Nobody expected Washington to compete with Oregon but the much maligned Husky defense came out with some fire early in this game. The Huskies stopped the Ducks the first three times they had the ball. Washington held the vaunted Oregon offense which is averaging 54.9 points per game to only 18 points in the first half despite giving up 265 yards to the Ducks.
The two teams came out and traded early bang-bang touchdowns to start the second half. Oregon muffed a FG attempt with a bad snap on the following series. Washington marched down the field to kick a FG to close the deficit to 25-16 midway through the third quarter.
Oregon answered with another TD drive to go up 32-16 with 3:10 left in the third quarter and put the game away with another drive to take a 39-16 lead with 24 seconds left in the third. Good field position for Oregon which was the result of poor UW special teams play aided the Ducks all day. The Huskies were just terrible in kickoff coverage.
Oregon returned a punt for 79 yards that resulted in another short touchdown drive that put them up 46-16 with 10:52 left in the fourth quarter. They added another to extend the score to 53-16 and all hopes of a respectable finish went out the window for Washington.
Keith Price looked good in his debut showing plenty of mobility and most importantly no turnovers which kept his team in the game halfway through the third quarter until Oregon scored their three unanswered touchdowns. Price was 14-28 for 127 yards and one touchdown pass. The numbers don't look very good but he didn't have any time to throw the ball. When Oregon built its lead in the second half they blitzed every play and the Huskies had no answer for it.
Oregon rolled for 522 yard against the Huskies not including 229 return yards.