey leaves,” is the new campus rally cry at Utah.
That same guy caught that UO punt and started running. He drove a stake through Oregon’s heart on Saturday night. Do the Ducks want to see him again on the football field this season? If so, they have to regroup quickly.
The questions for Oregon today aren’t as much about replacing a key player or finding a way to win a close game as they are about replacing the disappointing divot Utah just put in the Oregon season.
It was a doozy.
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