The Oregon Ducks finished the first year of the Dan Lanning era by grinding out a surprisingly defensive battle at the Holiday Bowl – the Pac-12’s first since 2014.
And although Bo Nix tossed two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to lead Oregon to the victory – his team wouldn’t have been in a position to win at all without the performance of our player of the game, running back Bucky Irving.
Irving broke open the scoring in San Diego with a two-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter, and he racked up a 66-yard score to give Oregon a 14-7 lead in the second.
Irving finished with 149 yards and two touchdowns – but it wasn’t just his performance on offense that earned him player of the game honors.
He also returned four kicks for a total of 106 yards, including a 37-yard return and a 30-yard return – helping Nix and the offense with decent field position.
Oregon heads into the offseason with a nice feather in the cap, and a very strong recruiting window last week has a lot of optimism around this program heading into the new year.
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