Takeaways from Oregon football's big Fiesta Bowl victory against Liberty on New Year's Day
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Oregon ended the season with a performance that mirrored the majority of its games in 2023.
Quarterback Bo Nix made scoring look easy for the offense, the defense made it hard for the other team to counter, and the Ducks had the game won long before the clock stopped running.
No. 8 Oregon scored touchdowns on seven straight drives as it went on to rout No. 23 Liberty, 45-6, Monday afternoon in the Fiesta Bowl inside State Farm Stadium.
With the win, the Ducks (12-2) secured their first 12-win season since 2019 and for the sixth time overall — all since 2010.
The loss ended the Flames (13-1) undefeated season.
Oregon had two missteps this season — a pair of three-point losses to No. 2 Washington that kept the Ducks out of the College Football Playoff — but otherwise beat their opponents by average margin of 33 points.
Liberty didn't even get that close on Monday.
The Flames scored a touchdown on their opening drive, electrifying their sideline as well as all of their red-clad fans in the announced crowd of 47,769.
When the second quarter began, Liberty still held a 6-3 lead. Two minutes later, the Ducks scored on a 2-yard pass from Nix to wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr. and Oregon finished with touchdowns on every other drive until midway through the fourth quarter.
The Ducks led 31-6 at halftime, 38-6 at the start of the fourth, and 45-6 when Nix was removed to much fanfare with roughly 11 minutes to play in the game.
“Started off a little bit hairy, but they finished it off the way Oregon is supposed to play,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said.
Here are some takeaways from Monday’s season finale.
Bo Nix blows game open
Nix gave one his finest performances in what was his last game in an Oregon uniform.
The fifth-year senior threw for 363 yards and five touchdowns — including four TD passes in the second quarter as the Ducks began to pull away.
He was 28-of-35 passing for a completion percentage of 80% to improve to 77.45% for the season and thus breaking the previous NCAA season-record of 77.36% set by Alabama’s Mac Jones in 2020.
He also set the school record for single-season passing yards and touchdowns, as he finished with 4,508 to jump the previous record of 4,454 set by Marcus Mariota in 2014, and Mariota’s 2014 record of 42 TD passes.
Four of those TD passes came on consecutive drives in the second quarter.
After the TD to Bryant, Nix threw a 2-yard pass to tight end Terrance Ferguson after evading a pass rush and almost losing his balance as he let the ball go.
“Ferg just stayed alive and kind of found his way over the middle and when I looked up I just saw his number and threw it to him,” Nix said. “It’s just exactly how we practiced.”
“Not at all like we practiced,” Lanning responded.
Nix finished the second quarter with a 3-yard pass to freshman tight end Kenyon Sadiq for his first catch since the Stanford game on Sept. 30 and his first career TD, and then a 17-yard scoring pass to wide receiver Traeshon Holden with 3 seconds to play.
“I think we were a batted ball and a poor inaccurate throw from having success on the first two drives, but just like we did all year, we just had to settle in,” Nix said. “We knew that the defense was going to continue to get us the ball back.”
Oregon defense dominates nation’s No. 3 offense
The Ducks dominated a Liberty offense that entered the game ranked No. 3 nationally with 514.9 yards per game, No. 5 in scoring with 40.8 points per game, and with the top-ranked rushing offense that was averaging 302.92 yards on the ground per game and with an FBS-leading 39 rushing touchdowns this season.
But Oregon held them to 294 yards of offense and a season-low 168 yards rushing on a season-low 28 carries. The Ducks also had a pair of takeaways — an interception by safety Steve Stephens IV and a fumble recovery by Zach Grisham.
“Our players embraced what it was going to take to win this game,” Lanning said. “They understood their strength, which is they run the ball better than anybody else in the nation. So I'm pretty sure that our players stepped into the challenge.”
The Flames drove 75 yards for their only score — a 17-yard TD pass — on their opening drive, but were held to 219 yards the rest of the game.
“Just keeping our poise,” said linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, who had eight solo tackles and was named the defensive MVP of the game. “We knew we were going to execute at a high level.”
Bucky Irving also lifts Ducks’ offense
Nix deservedly will get most of the attention, but it was running back Bucky Irving who elevated the Ducks after they had slogged their way through the first quarter.
Irving sparked Oregon’s first TD drive with a rousing start to the second quarter when he took a pitch from Nix out of a swinging gate formation for 10 yards.
On the ensuing play, Irving gained 44 yards on a run that probably went 70 yards as he weaved his way across the field and through defenders to the Liberty 5-yard line.
His next carry put the ball at the 2 to set up the TD pass from Nix to Bryant that put the Ducks up 10-6 with 12:53 to play.
“We just had to go down there and score the first time,” Nix said. “Once Bucky had that long run it really started things.”
Irving, the NFL-bound junior who played his last game for Oregon, finished with a game-high 117 yards and one TD on 14 carries. He also had three catches for 18 yards.
Record-setting day for an Oregon pass catcher
The absence of No. 1 wide receiver Troy Franklin only impacted Franklin himself as the NFL draft opt-out lost his single-season receptions school record to Tez Johnson.
By halftime.
The junior had eight catches for 129 yards in the first half and finished with 11 catches for 172 yards and one score as he broke the single-season record of 81 catches set by Franklin earlier this season.
Johnson started the game with 75 catches and was tied with Dillon Mitchell for fourth place in the Ducks’ record book.
Johnson also moved into sixth place for single-season receiving yards with 1,182, and his touchdown reception gives him 10 for the season.
“Tez had a Tez day,” Nix said. “If you watch him every day that dude goes out there, gets open and catches the ball and continues to do it over and over and over.”
Ferguson needed two more catches to break the record for all-time receptions for a tight end held by Ed Dickson (43). The junior finished with two grabs for 18 yards and a touchdown.
Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Takeaways from Oregon football's Fiesta Bowl win against Liberty
