RSS
Home
Oregon Ducks end USC's Pac-10 dynasty with 47-20 win
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Jeremiah Masoli celebrates after scoring one of his two touchdowns
in Oregon's 47-20 thrashing of USC on Halloween Night. (AP/Don Ryan)
The fall of Troy is upon us.
It’s just too obvious, too easy, too cliché to not say that this is going to be the season that USC lets go of its grip on the Pac-10 championship.
And it’s not just that the Trojans gave away the conference crown in 2009—it was ripped away from them by the Oregon Ducks.
The Ducks played a perfect game Halloween night at Autzen Stadium to take the crown and give themselves an inside track to the Rose Bowl, after a 47-20 win in Eugene, Ore.
Oregon ripped off 613 yards of total offense—the most given up by USC in the Pete Carroll era—led by formerly-maligned quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who accounted for 386 yards of the Ducks’ offense (222 passing yards, 164 yards on the ground) and two touchdowns.
Oregon remains undefeated in Pac-10 play and has a two-game lead in the conference standings.
“I don't know if we made a statement, this is just what we planned on doing," Masoli told the Associated Press after the game. "If it makes a statement it makes a statement. That's just Oregon football and how we roll."
All of that is just normal, politically correct words from an athlete trying not to gloat after a huge win.
One of Masoli's teammates wasn't going to hide his excitement.
"We made a statement that 'SC does not have a lock on it anymore," Ducks safety T.J. Ward told SI's Stewart Mandel. "There's a new team, and we're coming to win."
The Ducks ended USC’s dynasty in the Pac-10. Period.
For at least one year, we will not get the pleasure of seeing the Trojans in Pasadena on New Year’s Day (unless Oregon ends up in the national title game).
“They are the benchmark that everyone is shooting for," Ducks coach Chip Kelly told ESPN’s Ivan Maisel. "I think everyone in the league is starting to catch up to them."
For one year, at least one team has caught the Trojans and surpassed them.
Or as Masoli told the Oregonian: “No one can really hang with us in the league and across the nation.”
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
