After a sluggish first half offensively, the No. 7 Oregon Ducks found the end zone on three straight possessions to start the third quarter en route to a 43-28 victory over Washington State Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium.
With just a five-point lead at intermission, third-year head coach Chip Kelly turned to redshirt freshman Bryan Bennett to start the second half, and for the third straight game he didn’t disappoint. Bennett connected with true freshman De’Anthony Thomas on a 45-yard scoring strike on the third play of the quarter, and later found Lavasier Tuinei for his second touchdown of the game on the ensuing possession to give Oregon a 36-20 advantage.
A week after sitting out against Colorado, junior quarterback Darron Thomas got the starting nod on Saturday, throwing for 153 yards on 8-of-13 passes in the first half. But his one touchdown against two interceptions forced Kelly to make a move at halftime.
“Darron handled it great,” Kelly said. “It’s all about the team. This team is all about we, not all about me. So I just felt it was in the best interest for what we had to do for him and that we were going to go with Bryan.”
Early on, Oregon sophomore Boseko Lokombo returned a blocked punt 25 yards to give the Ducks their first lead. Washington State went three-and-out on its opening possession, forcing a Daniel Wagner punt that was blocked by sophomore safety Avery Patterson and scooped up by Lokombo for his second touchdown of the season.
Lokombo, a 6-foot-3, 232-pound linebacker, also returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown against Nevada earlier this season.
De’Anthony Thomas also provided a number of highlights on the way to 262 all-purpose yards, including a 93-yard kick off return for a touchdown late in the third quarter that helped put the game out of reach.
“He’s a special player when we can get the ball in his hands,” Kelly said. “Our job is to try to figure out a couple different ways to get him in there. He’s just a talented, talented kid.”
Though the offense was noticeably sluggish in the first half, Thomas made an impressive throw on third-and-long to Tuinei for a 55-yard scoring strike with 7:34 remaining in the second quarter.
With that scoring pass, Thomas has thrown a touchdown in 20 straight games he has played in, which marks the second longest streak in the nation behind Wisconsin’s Russell Wilson (28).
The Cougars put together a 10-play, 39-yard drive on their ensuing possession, but placekicker Andrew Furney couldn’t connect on a 25-yard field goal to give Oregon the ball back. A pair of Kenjon Barner first-down runs got the ball to near midfield, but four plays later Thomas’ fourth-down pass was intercepted by sophomore cornerback Damante Horton and returned 76 yards for a touchdown to bring the halftime score to 15-10.
Washington State quarterback Marshall Lobbestael threw his only touchdown of the game late in the third quarter — a 24-yard pass to Jared Karstetter — and finished the game 28-of-48 passing for 337 yards. Running back Rickey Galvin tacked on the game’s final touchdown on a nine-yard run with less than two minutes remaining.
Kenjon Barner capped his third-straight 100-yard performance with 11 carries for 107 yards and one touchdown.