Halftime Thoughts: No. 4 Oregon Leading Washington Despite Ugly Game
The No. 4 Oregon Ducks have had a tendency to play down to its opponent, or up to them, all season. Unfortunately for the Ducks, the Pac-12 is down which means lots of sloppy football on its schedule in 2021.
The fist half against Washington was no different. The Huskies failed to record a first down until the second quarter and held a 9-3 lead at that time against all odds.
Anthony Brown had some frustrating plays with the most costly being an opening-drive interception that got ran back to the six-yard line setting up the lone UW touchdown of the first half.
He did redeem himself though with a 31-yard dart to Devon Williams to take a 10-9 lead with 5:08 remaining in the first half. The scoring play capped a 7-play, 76-yard drive from the Ducks.
But the MVP of the Oregon Ducks has been its entire defense who held the Huskies to just 102 first-half yards and forced a interception after Dylan Morris threw the ball into triple coverage. Brandon Dorlus and Jeffrey Bassa both blew up a 4th-and-short wildcat play to give the Ducks the ball back too during the second quarter.
No Oregon player has performed better on Saturday than Noah Sewell who had two third-down pass breakups to go with five tackles.
Overall, it has been incredibly ugly but the Ducks lead at halftime and Johnny Johnson III will return for the second half. Given the putrid play of the offense to start the game, Oregon will take that.
