No. 20 Ducks Flapping for More Respect

The quarterback could have blurted out, “We’re No. 1, I don’t know who else we can beat or what else we can do,” after consecutive victories over top-10 teams, but he didn’t.

This is Willamette, not Westwood.

The Oregon Ducks understand their place in the football universe, no matter how unfair it can be.

Saturday, No. 20 Oregon defeated No. 6 Washington, 23-16, before a crowd of 46,153 at Autzen Stadium.

It was just about what you would expect from these fierce border rivals.

“They grabbed our throats, gouged at our eyes and reached for our private parts,” Oregon defensive end Saul Patu protested of the visitors.

No matter.

A week after defeating UCLA by 19 points, Oregon took care of Washington (3-1) in the understated, ho-hum manner that has incredibly left the Ducks playing catch-up on the national scene.

Oregon improved to 4-1, the only blemish a four-point loss at Wisconsin--a game in which the Ducks dropped 11 passes and still led in the fourth quarter.

Oregon is 2-0 in Pacific 10 Conference play and will take a week off before heading to USC on Oct. 14 with a chance to take the Rose Bowl race by the throat two weeks before Halloween.

“A win in the Pac-10, a win against a top-10 team, a win against the Huskies,” Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington said of Saturday’s spoils.

Yet, good enough never seems to be good enough for the Ducks.

Under Coach Mike Bellotti, the Ducks have won more games than any other Pac-10 school in the last five years.

Last season, Oregon posted the conference’s only bowl victory.

Still, Oregon started the season unranked in either the writers’ or coaches’ polls.

When UCLA, also unranked after finishing 4-7 last season, posted victories over No. 3 Alabama and No. 3 Michigan last month, the Bruins vaulted to No. 6 in the polls.

Oregon, despite Saturday’s victory, probably won’t crack the top 10.

“Growing up in Oregon, I’ve kind of grown accustomed to it,” Harrington said of certain injustices. “But I like it.”

What is it about Oregon that people don’t trust?

The Ducks dominated Saturday’s game to the point where they nearly fell asleep at the switch at the end, nearly blowing what seemed to be a comfortable 23-9 fourth-quarter lead.

Marques Tuiasosopo’s eight-yard touchdown pass to Willie Hurst with 3:31 to play cut the Oregon lead to seven, and then Washington, playing its Pac-10 opener, made things interesting when it held on downs and got the ball back at its own 20 with 2:10 left.

But four consecutive Tuiasosopo incomplete passes ended the threat, Oregon linebacker Matt Smith’s fourth-down deflection securing the victory.

“I was surprised,” Smith said of Washington’s belated comeback. “The feeling I had was it wasn’t that close, but there they were.”

Oregon isn’t a finished product. The Ducks squandered several chances to make the game a blowout. Kicker Josh Frankel was so out of sorts after missing three field-goal attempts and an extra point that Bellotti, looking like Butch Harmon, gave Frankel some swing tips on the sideline.

“Kicking is like golfing,” Bellotti said later. “And some days you have a bad day on the course.”

It was mostly a good day for the Ducks, whose victory was their 18th in a row at Autzen.

In consecutive weeks, Oregon’s 11th-ranked defense has taken the opposing offense out of its game plan.

Last week, the Ducks stacked the line and held UCLA to minus-nine yards rushing, wisely believing that quarterback Ryan McCann did not have enough arm to beat them.

Saturday, the Ducks turned Tuiasosopo, one of the nation’s premier run-pass threats, into a pocket passer.

With his outside running lanes shut off, Tuiasosopo was held to 20 yards in eight carries, a paltry 1.3-yard average.

So much for the Heisman talk.

Tuiasosopo wasn’t much better in the air, completing 14 of 37 passes for 229 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions.

“We tried to make him one-dimensional today,” Bellotti said. “I don’t think we completely succeeded, but we came pretty close.”

The Oregon offense sputtered at times, despite 152 yards rushing by junior tailback Maurice Morris, but four Kurtis Doerr punts inside the 20 helped keep Washington pinned in its own end all day.

“Field position was a huge issue,” Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel said. “We basically had a hard time digging out of a hole.”

Speaking of holes, what about the national rut Oregon has been stuck in?

You’d think a program with Oregon’s credentials would get a little more early season respect.

The players say they don’t care.

“Yeah, well, that’s the way it goes,” Smith, the game-saving linebacker, said. “We’ll just keep winning games. If we do, we’ll get to where we are supposed to be. It seems to take us a couple of more big wins than some of the other programs. But we’ll be more excited when we get there.”