Washington State Can’t Duck Oregon : Pac-10: Bledsoe, Cougar offense are shut down until the final minutes in a 34-17 upset.

Oregon Coach Rich Brooks got it half right.

Brooks hoped the Ducks could stop No. 19 Washington State’s running game, but the Cougar passing game also was shut down in Oregon’s 34-17 Pacific 10 Conference upset Saturday.

“The defense dominated, I think, an outstanding Washington State team for much of the game,” Brooks said. “We gave up two cheap (touchdowns) late. But until that point, our defense took the ball away.

“I think we did an excellent job at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. We didn’t run it well early, but we kept working at it and ran it well enough that we certainly kept them off balance.”

Danny O’Neil hit Sean Burwell for two short scoring passes to put the game away in the second half.

Washington State, 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10, was forced to operate from deep in its territory much of the game.

Oregon (4-4, 2-3) limited Washington State quarterback Drew Bledsoe to 165 yards, well below his 276-yard average, and intercepted two of his passes to set up Duck scores.

Bledsoe was sacked six times for 48 yards.

Burwell caught touchdown passes of three and five yards and combined with Ricky Whittle and Juan Shedrick to pound out 154 rushing yards. Burwell had 55 yards in 13 carries to complement the passing of O’Neil, who completed 11 of 19 passes for 147 yards.

Tommy Thompson kicked field goals of 38, 32 and 46 yards as Oregon built a 9-3 halftime lead, then added a 34-yarder in the second half.

Chad Cota picked off a pass from Bledsoe at the Washington State 40 and returned it 39 yards before fumbling on the one. Eric Castle fell on it in the end zone to put the Ducks up 31-3 with 10 minutes left.

A bench-clearing brawl in the final minutes resulted in the ejection of five players, three from Washington State.