Well, it finally happened.
The Oregon Ducks had been so good all season at winning games that they had a chance to lose. I guess it doesn’t come as a huge shock to see them finally drop one.
It’s pretty unfortunate that it was this one, though.
The final score was 38-7, but it honestly felt like it could have been worse. Momentum never came for the Ducks. Things never got clicking. They were never able to string together a few good plays, whether on offense or defense and before any of us could come up with a plan in our heads for how Oregon might actually be able to mount a comeback, the game was over.
The knockout blow? A 78-yard punt return as the first-half clock expired, giving Utah a 28-0 lead.
We can talk about what went wrong for the Ducks until we’re blue in the face. There is a long list of things to correct, and Mario Cristobal will surely have them working on it as soon as they arrive at the Oregon facilities on Sunday morning. While the Ducks’ College Football Playoff dreams are dashed, the season isn’t over. Coming up this week, they may have to play for a chance to advance to the Pac-12 Championship against the Beavers. Want to talk about high stakes and anxiety? That matchup will certainly be wrought with drama.
We can get into all of Oregon’s mistakes later, though. For now, let’s talk about what was lost on Saturday night in Salt Lake City. An Oregon team that was ranked No. 3 in the nation finally did what everyone outside of Eugene was waiting for them to do. They lost, and they lost badly.
All of those flaws that they’ve been dealing with throughout the season? They showed up again, in an ugly fashion. The injuries that threatened to derail the season multiple times? Yep, those decided to pop up as well. Right before kick0ff, it was clear that Johnny Johnson III, Jaylon Redd, DJ Johnson, and Keyon Ware-Hudson all had not made the trip to Utah for the game. In the first half, stand-out safety Verone McKinley III also went down with an injury and would not return.
The nation at large will look at this outcome and call the Ducks frauds, claiming that they always knew Oregon’s win over Ohio State in Columbus was a fluke, and that they had no business ever being in contention for the CFP.
I’m going to choose to call it as I see it — a team whose luck ran out at the worst possible time.
Mario Cristobal and the Ducks have been staving off disaster all season long. It started in Week 1 with a nail-biting win against Fresno State and continued the week after when they somehow dismantled Ohio State without Kayvon Thibodeaux or Justin Flowe on the field. Whether it was injuries to CJ Verdell, Bennett Williams, Dru Mathis, Johnny Johnson, or emergency surgery for offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, the Ducks have all year long been able to look these hardships in the face and continue forward.
On Saturday night in Salt Lake City, they were delivered a knockout blow from which they couldn’t recover.
It’s not an indictment on Cristobal, or Moorhead, or Tim DeRuyter, or even Anthony Brown. It’s an acknowledgment that with their current health, and their current flaws, the Ducks were no longer a team that deserved to be considered for a playoff berth, and they didn’t have any business beating a really good Utah team.
As an Oregon fan, we’ve been worried about this result coming ever since we saw a team struggle to beat Fresno State in the first game of the year. We’ve been able to stave off that fear throughout the months of September, and October, and for a good part of November.
But as the season comes to an end, that fear eventually turned into a nightmare.
With any luck, and a kick in the butt from Mario Cristobal, this team may be able to wake up from that nightmare and still make the most of what’s left in the season.
There’s still a Pac-12 Championship and a Rose Bowl to win.
[listicle id=13132]