Oregon rebounds from last week’s defeat with decisive win over UCLA

PASADENA, Calif. – One snap after Oregon’s defense recovered Brett Hundley’s fumble deep in UCLA territory, Marcus Mariota found an edge and scampered around it, diving for the Ducks’ first touchdown.

With those back-to-back plays, the Ducks demonstrated why it has been seven years since they lost back-to-back games in the same season — and why it certainly wasn’t about to happen on Saturday.

Mariota ran for two touchdowns and passed for 210 yards and two more scores as No. 12 Oregon rebounded from its first defeat with a victory over No. 18 UCLA.

Royce Freeman rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns for the Ducks, who built a 42-10 lead early in the fourth quarter with systematic superiority over UCLA, a preseason Top 10 team. Thomas Tyner and Pharaoh Brown caught TD passes as Oregon coasted home in its sixth straight win over the Bruins.

A week after a 31-24 home loss to Arizona, Oregon dominated.

“It says a lot about the character of this team that they were able to flush (last week) and just keep chugging,” Mariota said. “We came out this Monday, and you could feel the intensity pick up. … We believed in what we could do.”

Left tackle Jake Fisher’s return from injury boosted the offense and encouraged Mariota, who had been sacked 12 times in the past two games without Fisher watching his back. The defense kept Hundley uncomfortable for most of the day, giving up just 232 yards in the first three quarters.

Hundley passed for 216 yards and ran for a score for the Bruins, who followed up their last-minute loss to Utah by falling into a huge early hole. The Bruins are probably out of the national title race after back-to-back defeats.

“When you play a team like Oregon, you’ve got to be almost perfect to beat them,” UCLA coach Jim Mora said. “They are just so explosive and so good. I think that we did some things today that were really positive, but we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times.”