Ducks continue to fly high

Oregon’s 70-14 rout of Colorado on Saturday was the Ducks’ 11th consecutive victory, which is the nation’s second-longest winning streak, one behind Alabama.

Oregon has scored at least 42 points in each of the victories, a mark the Ducks reached with more than 11 minutes to play in the second quarter against Colorado.

The 42nd point was a point-after kick following a spectacular 73-yard punt return for a touchdown by De’Anthony Thomas, a sophomore from Los Angeles who had 176 all-purpose yards despite touching the ball only eight times.

“I’ve been saying it all week,” Colorado Coach Jon Embree said after the game. “They have a great opportunity to hold that crystal ball at the end of the year.”

Speaking of scoring

Louisiana Tech, which leads the nation in scoring, took 8 minutes 50 seconds to put points on the board against New Mexico State.

That’s a lot longer than the Bulldogs had been averaging. Louisiana Tech had scored 127 points in its last 76 game minutes going into Saturday.

Painful scene

Marcus Lattimore is one of the college game’s most talented running backs and, judging by what happened after he was injured during the South Carolina-Tennessee game, one of the most respected players, too.

Lattimore suffered a severe injury to his right knee when he was hit low on a tackle. Television replays indicated the knee was bent backward, then whipped around and slammed against the turf.

South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier didn’t give many details after the game — a 38-35 victory by the Gamecocks — other than to say Lattimore was out indefinitely and the injury appeared to be just as serious as one to his left knee last year that required surgery to repair ligaments and cartilage.

Lattimore is a team captain and is known throughout the Southeastern Conference for his skill, tough running style and humble demeanor. That was evident as the running back lay on the field surrounded by medical personnel but in obvious pain. Tennessee players came off their sideline in mass, joined by South Carolina players, to wish Lattimore well.

“What a heartbreaking scene,” Tennessee safety Byron Moore told reporters after the game. “It was just a crushing blow to him, and our prayers go out to him.”

Rebels with a cause

A 31-yard field goal by Bryson Rose as time expired gave Mississippi a 30-27 win over Arkansas, which is the Rebels’ second consecutive SEC win — a first since 2009, which happens to be the last time Ole Miss played in a bowl game.

This comes a week after the Rebels snapped a 16-game league losing streak by beating Auburn. Ole Miss (5-3, 2-2 in SEC play) now just needs one more win to become bowl eligible in Coach Hugh Freeze’s first season. One potential snag: Three of its last four games are against teams that started Saturday ranked in the top 11.

MAC attack

There’s some good football being played by teams in the Mid-American Conference — even on a day when Ohio, the conference’s only ranked team, was upset.

That’s because the upset was turned in by another conference team, Miami of Ohio, which won, 23-20, by taking advantage of a mistake by Ohio’s usually solid quarterback, Tyler Tettleton.

Ohio had the ball at the Miami seven with nine seconds to play when Coach Frank Solich elected to put off a potentially score-tying field goal and instead run one more play trying for a touchdown. But Tettleton, not knowing Ohio was out of timeouts, took too long to execute the play and time expired.

Meantime, another MAC team, Kent State, ended at 22 a losing streak against ranked teams by coming up with six interceptions and a fumble to upset No. 18 Rutgers, 35-23. That means the MAC has downed an undefeated Big East Conference team in consecutive weeks. Last week, Toledo beat Cincinnati.

mike.hiserman@latimes.com

Times wire services contributed to this report.