Shadows cast over Pat Kilkenny Park as the brilliance of another sunny late summer day set over the horizon of the Willamette Valley bringing with it the early brilliance of fall football. In 2013, as the Oregon football team and its fans descended on Charlottesville, there was a mixture of hope and desperation by both sides.
Following a near national title game appearance, Oregon came into Virginia’s Scott Stadium with something to prove and the Cavaliers came into the game hoping to establish themselves. One would accomplish their goal, the other, well, Virginia was left to lick its collective wounds amid the destruction of a fast and furious Oregon football team led by Marcus Mariota.
The intensity of the azure blue skies left an indelible stain on the minds of fans filing into the stadium as dreams of perfection. With its sellout streak a memory, Oregon embarked on a new legacy of winning.
Mark Helfrich, embattled Oregon head coach despite the gaudy 34-8 record over his first three seasons, was also looking to quell the doubters with a solid performance from his squad – a quest that would go unrewarded.
The early returns seemed to favor the visitor as the home team succumbed to emotion with a late hit giving the Cavaliers field position and opportunity. Wasted as though it were, the Ducks made a key stop on a fake field goal and began to assert control with their stars – Royce Freeman and Darren Carrington. Without much ado, Freeman scored the first touchdown for the Ducks on a short carry to open the scoring with Oregon taking the early 6-0 advantage following a failed 2-point conversion. The 81-yard drive was indicative of what the Oregon offense had always been, but the ensuing drive seemed to bring back the haunted memories of a futile 2015 defense as the Cavaliers did not so much as march down the field to tie the score, but staggered and stammered their way to a game-tying touchdown.
A game of fits and starts, one Oregon had been favored to dominate by the Las Vegas oddsmakers, was anything but a runaway through the first quarter as Oregon looked for its identity on both offense and defense while the Cavaliers, following their loss to FCS foe Richmond a week ago, looked considerably different on both sides of the ball.
This game was closer than it should have been early in the second quarter when Virginia pinned the Ducks deep with a perfectly placed punt at the one-yard line with 13:18 left in the first half. This would become a turning point, though, as quarterback Dakota Prukop took the snap, ran for nine yards before pitching out to Dwayne Stanford for 14 more – a total of 23 yards on first down. When Royce Freeman took the next carry for 17 yards, suddenly Oregon was out of the shadow of its own goal post and on the move; despite a lack of mental discipline which led to a 3rd-and-36, Oregon moved into the Red Zone with a 55-yard bomb to Olympic hurdler Devon Allen. The Ducks capitalized with a 2-yard pass to Dwayne Stanford to extend the lead to 20—6 midway through the second quarter.
The 4:28 drive; an eternity by Oregon standards; was the turning point for the Ducks. A moment reminiscent of LaMIchael James’ 72 yard run in Knoxville against Tennessee, the deep throw to Allen could very well have marked a turning point for a season which seemed on the precipice of mediocrity.
"Fantastic play be Devon. He does so much in the run game too," commented Helfrich.
Perhaps the best of stories relates not to winners, losers, but to Pharaoh Brown. Following the gruesome injury and painstaking recovery process, Brown announced his re-emergence a week ago, but put the exclamation point on his return with his first touchdown since that fateful day in Salt Lake City. Brown’s 11-yard reception from Prukop should be tonic for all that ails any football fan.
The Ducks, outrushed in the first quarter, in a tougher contest than had been originally imagined, distanced themselves from Virginia with a 17-point second quarter to take a 30-6 lead into the half. With the advantage of receiving the second half kick, all that stood between certain victory and uneasiness was focus, discipline and attention-to-detail. Virginia rushed for just 17 yards in the second stanza after a strong 75-yard performance in the first quarter.
The Ducks, hoping to turn a second half kick into an insurmountable lead fizzled following a less than motivational halftime speech which had head coach Mark Helfrich commenting that the Ducks needed to “continue to play clean and avoid stupid penalties.” Neither was present on the first drive. Virginia took advantage with a quick drive to cut into the lead on a four-yard touchdown run to close to within 30-13 with 10:22 left in the third quarter.
"We had a bunch of chances to finish and did not quite slam the door," said Helfrich.
Lacking its typical consistency, the Oregon offense nonetheless seemed impervious to their own miscues. Following poor blind side protection and self-inflicted wounds, Prukop uncorked a deep ball to Devon Allen to turn a third-and-twelve into a 77-yard touchdown extending the Oregon lead to 37-13 midway through the third quarter.
Despite angst and confusion, the game was not so much about a final score so much as the process. Oregon entered the 2016 season with many questions – most of which remain unanswered. Would the Ducks find a quality replacement for Vernon Adams? Would Brady Hoke change the culture of a porous defense? Would the Ducks offensive line find consistency in its youth?
Only one of those questions seems to be answered with graduate transfer Dakota Prukop taking a strangle hold of the quarterback position. Outside of his solid, if unspectacular play, the Ducks are still full of more questions than answers. At times, the defense looks brilliant, as they did on Schooler’s interception and several negative yardage plays. At other times, they look much the same as they did a season ago – confused, slow, out of position and undisciplined.
"Schooler was a little bit limited in what we could do with him tonight, but his play was encouraging," continued Helfrich.
With a trip to Lincoln next on the agenda, these are questions which must be answered post haste if the Ducks are to concern themselves with competing for a Pac-12 North Division Championship. Against a Virginia team which scored 20 points against a significantly inferior Richmond squad a week ago, the Cavaliers were able to exceed that total against the Ducks.
After carrying the ball just 6 times for 28 yards against the Spiders, Albert Reid carved through the Oregon defense seemingly at will carrying the ball 15 time for 126 yards and a touchdown.
The Ducks were led by Royce Freeman carrying the ball 23 times for 207 yards and two touchdowns, including a career long 85-yard run highlighted by fierce downfield blocking from receiver Jalen Brown.
Freeman, long humble despite rising up the ranks of Oregon's all-time rushing leaders, talked about Brown's block.
"Jalen was blocking his tail off," Freeman said following the game. "I wouldn't have made it without his blocking there."
"There are so many self-inflicted wounds that we need to correct. We just need to get back and get ready for Nebraska," concluded Helfrich.
Despite some brilliant moments on offense, perhaps the 2016 season will be defined not so much by those moments as the space between. A past where brilliance and explosiveness were commonplace, those moments seem to be less frequent as the team adopts a multitude of new components. A season always expected to be a rebuilding year could still hold promise, hope, and brilliance.
For the moment, however, it holds only more questions.
