The Pac-12's top remaining Playoff contender put away a group of Bears that refused to go down, and you might've missed portions.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - You might have stopped watching at 10:46 p.m. ET, when it was a 14-14 tie.
Oregon had been Oregon, but Cal had also been Oregon, albeit a methodical version. The Bears averaged 7.9 yards a carry in two scoring drives and had only four passing attempts for three completions of 23, 17, and 15. When Jared Goff wasn't alternating snaps with Luke Rubenzer, he was brutally effective throwing into the Ducks secondary.
Oregon would then dictate the fortunes. The Ducks turned three consecutive Cal turnovers into 17 points, and when Charles Nelson okey-doked half of the Bears' punt coverage for a 58-yard touchdown return at 11:28 p.m. ET, the 31-14 Oregon lead felt entirely conclusive, even six minutes into the second quarter.
"I think when it got to 31-14, our guys took a deep breath and relaxed too much, and that's on all of us," Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said after the game. "We needed to keep the killer instinct mentality to finish those guys, and you're not going to do that in the first half. They're too talented."
Goff's best effort of the night came on a nine play, 67-yard touchdown drive, and when Royce Freeman would fumble the ball away on otherwise impressive night (112 yards, two touchdowns) around 11:43 p.m. ET, you were almost certainly asleep.
And that's when Cal, the Pac-12's third-best total offense (6.34 yards per play entering the evening, 6.02 vs. Oregon), shrank the Ducks' lead to 31-28 with 15 minutes until midnight on the East Coast. When Oregon moved straight back into the red zone in response, Marcus Mariota threw his first interception of the year, kind of. A pass was deflected twice before Cal's Stefan McClure landed with it in the end zone. It was Mariota's first pick in 245 pass attempts, only the second-longest streak in his career.
"You might want to go buy a lottery ticket. Marcus Mariota made a couple mistakes," Helfrich said. "I'm actually glad, I think, that the interception happened. He got off the schneid."
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Helfrich worked the postgame like a stand-up set, but his quarterback didn't play along. Mariota was stone sober, admitting that while the tips might be out of his control, the pass itself was the wrong read and he'd left a receiver open in man coverage.
"It's certainly something I'll have to correct," the nation's leader in passer rating said, and he was serious.
"It's almost funny, when you have a guy like that who's expected to be perfect. Afterward, we looked at each other and laughed about it. But yeah, Marcus is a stud and I'm glad he's got a year and a half left ... What?" Helfrich deadpanned about his potential 2015 No. 1 NFL Draft pick, a redshirt junior.
It was shortly after midnight ET when Oregon had a 60-yard field and just 1:11 before the half. Mariota used 30 seconds and three plays, finishing with a Dwayne Stanford touchdown pass from 27 yards out. The 10-point lead made it to the half, and Oregon would sandwich two more touchdown drives totaling 4:05 around a missed field goal from the Bears.
At 12:57 a.m. ET, Oregon had effectively beaten down Cal twice in one game, with a quarter and a half left to play. The Bears wouldn't get up a third time.
It is inarguable that Mariota (five touchdowns, 362 total yards vs. Cal) is a Heisman frontrunner and possibly the favorite, and the upside of working behind a flimsy offensive line (two freshmen started on the left side Friday) is that Mariota's that much more polished when throwing on the run.
As for the Ducks and their potential spot in this Tuesday's inaugural official Playoff ranking, feel free to choose your own narrative. Maybe this was a Cal team that improved enough to build consistent scoring drives and answer Oregon's mistakes. Maybe the combined 1,152 yards and 100 points is, no more and no less, a Pac-12 iteration of some other conference's 21-17 defensive struggle.
Or maybe Oregon's shootout style isn't deserving of national title contention. Helfrich said he wasn't interested in style points or stumping for the selection committee as the best of the one-loss teams in the country, but when asked about the adage of defense winning championship, he shot back.
"I believe in the adage that teams win championships. There's a bunch of guys in the locker room that are really disappointed about the margin of that game we just played. But that's a very good football team. We just won on the road in a short week. You can't just look at numbers."
You were probably asleep around 2 a.m. ET, but Oregon won a 59-41 game, which is the kind of game it's the best in the nation at winning.
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