In a season where Oregon has seemed to play ‘down’ to the level of their opponents, Saturday started out refreshingly dominant. A perfect fall afternoon in the Willamette Valley began with a slight drizzle before the game before fading into hues of red, orange, yellow and brown as the background for an Oregon football team that seemed to find its identity in Los Angeles a week ago.

With a dominant first quarter that saw the Ducks with a 176-22 total yards advantage, Oregon jumped to an early 14-0 lead and never really seemed threatened by Colorado. Anthony Brown had his strongest performance of the 2021 season completing 25 of 31 passes of 307 yards and 3 touchdowns as the Oregon offense rolled to 568 yards.

With a bullying intensity, Oregon imposed its offensive will on an opponent for the first time this season. Switching interior offensive linemen with offensive tackles seemed to spark a new mentality for an offense desperate to create its unique brand – and it was a fantastic performance across the board for the Oregon offensive line.

Oregon scored a touchdown on its first four possessions of the first half en-route to establishing a 28-7 lead late in the half.

The defense did its part early as well holding Colorado to 9 plays and 12 yards in its first two possessions as the Ducks built their insurmountable lead. Colorado would find a path to some points in the second quarter with a 9-play, 77-yard drive that cut the early Oregon lead to 21-7, but the Buffs were outmatched for most of the game and struggled to sustain much offensively. But the passing game came alive for Colorado in the second quarter with quick outs neutralizing the Oregon pass rush and giving Colorado some life.

After those two opening drives of dominant defense, however, Colorado gained 142 yards on its next 17 plays to close the gap to 28-14 with 2:13 left in the first half. With the Buffaloes set to receive the second half kick, the Ducks suddenly found themselves in an unexpected dogfight with the 25-point underdogs.

Oregon did regain some offensive momentum driving 66 yards on 14 plays for a field goal to close out the first half with the 31-14 lead; but a decision by Travis Dye to cut inside with no timeouts and less than 10 seconds on the clock possibly cost Oregon an opportunity for a late touchdown. With Colorado opening the second half with possession, the Oregon defense would need to re-establish themselves to close out the game.

After allowing only one first down in Colorado’s first two drives, the Oregon defense looked inconsistent and ineffective for the rest of the first half allowing Colorado to march down the field for two consecutive touchdowns. The third quarter would allow them an attempted mini-redemption tour.

At times in the first half, there was clarity to which team was 6-1 and which was 2-5; but the last two drives for Colorado clouded the picture as the Ducks reverted to a soft cushion allowing Brendon Lewis – who entered the game completing less than 55% of his passes to start 14 of 16 (87.5%) for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first half. While some of the issues can be attributed to an early injury to safety Steve Stephens, the freshman QB had already completed 7 of 8 attempts prior to Stevens’ departure.

Byron Cardwell broke through for his first collegiate touchdown on a 34-yard run in the first quarter as the freshman had a breakout performance totaling 127 yards on 7 carries. Travis Dye, who had been a workhorse for Oregon following CJ Verdell’s season ending injury, carried the ball 13 times for 47 yards following his four touchdown performance against UCLA a week ago.

After two straight long drives to close the half for Colorado, the Oregon defense stiffened to start the second half forcing a punt on the first drive. A subsequent 68-yard drive on 6 plays highlighted by a 31-yard run from Cardwell that lead to a touchdown extending the Oregon lead to 38-14 early in the third quarter as the Ducks began to establish themselves against Colorado.

The Oregon defense, after dominating the line of scrimmage a week ago totaling 14 tackles for loss, played a softer cushion against Colorado. Brendon Lewis – who had completed just 54-percent of his passes on the season looked like an All-American at times navigating his way to a 76-percent completion rate with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Though Colorado presented little threat to win this game, their ability to move the ball against Oregon had to be disconcerting given their offensive ineptitude for much of the season. Coming into this game, the Buffs had averaged just 117 yards passing per game. Against the Ducks, however, Colorado took advantage of a soft zone and excellent protection to put up 224 passing yards. Most importantly, the Ducks had just 1 sack and 6 tackles for loss against the Buffaloes.

Oregon started the second half holding Colorado to 9-plays and 20-yards on their first two possessions of the half. An early fourth quarter 17-play, 67-yrd drive that took up 6:34 of clock capped by a short touchdown for Colorado cut the Oregon lead to 45-21 with 13:36 left in the game.

With the lead comfortably in hand, Oregon handed the fourth quarter reins to five-star freshman quarterback Ty Thompson as the Ducks got a glimpse of the future in late action. The talent is there, but it was clear on some of his throws what is separating starter Anthony Brown from Thompson. The talented freshman missed a wide open Dont’e Thornton on a first down pass and two plays later threw an interception into tight coverage to give Colorado a faint comeback hope.

The Buffaloes took advantage of the gaffe quickly marching into the red-zone. A fourth down conversion and subsequent touchdown and two-point conversion allowed Colorado to close within 16, trailing 45-29 with just 6:04 left in the game.

After recovering an onside kick, Oregon closed with a short touchdown run by Seven McGee to give the Ducks their final margin of victory.

While this was not nearly close enough to put the outcome in doubt, the inability to close strong for a second consecutive game will give Oregon fans plenty of concern heading into the stretch run of the season with four difficult games ahead.

Next up for Oregon is a trip to take on Northwest rival Washington in Seattle next week.