'Is the Duck still doing pushups?': Oregon football rolls to record 81 points over PSU
Oregon football opened the season Saturday in record-setting fashion.
Whether it was artful passes through the air, long breakaway scores, or punishing carries by its running backs, the Ducks moved effortlessly up and down the field en route to an 81-7 victory against Portland State.
A crowd of 45,723 witnessed the most points scored by Oregon in the modern era and also the largest margin of victory ever at Autzen Stadium.
“Is the Duck still doing pushups?” coach Dan Lanning jokingly asked before starting his postgame press conference.
It wasn’t, but the Oregon mascot did probably need an ice bath.
Oregon scored on 12 of its 13 drives and got into the end zone on 11 of them. It had 729 yards of offense, 38 first downs and averaged 10.1 yards per play.
Obviously the level of competition helped, as the Football Championship Subdivision Vikings were clearly overmatched by the 15th-ranked FBS Ducks.
But that didn’t mean the performance wasn’t worthy of praise.
“It was a good day out there today,” Lanning said. “Got to see us execute at a high level, and that’s the expectation for us.”
Several individuals met that standard.
Quarterback Bo Nix completed 23-of-27 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns as he played one series into the second half.
Wide receivers Troy Franklin and Gary Bryant Jr. each had seven catches and two touchdowns. Franklin finished with 106 yards and Bryant had 100 yards.
Running back Bucky Irving had four carries for 119 yards with scoring runs of 56 and 52 yards. Running back Jordan James rushed for 86 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries.
“I think when we just do what we're supposed to do, do what we're coached to do, go out and execute, I think that's what we can do,” Nix said of the 81-point performance. “Obviously, situations change, but when you go out there and do your best and play the best you can play, things like that can happen.”
It wasn’t just the offense.
The defense allowed just 200 yards and eight first downs. Only 53 of those yards and one of those first downs came in the second half.
Portland State’s one score came on its second possession of the game when it went 75 yards on nine plays capped by a 9-yard touchdown pass to make the score 8-7 Oregon. The drive also included plays of 20 and 22 yards.
“We had two critical errors on that drive and then a really bad execution in the red area on that touchdown," Lanning said. "But ultimately what you saw is when you don’t do your job bad things can happen. … I think we all settled down after that and realized all I've got to do is my part, my 1/11th, and the rest will take care of itself.”
Irving answered the Vikings score with his 52-yard touchdown run and the Ducks took off from there, scoring touchdowns on its next five drives to take a 50-7 lead into halftime.
“The game plan was to just go out there, execute, and do what we do,” Bryant said. “It's a nameless, faceless opponent, so just going out there and putting good stuff on tape and getting that chemistry as a team so we can see where we’re at.”
Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football sets scoring record in win against Portland State
