Making Grades: Oregon shows tremendous prowess in defeating Washington

The Ducks should be happy with this report card. They got the job done on the field and avoided embarrassing themselves off of it.

The scoreboard won’t tell the entire story of this game. Oregon defeated Washington by a mere 10 points, 26-16, but it wasn’t even that close. Once the Ducks found themselves down 9-3 in the first quarter, they had enough juice to get going and thoroughly beat their rivals up north despite the rainstorm.

Travis Dye outgained the Dawgs all by himself with 211 yards on the ground. Washington’s ground game of 55 yards was non-existent and one could say Oregon gave the Huskies most of their points. They had one legitimate drive against the Ducks, with the others coming from a 6-yard TD and a safety.

In the midst of Oregon’s win, frustrations boiled over on the Huskies’ sidelines with head coach Jimmy Lake striking and shoving a walk-on player, and then on Sunday, Washington fired offensive coordinator John Donovan.

But on the other sideline, Oregon kept to themselves and eventually got the last laugh. The Ducks are No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Pac-12 North.

Here’s how the Ducks graded out with the big win in Seattle.

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

QUARTERBACK

Grade: Pass/Incomplete

Giving Anthony Brown a “pass” for his grade isn’t a cop-out, but we just feel giving him a letter grade wouldn’t be appropriate. The passing game was severely hampered because of the weather and as the game played out, Oregon saw that Brown’s arm just wasn’t needed to be on display as much.

After a rough start that saw an interception returned to the Washington 6-yard line, Brown played well. He gave the Ducks the lead for good with a nice 31-yard touchdown pass to Devon Williams. We’re confident Brown’s talents will be on display more this week against Washington State.