The final minutes should be a scary stretch for any team, Oregon women’s basketball included. 

But whether they out rebound, outscore, or outsmart their counterparts, the Ducks have almost always found a way to come through through the season’s first two months.

All of which made what happened Friday — a 54-47 comeback win over Indiana (12-7, 4-4)— less surprising but euphoric nonetheless.

Closing time was closeout time for the Ducks down the stretch Friday night, winning the final push in a night full of momentum swings. 

The Ducks trailed by as many as 10 in the third quarter before a furious comeback led by Ehis Etute, Ari Long (+9 in just 12 minutes), and a furious bench effort drew them close. 

“I mean, we can’t talk about the game without talking about Ehis,” Graves said. “She’s tough, and she’s great around the basket. In a big game like this, you never know how a freshman might react.” 

Neither team was particularly sharp, but victory doesn’t require perfection, just an advantage. And the Ducks ended with one, largely due to a stifling defense and a coach that pulled every available lever and found every possible edge. The Ducks needed them all.

After a Phillipina Kyei layup trimmed the Hoosier lead to one, Bell and Scott answered with steals, both of which resulted in points and helped the Ducks seal the win. 

“We had the right lineup in,” Graves said with a smile. 

Friday’s game was hardly beautiful, but it was necessary. While the Ducks might have higher expectations because of their stars, depth, and best start to the season since 2019, an inability to win an uglier game had eluded them. 

Big stops, locking down on defense and a flair for the dramatic were big catalysts for the Ducks (15-5, 6-3). Peyton Scott and Elisa Mevius traded breakaway baskets in the final minutes. 

Scott got to the line and hit big shots. Etute out-battled former Duck Sydney Parish late. Deja Kelly controlled the game without dominating the flow of it. 

“We don’t win the game without these two,” Scott said of Bell and Etute. 

“I’ve been really pleased with her,” Graves said of Kelly. “Her scoring has been down… but she’s playing better in almost every other category.” 

Scott led all scorers with 14 points, banking in back-to-back 3-pointers in the first half. 11 Ducks added points.

“It’s gonna be someone else every single night,” Graves said. “Unless you’re Michael Jordan.”

But it was defensively where the Ducks continued to play their best basketball, proving they can lock down when it matters most. 

Stops down the stretch, though, were the Ducks’ forte, with Oregon going on a 9-0 run in the game’s final minutes.   

“Great win,” Graves said. “Every category we beat them… really proud of the team, we showed a lot of heart and guts tonight.” 

Oregon will head on the road, taking on the Michigan schools over the next week.

Peyton Scott eased her way into the season, ceding shots to Deja Kelly and Elisa Mevius, committing to head coach Kelly Graves’ much deeper team and letting her teammates establish themselves in the first handful of games of her final season of college basketball. 

Maybe it was her being respectful of a new process in her return from a major injury. Maybe it was a sign that her shot, something she’d never really struggled with, wasn’t yet in form. 

Or, just maybe, it was all a mirage, the point guard was still lurking, waiting for the perfect moment to erupt.

She finally did, Saturday Scott did everything in leading the Ducks (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten)  to a 69-53 win over Purdue (7-10, 0-6 Big Ten ) at Matthew Knight Arena. 

When the offense went cold, she scored. When a teammate shook open, she found them. And when the game called for it, Scott showed her veteran savvy — she drew a shooting foul near the half-court as time expired in the first quarter and had multiple breakaway steals to help pad the Ducks’ lead. 

“Peyton from mid-range is just as good as it gets,” Graves said. “You can always count on her, that’s the great thing about Peyton, you can always count on her.” 

Scott finished with 13 points three rebounds and three assists, she also played 32 minutes, grabbed a pair of steals and was a +7. 

“She’s really good at finding her own shot,” Kelly said of Scott. “She just brings a different energy to us, especially when we have some empty possessions, she was the one we were looking for, and she came through.” 

The rest of her Ducks held up their end of their bargain too. They were more active in transition, had quicker hands and most importantly, were much cleaner. Turning the ball over just  1 1times. “Defense opening statement”

Purdue entered as losers of five-straight conference games by a margin of over 27 points. Beating Oregon would have been an upset of significant proportions with ESPN’s matchup predictor giving the Ducks a 91.7% chance of winning. After the Ducks fell into an early rut, the Boilermakers could dream when they started with a 9-4 advantage. 

But the Ducks were just too big, too physical, and too crafty. Mevius was the primary catalyst for the latter, dazzling with her usual display of nifty passes and acrobatic layups. 

Purdue miraculously only trailed by four after turning the ball over nine times in the first quarter alone.  But eventually, the errors compounded, and the Ducks’ shots began to fall — Oregon never really challenged the rest of the way. 

Through it all, Scott was terrific, keeping the Ducks engaged and in the game throughout. 

Oregon’s defense was terrific throughout, forcing 23 turnovers which they parlayed into 25 points. 

“They didn’t handle the pressure that well,” Graves said of the Purdue turnovers, 17 of which came in the first half of action. “They handled it a lot better in the second half.”

There was also no answer the Boilermakers could conjure for Phillipina Kyei, Oregon’s 6 foot-11 senior who showed the many ways she can affect the game in her 16 minutes. She finished with 12 points and nine rebounds as she rounded into form, repeatedly drawing double-teams which then opened up spots for her teammates to do damage. 

It was a particularly lively crowd for a seemingly inconspicuous game, fans shouted loudly after each foul call, with tensions escalating after a momentary game stoppage due to a clock issue. 

In terms of the actual gameplay, well, the Ducks gave them plenty to cheer about. 

The Ducks will stay home, taking on Iowa on Sunday at 2 p.m.

“It’s huge, for us to be back at home,” Kelly said. “Every win in this matters, for us to stack these home wins is huge… we got one today, we’ve got a big one Sunday, so just gotta continue to stack wins.” 

Peyton Scott grabbed the ball after it swished through the net and slammed her hand against it in frustration.

The Ducks (9-4, 0-2 Big Ten) had been fighting, once again, in a tight game. They traveled to Illinois, to play a game they had been practicing for since Christmas night, and the same hallmarks of their previous losses were happening again in their 64-59 loss to the Fighting Illini (12-2, 2-1 Big Ten ). 

The shots wouldn’t fall, Oregon couldn’t score and, to make matters worse, the clock was ticking down. Nani Falatea missed a go-ahead 3-pointer before Illinois took a four-point lead on a pair of critical free-throws from Kendall Bostic (10 points). 

Oregon played well and showed that it can, in fact, do the things required to win. But it also did many of the things that usually cause teams to lose.

Winning doesn’t always require perfection — just an advantage, sothe Ducks couldn’t come away with the victory after Illinois hit its free throws late and ran the clock out on the close game. 

The Ducks, who trailed by as many as 12 in the second quarter, took the lead with four minutes remaining in the game. But shots down the stretch eluded them, with a four-minute scoring drought down the stretch the primary proponent for the loss. 

Falatea led the Ducks with 17 points, and Deja Kelly had 15 on just 5-15 shooting while missing time due to foul trouble. Oregon’s reserves outscored the Illini’s 29-13, but Illinois’ stars had the biggest contributions when it mattered most. 

Scott finished with ten-or-fewer points for the third consecutive game. 

Oregon fought valiantly and hung around to even take the lead in a game they trailed in for over 30 minutes. But the tone of the game was set by how Illinois won the minor battles that define possessions, the ball pressure that knocks a team out of rhythm, the grabbing that makes a screen slightly more effective, the shoving under the glass that leads to an extra possession

The Ducks have countered it before — just not consistently. There are things they can do to make more physical teams less of a problem, but if you struggle and trail for most of the game sometimes you end up on the short end of the stick — especially in the Big Ten.

The Ducks, who had been together since the holiday, to get ready for Illinois, attacked the Illini early.

The ball popped from one side to the other, Oregon creating open looks off crisp passing, forceful cuts and colliding screens. The Ducks corrected a lot of their defensive issues, sprinting back in transition and cleaning up Illini misses off the glass. 

And then it stopped.

Everything the Ducks did right in the opening minutes quickly turned, as the team’s energy evaporated and its intentions gave way to bad habits.

Led by Genesis Bryant (23 points) Illinois was aggressive offensively, leading by as many as 12 in the second period of action. But the Ducks hung around, thanks to Kelly, and Falatea who finished with a career-high 25 minutes, and hit a layup to take a one-point lead with four minutes remaining. 

But Oregon couldn’t get a pivotal bucket to drop, and Illinois was tougher, more experienced and more physical in a game that demanded it.

The Ducks continue their trip on Tuesday against Northwestern.

It seemed, at first, like an odd fit. A West Coast power, known for its flash, paired with a conference known for its bulk and corn-fed brawn. A year of questions about toughness and physicality from the rest of the Big Ten had suggested as much about Oregon, which, outside of the Dan Lanning era, hadn’t offered much reason to believe they belonged in the premier old-school football conference.

But never had the preseason doubt in Oregon felt so misplaced as it did last Saturday, when the Ducks rolled over Washington and punched their second perfect regular season in program history. 

However, there’s a sentiment around these parts that makes this year even more special. Oregon is 12-0 and there’s still room for these Ducks to improve.

Take last year for example. Head coach Dan Lanning’s team was unbelievably talented, yes. However, it didn’t have the same close-game experience (on the winning side) as this year’s squad does. In 2023, Oregon won conference games by point differentials of 36, 36, 14, 29, 44, 9, 36 and 24, ending the regular season largely unchallenged. Oregon went on to lose one of its rare tightly-knit games — ending its championship aspirations. 

In 2024, however, the Ducks have carried a different sentiment: they can win ugly. 

Early season matchups against Idaho and Boise State — two games in which the Ducks won by just 13 points — proved to be an excellent barometer for what the Ducks’ floor could be if things didn’t shape up well. 

“Everyone was telling us how crappy we were,” Lanning acknowledged after the Ducks win over Washington. 

While Lanning surely loves the stress-free nature of such lopsided wins, there’s something to say about a team knowing how to persevere despite a somewhat lackluster performance. 

Save the tight-rope win over Wisconsin and the nail-biter over Ohio State, the Ducks were largely dominant in their remaining contests. However, the experience of going on the road to a hostile environment and winning a tight game is something Lanning expects to pay off going forward. 

“We can handle critical moments,” Lanning said after Oregon’s three-point win over Wisconsin. “We can handle when it’s tough, and at some point, that experience is going to pay off for us.” 

With Washington and Michigan (two teams that had a combined 10 one-score game wins last season) paving their path to a National Championship Game bid a year ago, there’s a hope that those same DNA traits established in big games will pay off for the Ducks as the competition gets fiercer. 

“I think the best part is we haven’t really talked about it,” quarterback Dillon Gabriel said of the win over the Huskies. “We’re just so present and that’s hard to do. It’s very easy for us to look forward to the future. But, you know, we’ve just been living in a time where tomorrow’s fiction. Tomorrow is not real in our books. We’re just focused right where we’re at.”

The Ducks are the only undefeated team left and a shoe-in for the College Football Playoff regardless of the result of their Big Ten Championship showdown with Penn State. While that’s pretty sweet, there’s an unwavering sense of belief within Lanning’s squad that they can pull out wins regardless of their flaws. 

“College football is hard,” Lanning said. “It’s tough to be consistent, and to be resilient and consistent, and [winning] some tight games and [having] some battles throughout really shows some character of our team.”

Deja Kelly has the ball and you feel glued. 

Fans at Matthew Knight Arena are beginning to know the feeling. Teammates and coaches already do.

But the true test of Kelly’s gravitational pull might have happened late in the fourth quarter in the Ducks’ upset win over then No. 12 Baylor. 

On the back of Kelly, the Ducks pulled off an incredible upset, despite not playing their best ball.

No stranger to big moments, the fifth-year North Carolina transfer shared a less-satisfied sentiment.

“It’s important for us to be happy about it,” Kelly said. “But it’s only Game 3, so we’ve just got to continue to build off of it.”  

Kelly is a modern face of women’s basketball with a multitude of NIL deals and sponsorships. She has over 400,000 followers on Instagram and often adds to her YouTube channel. Kelly has used Oregon’s new conference as a positive too — hours after the Ducks’ opening-day win over Cal Baptist, she was back on the court as the sideline reporter for the men’s basketball Big Ten+ broadcast. 

“That day was busy, the buildup I was super anxious, very nervous,” Kelly said. “But I was doing prep for the men’s game, the notes and ques for the game. There was a cut-off about an hour and a half before my game and I was like ‘ok it’s time to lock in on my game.’” 

College kids are in college athletics by choice, but they’re also flawed and exposed nevertheless. Sometimes they’re Deja Kelly, a five-star guard committed to North Carolina, a top program in the country where hoops is everything and the first game of basketball season often results in canceled classes. 

But sometimes they’re Kelly four years later, transferring out of that program, heading way out west to a team swirling in basketball anonymity, only receiving questions for her move. 

“I was a big part of that program that’s back on the national stage,” Kelly said in a TikTok video addressing the reason for her transfer shortly after her transfer. “I ultimately just carried that program on my back for four years in the most humble way.”

It’s a chore to reconcile doing what you believed you had to do, and getting panned for it — just ask Kelly. 

“I found myself not playing with the joy that I used to play the game with,” Kelly said in the video. “That’s as blunt as I can get, and that is not a great feeling. I felt it early on in the season, midseason, to where I really just did not want to play.”

But finally, on the court, she’s found refuge at Oregon. A last chance to be what she insists she can be as a player.

Kelly’s field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and assist rate all dropped from her junior to senior year. She was the Tar Heels’ primary ball-handler with little reprieve, averaging over 36 minutes a game. 

“I know that there’s stuff that I have to continue to grow in my game and be consistent at and I felt like me transferring and going to Oregon was going to best help me do that and best prepare me,” Kelly said. “The efficiency? I feel like that will grow in a different system. Obviously, we’ll still see, but I’m pretty confident that a different system will allow me to operate a little better from a basketball standpoint.”

And so she has. Kelly is averaging 44.9% from the field — a ten-point increase from the year prior — and has seen her rebound and assist averages increase from a year ago. She’s shooting the ball less, too — against the Bears she had 20 points. Her next game — a 66-35 blowout win — she had seven. 

“Deja, she comes in with so many accolades, but I’m telling you, she does a lot of the dirty work,” Graves said after the Ducks’ win over Nevada. “I can see why she’s so highly regarded by everyone in the country.”  

Still, Oregon and Deja Kelly win together, or it’s a five-month-long told-you-so for all her skeptics and doubters. 

It certainly won’t all be on Kelly’s shoulders. Graves brought in seven other newcomers from other schools around the country, Oregon is engineered where it won’t all be on Kelly’s shoulders like at times at UNC. 

With six unique guards in the backcourt, she’s set up for success and won’t have to do it all like in years past. Oregon fans saw this depth in Kelly’s unselfish play against Baylor.

Kelly had already been on a tear: stepbacks, yo-yo turnaround jumpers, 3-pointers from the top of the key. You name the shot, she’d essentially tried it or had the opportunity to. But this time, her decision-making to cut into the key, and find the streaking Elisa Mevius for a layup was what pushed the Ducks ahead of the Bears.

The ball left Kelly’s hands. Mevius caught it and watched it drop through the net. MKA erupted, and we were all glued to the scoreboard, legitimate proof that women’s basketball was back in Eugene. 

“We were trying to get the ball in Deja’s hand,” head coach Kelly Graves said postgame. “She’s kinda made for these moments, and there was so much attention on Deja that there was an open driving lane.” 

She didn’t hit the biggest shot of the day, not with the woman they call “Mevius the Menace” earning that nickname anew. But everybody knew the play was called for Kelly and the ball would be in her hands, another example of what she was brought to Eugene to do. 

Everyone knows this is Kelly’s team. She’s a magnet that fans, skeptics and opponents alike can’t take their eyes off of.

This Oregon men’s basketball story wanted to be trendy.

Five games in, it wanted to cite head coach Dana Altman’s offseason maneuvers as the key to this team’s championship hopes. It wanted to praise the depth, laud the potential, and go bananas over the bench.

Who doesn’t want to trumpet the fun of Jackson Shelstad, the maturity of Jadrian Tracey, the physicality of a healthy Supreme Cook or the savvy of Nate Bittle? 

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

This Ducks’ start of the season story wanted to be trendy, it really did, but that approach could only survive all of a few words.

205 minutes into the season and we know next to nothing about this Oregon team. The Ducks were bad, but good enough to win, and there’s still few absolutes to take away. 

Yes, Dana Altman can still get his team to perform in the clutch. Yes, the more talented — and more handsomely paid team — will often prevail, especially early in the season. 

And yes, Oregon is 5-0 — the only thing that really matters — after Shelstad and Bittle’s late-game heroics pushed the Ducks over Oregon State Thursday night at Gill Coliseum. 

But the truth is other than that there hasn’t been much to take away from the early going of 2024.

“We have so many areas to improve,” Altman said. 

Areas like how after playing their most complete game of the year in a win over Troy, the Ducks looked hapless for 20 minutes against OSU. They were outrebounded 20 to 13 in the first half of action and 38 to 30 overall, effort and execution issues Altman was sure to harp on postgame. 

“We made so many defensive mistakes. Doubling off the wrong guys. No discipline defensively. It was an embarrassing first half of defense, and they made us pay for every single one of them.”

For almost 3/4 of the game, the two teams weren’t even in the same league. 

OSU was more determined on defense, more active in transition and more willing to get to the basket. The Ducks finished the game with 12 free throws attempted, zero of which came in the first half. Meanwhile, Oregon State rode slick passing and a 15-point half from Michael Rataj to take a 10-point halftime lead.. 

“Till the 14-minute mark, they controlled the game,” Altman said. “They beat us on the boards. It was 13-0 in second-chance points, points off turnovers, and they were dominating. We got that turned around 12-2 in the second half, which was the difference in the game.”

Oregon was terrible … then finally turned it up against a less-talented squad, going on a 10-0 run and jumping ahead on a Shelstad 3-pointer with 5:25 remaining.

“It’s just a good team win,” Bittle said. 

Time to celebrate? On Thursday it was, with Bittle yelling “This is my state” after grabbing a rebound as time expired. For at least the next year it is, that much we do know. 

But aside from that there isn’t much else to take away from this early slate of games (all of which came against mid-major teams). 

Kwame Evans Jr., who looked to have had his breakout game with 23 points in the season opener played eight minutes and is yet to score in double figures again. TJ Bamba, who was brought in as a main scorer — and averaged 12.3 points in his first four games —  didn’t hit a shot from the field. 

Lucky for the Ducks, we also know Shelstad (15 points) can bring it when it matters most. 

“I was just trying to trust my work,” Shelstad said. “Every good shooter goes through some shooting slumps. My teammates tell me to keep shooting; my coaches keep telling me to keep shooting.”

Altman shared a similar sentiment:  “He should play with confidence, he’s in the gym all the time.”  

Altman then went on to list a number of stats — Keeshawn Barthelemy’s total games played from last year being 17 and the Ducks trailing by 12 with 13:45 remaining. 

Those digits are true, yes, but the only number that matters for now is the Ducks are 5-0. Everything else might as well be a crapshoot.

Bryce Boettcher looks like something out of the 1980s, with his hard-nosed style of play, gritty mentality and neck pad sticking out behind his helmet. 

He flies down the field with vigor, the 6-foot-2 South Eugene High School graduate middle linebacker always in the right spot at the right time en route to 69 total tackles and five tackles for loss on the season. 

“I love Bryce Boettcher,” Dan Lanning said after Boettcher’s eleven-tackle game against Oregon State. “I wish I had a million Bryce Boettchers.”

“This guy, the way he works, what you guys see in the game is what I see every single day in practice. Sometimes he hits one of our own players, and I’ve got to make him go run around the field goal post. It’s good when you’re playing another team because you’ve got that guy on your side,” Lanning continued.

The thing is, Lanning might not have a million Boettchers on his squad, but in a way, there are two Bryce Boettchers in the Oregon athletics stratosphere. 

Boettcher’s rise started as somewhat of a local story, with the 22-year-old playing minimally for both the baseball team and football team amidst his development. 

However, after filling in mostly as a pinch-hitter in years prior, the centerfielder starred throughout his senior season. Boettcher hit .276 with 12 home runs, 35 RBIs, and a team-high 46 runs scored while being named to the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Team as an outfielder. His impressive performance earned him a selection in the 13th round by the Houston Astros.

However, as he’s started every game for the Ducks on the gridiron this year, it’s fair to question just how far his two-sport abilities might take him. 

Boettcher at the very least will likely warrant late-round NFL Draft talk or undrafted free agency discussion amongst NFL teams. 

Other past NFL draft picks with similar makeup include Dee Winters (2023 6th round pick from the San Francisco 49ers who added 79 total tackles and 14.5 tackles for loss in his senior year at Texas Christian University) and Amari Burney (2023 6th round pick of the Las Vegas Raiders who added 79 total tackles and nine tackles for loss his senior season at University of Florida.)

However, none of those above players have the seemingly limitless potential that Boettcher does — committing to one sport only further boosts his possibilities of succeeding at the next level. 

With the NFL Draft taking place in late April, there are no seven-round mock drafts readily available to assess Boettcher’s full draft stock. Boettcher has signed with the Astros and is expected to join the team for workouts whenever the Ducks’ season concludes. However, for now, fans can only speculate as to how far the Ducks’ two-way star can go — regardless of the sport he’s playing. 

“I compared it to baseball a little bit,” Boettcher said after the Ducks comeback win over Wisconsin. “Hitting comes and goes, offense comes and goes. When you’re out on the defensive side of the ball, if you’re present and bring a good mentality, that could be as consistent as you want it to be. If you look at any championship team, their defense is always lights out.”

For now, he will be using his experience as one of the longest-tenured Ducks of any sport to help guide the football team to the top.

It need not be pretty, but a win is a win, always

Style points, let alone a semblance of a modern offense, are not always required.

“Tough, gritty wins are hard to come by,” head coach Kelly Graves said. 

No. 23 Oregon women’s basketball (6-0) beat the Auburn University Tigers (3-1) 70-68 on Wednesday night at Matthew Knight Arena, despite tying its second-lowest point total of the season, turning the ball over 19 times and having just 13 assists. For more than 14 minutes, Amina Muhammad was the only Duck to record an assist.

Elisa Mevius hit an and-one layup with 26 seconds remaining which extended the Ducks’ lead to six, and for the sixth straight time to begin this season, the Ducks won. This time against a perennially-solid SEC team that made the NCAA Tournament last season.  

“It was a big game, two heavyweights, I don’t think either team played their best tonight.” Graves said. 

The Ducks have now tallied more than half of their win count (11) from a year ago. 

Phillipinna Kyei added 14 points and 11 rebounds, Peyton Scott added 13 of her own. 

“Different team when [Kyei]’s on the court,” Graves said.  

“We know she’s gonna show up when we need her.” Scott said of Kyei who played a season-high in minutes after being hindered by an ankle injury. 

Both teams limped out of the gate with a first quarter that featured 16 turnovers, three offensive fouls and 16 total missed shots. Oregon, however, stuttered ever-so-slightly into form.

The early problems were severe enough to force the Tigers into an uphill climb for nearly the entirety of the game, a climb they were unable to make.

Mevius hit a spinning layup to help the Oregon lead balloon to 13 halfway through the third quarter, giving a restless crowd — that sat through a string of fouls, errant passes and a nearly ten-minute stretch without a made 3-pointer — something significant to cheer about. 

Those few offensive highlights sufficed against a struggling Auburn team that had just four players (one of which had just two points) score in the first half of action. 

Auburn’s comeback at the start of the fourth quarter was halted by an 8-0 Duck run which was spurred by a pair of Sofia Bell 3-pointers. Auburn however, wouldn’t go away, and cut the lead to just three with 51 seconds left. 

A long Oregon possession resulted in Mevius getting the ball in the key, hitting the layup and punching the win. Auburn’s Talia Scott hit a 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds on the clock but Bell inbounded the following pass successfully, which left fans happy.

“They were huge,” Graves said. “A lot of people hit 3’s when they are way up or way down, it’s easy, but we really needed both of those at that point.

Taliah Scott — who Graves called a “pro” led all scorers with 28 for the Tigers. 

Oregon forced 20 turnovers, had eight players record a steal or block and most importantly, maintained pressure down the stretch with a pair of stops (before the last-second 3-pointer)  and ended the chances of an improbable late finish.  

If the Ducks are to build on Wednesday’s win, an offense that hit just a pair of shots from range and shot 57% from the free-throw line must be more productive.

But for a day at least, the Ducks can enjoy a victory.

And with another quality win, perhaps the start of something more.

One stop, the Wisconsin offense driving from left to right, the toughest defenders in the country on the field in pursuit.  

One snap of the ball separating the two, the ball weightlessly rolling down through the cold midwest air with a truckload of consequence driving it down.

One intercepted pass by Matayo Uiagalelei, all the goodwill and big plays and tireless execution gone, another Oregon win clinched, another gutsy victory completed.  

No.1 Oregon’s (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten)  defense clinched its ticket out of Madison with a 16-13 victory. 

And one more example of why, seemingly no matter what happens, and how nerve-racking the Ducks make it, Oregon games this season will end the same way.  

Saturday was certainly more dramatic, Jamaree Caldwell tipped quarterback Braedyn Locke’s pass in the air, with Uiagalelei corralling the ball down to seal the victory. The celebration swallowed Uiagalelei, near the Wisconsin 25-yard line, all while the Ducks’ sideline bounced in celebration.

That resolution wavered and wobbled throughout the win at a raucous Camp Randall Stadium, as quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s Ducks were equally dynamic and confounding at different times..

Uiagalelei’s interception capped off a game that the Ducks shouldn’t have won, the No.1 team in the nation showing once again that they hit hardest and heaviest when it matters most. 

To scare Oregon fans  for as long as they did, the Ducks struggled to push the ball down the field in the first half. After the first of three long drives into the red zone fizzled out with a field goal, the Ducks forced the second of four Wisconsin punts. But some of that erraticness from Gabriel (22-31, one interception) showed yet again, as Gabriel threw a pass behind Justius Lowe which resulted in a tipped interception at the Badger four-yard line. 

More chances were squandered after that. Oregon committed one of its six penalties on a Badger fourth-and-one opportunity, setting up a Badger touchdown. 

Oregon, for most of the game, shot itself in the foot. Backbreaking mistakes gave way to scores. The Ducks’ long drives would fizzle out in the red zone.

Gabriel was 15-20 at the end of the first half but each of those incompletions seemed to have come at an awful time. Overthrows and dropped passes were parlayed together to put the Ducks on upset watch with a half remaining. 

Oregon’s offense continued a similar sentiment in the third quarter, with miscues stalling out otherwise positive opportunities. 

The Ducks faced a fourth-and-nine before Gabriel found Terrance Ferguson for the first down — the first play after Camp Randall shook with “Jump Around” playing.  Gabriel keyed in his skills when it mattered most, scampered for first downs and used his pinpoint passing acumen to thread the tightest of needles. 

But it was James who once again proved to be the steadying hand even as his quarterback flirted with inconsistency. James ran amok for 121 yards on 25 carries to go with two catches for 25 yards. He punched in a touchdown on the same drive as Ferguson’s big completion to knot the score at 13. 

The game-winning points came in a scenario that was every kid kicker’s dream and millionaire coach’s nightmare scenario, a fateful flash of seconds defining their team’s narrative (and playoff chances) for at least the next week.

Oregon kicker (the man they call Automatticus) Sappington lined up behind his holder and measured his kick. With the crowd of 76,298 standing and straining their necks to follow the trajectory of the ball, Sappington earned his nickname anew, knocking the ball through the uprights and giving the Ducks the lead. 

It wouldn’t entirely be enough, and two more stops would be needed

With just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Ducks had the ball deep in Wisconsin territory up three after a fourth-down stop— everything going right in a place where everything was about to go wrong.

First, the Ducks went three-and-out, a Jordan James six-yard gain being followed up by nothing. Then, head coach Dan Lanning decided to double down, faking a field goal and coming up short on fourth-and-five before Uiagalelei’s pivotal interception sealed the game two plays later.

The win caps of the Ducks string of eight-straight Big Ten games taking place since the beginning of September. 

The win will likely do little to Oregon’s standing as the clear No.1 team in the Nation, same as it will do little to hinder the Ducks’ postseason hopes. But Saturday was quite the reminder for Oregon, nonetheless, that its new conference is always looming week after week, eager for a chance to bully the new kid on the block.

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While the No.1 Ducks (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten) were playing “a down game” that culminated in a 21-point win over Maryland, (4-5, 1-5 Big Ten) how did the rest of the Big Ten that was in action shake up around them?

No. 6 Penn State thumps Washington 35-6 in “white out” game. 

The National Championship appearance cooldown has been all too real for the Huskies (5-5, 3-4 Big Ten) as their trip to Happy Valley marked a new nadir in their season. Penn State (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) has been less than perfect many times this season but still made the Huskies look like light work in front of their frenzied crowd. Washington’s transfer quarterback Will Rogers was 10/13 with an interception before being forced out due to injury. The rest of the Huskies — who mustered just 193 total yards — didn’t fare much better against a deeply talented Nittany Lions team. 

Penn State takes on Purdue next week while the Huskies look to rebound against UCLA. 

No. 2 Ohio State blows out Purdue 45-0

With their only blemish a one-point loss to the Ducks in Eugene, the Buckeyes (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) continue to be every bit the contender they seemed to be in the preseason. All but three of Ohio State’s games have resulted in wins by more than three scores with Saturday’s matchup with Purdue (1-9, 0-6- Big Ten) perhaps the most one-sided. The Boilermakers’ season of Big Ten irrelevance met a new low point with them mustering 206 yards of total offense while going just 2-12 on 3rd down. 

Ohio State will be in search of another blowout against Northwestern while the Boilermakers will host Penn State. 

No. 8 Indiana stays undefeated with 20-15 win over Michigan

Head coach Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers continue to be the most improbable story of this season. A year removed from a 3-9 season, Cignetti has Indiana (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten) into the top-10 and into legitimate playoff consideration. Meanwhile, for the Wolverines (5-5, 3-4 Big Ten), their post-championship struggles continue, dropping to .500 and needing to beat Northwestern in Week 13 to earn bowl eligibility. Indiana will enter a bye week before a showdown with Ohio State. 

Rutgers rallies late to beat Minnesota 26-19

A battle between two of the more perpetually average teams in the conference turned into one of the more competitive matchups this week had to offer. Rutgers (5-4, 2-4 Big Ten) quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis threw for three touchdown passes as the Scarlet Knights scored 12 fourth-quarter points to top Minnesota (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten). The Golden Gophers entered with four-straight victories, but looked outmatched on the road, missing a key chance to return near the top of the conference standings. Rutgers will take on Maryland next week while Minnesota will sit idle. 

UCLA outlasts Iowa 20-17 at the Rose Bowl

The first home win in the tenure of UCLA’s new head coach DeShaun Foster was a quality one with the Bruins (4-5, 3-4 Big Ten) edging past a talented Iowa squad (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten). Don’t look now, but what started as a forgettable season for the Bruins now looks like it could end in bowl eligibility. UCLA will need to win two of its remaining three games to reach that mark, with contests remaining against Washington, Fresno State and lowly USC. For the Hawkeyes, their trip out west was one to forget as they threw the ball just 15 times on the night — a rebuke to their less-offensive ways after scoring 40 or more points in three of their prior four games. 

The Bruins will look to stay hot against Washington while Iowa will limp into the bye.

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