Pac-12 football: Christian McCaffrey leads Stanford attack in rout at Oregon

Christian McCaffrey ran for 135 yards and three touchdowns and Stanford defeated the defenseless Oregon Ducks, 52-27, on Saturday.

Junior quarterback Keller Chryst made his third consecutive start for the Cardinal, throwing for 258 yards and three scores. Stanford (7-3, 5-3 Pac-12) has won three straight.

“He’s the tone setter,” Stanford Coach David Shaw said about McCaffrey. “He’s the guy that we have that the other teams don’t have. And if we give him an opportunity to make plays, he never disappoints.”

The loss means that Oregon (3-7, 1-6) will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2004. It also effectively knocks the Ducks out of contention for a bowl game with just two games left.

“We just got outplayed,” offensive lineman Cameron Hunt said.

The game did not carry the implications that many thought it might have at the start of the season. Neither team was ranked for the first time since the 2008 meeting.

Either Stanford or Oregon had won every Pac-12 championship since the league expanded and a title game was established in 2011. This season, Washington and Washington State are undefeated in conference play and sit atop the league’s North Division.

McCaffrey ran for a 61-yard touchdown to put Stanford up early. After Oregon lost the ball on a fumble, McCaffrey scored again on a five-yard touchdown run. Last season’s Heisman runner-up needed just 20 yards rushing going into the game to reach the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight season.

“I was patient, patient and then when I saw the hole, there was a lot of green grass ahead of me,” McCaffrey said about his first touchdown.

McCaffrey, who also scored on a 14-yard run in the first half, had struggled this season and sat out of the game against Notre Dame because of an injury. But he looked to regain his form last weekend with 199 yards rushing in a 26-15 victory over Oregon State.

McCaffrey also caught five passes for 52 yards against Oregon.

Oregon freshman quarterback Justin Herbert, who started his fifth game after taking over for graduate transfer Dakota Prukop, threw for 272 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw two interceptions.

Royce Freeman ran for 111 yards and a touchdown for Oregon.

No. 12 Colorado 49, at Arizona 24: Sefo Liufau passed for three touchdowns and ran for another, and the Buffaloes have their first four-game winning streak in 14 years.

Colorado (8-2, 7-1 Pac-12) had no trouble with the banged-up Wildcats. Liufau was sharp after being banged up against UCLA, hitting 19 of 27 passes for 213 yards, including two touchdowns to Shay Fields. Liufau also ran for a two-yard score. Phillip Lindsay ran for 119 yards and three scores, helping the Buffaloes to their best start since opening the 2001 season 8-2.

While Colorado is on course for the Pac-12 South title, Arizona (2-8, 0-7) is in the midst of its first seven-game losing streak since 2004.

at No. 23 Washington State 56, California 21: Luke Falk threw five touchdown passes, including three to River Cracraft, to lead the Cougars to their eighth consecutive victory.

The surging Cougars (8-2, 7-0 Pac-12) have their longest winning streak since 1930 and are on a surprising quest for a Pac-12 championship.

Davis Webb threw for 425 yards and three touchdowns for Cal (4-6, 2-5), which has lost three straight games and is struggling to keep its bowl hopes alive.

Falk completed 36 of 50 passes for 373 yards with one interception. The former walk-on broke a team record with his 23rd game of at least 300 passing yards. The Cougars produced 654 yards of total offense in the game. Cracraft caught nine passes for 87 yards before leaving midway through the third quarter with a leg injury.