High-Flying Ducks Rout Iowa : Musgrave Throws for Three Scores in 44-6 Victory

Bill Musgrave completed 20 of 27 passes for 263 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Oregon Ducks to a 44-6 thrashing of Iowa Saturday.

Oregon Coach Rich Brooks came into the game worrying about Iowa’s running game and big offensive line. But the smaller Ducks used their quickness to beat Iowa’s linemen, and the Hawkeyes were held to just 26 yards rushing.

“The biggest advantage we had was quickness on the line,” Brooks said.

“We didn’t let them establish a running game. That was my biggest fear. If they can’t run the ball, we know we can defend the pass fairly well.”

Oregon picked off three Iowa passes.

“We got whipped up front,” Iowa Coach Haden Fry said. “They were in our backfield all day on running plays.

“We knew that it would be tough, but we never dreamed it would be that bad.

“We just got our tail kicked real good.”

Brooks added that he was glad Musgrave made a good showing on the road.

“He is an outstanding quarterback,” Brooks said. “He makes good decisions. I’m glad that the Midwest people finally got a chance to see him perform. He deserves all the credit he’s been getting.”

Iowa suffered its worst season-opening loss since its 48-0 defeat at the hands of USC in 1970.

Oregon improved to 2-0, putting the game away in the third quarter as Musgrave directed long touchdown drives on the first two possessions to make the score 38-0.

Musgrave, who completed 17 of 31 passes for 231 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-19 victory over California last Saturday, took the Ducks on a 73-yard, 11-play drive on the first series of the second half.

He threw a soft scoring pass to Kolya Tefft in the back of the end zone with 10:21 to play in the third and after Iowa was forced to punt after three plays, he capped a 71-yard drive by hitting Tefft with a five-yard touchdown pass with 6:18 left in the quarter.

Oregon used its reserve quarterbacks the rest of the way.

Iowa, unable to move the ball with quarterback Tom Poholsky, finally scored when backup Matt Rodgers scored on a bootleg play around right end on fourth-and-inches at 14:55 of the last quarter. The Hawkeyes failed on the two-point conversion.

The Ducks took the lead on their first possession of the game when Musgrave threw a 22-yard scoring pass to Tony Hargain.

They scored two more times in the second quarter on short plunges by Latin Berry and Derek Loville.

Oregon’s Greg McCallum, who had a 25-yard field goal with 16 seconds left in the first half, added field goals of 42 and 39 yards in the second half.