Cougars upset Ducks in double overtime

EUGENE—So certain were the Oregon Ducks that they had finally put away a Washington State team that had made a habit of rising just in time to prolong the bout, that the Autzen Stadium PA announced saw fit to remind the 55,775 fans in attendance of a Pac-12 rule prohibiting them from rushing the field after the final whistle. That didn’t stop the Ducks, though, roughly half of whom sprinted toward the midfield O to celebrate their game-clinching fourth-down stop in overtime. Only it wasn’t a stop, and it didn’t clinch the game. A quick measurement showed that WSU running back Jamal Morrow had just rushed far enough for a first down. The Cougars scored and scored again and it was the Ducks who couldn’t respond, throwing to the end zone and finding WSU safety Shalom Luani, whose interception ended a tight game that turned into a shootout by necessity, 45-38. The game-winning score came in appropriately exhilarating fashion, as River Cracraft’s fumble at the one-yard line was caught by teammate Robert Lewis, who dashed into the end zone. The Ducks led by 10 points when the Cougars began a drive with just under six minutes left. WSU drove efficiently down the field thanks to a 31-yard rush by Morrow, but were stopped at the UO five-yard line, where the never-conservative Mike Leach signaled for a 22-yard field goal from Erik Powell. The WSU defense, which held the Ducks to 5 of 16 on third down and 1 of 3 on fourth down, held UO running back Royce Freeman to nine yards on three carries. No small feat on a day Freeman took 27 carries 246 yards, but a critical one, forcing the Ducks to punt with one second too many on the clock. The Cougars finally got a chance to finish what they started a year ago, when their game-tying drive against Oregon was cut short by an dubiously-absent pass-interference call. For the second consecutive year the Cougars had a chance to tie the game on a final drive. The drive held an appropriate amount of drama as the Cougars had to overcome an intentional grounding call and a clock-chewing sack in which quarterback Luke Falk appeared to have gotten a pass off before hitting the ground. But Falk responded with pass completions of 23 and 22 yards to Dom Williams and Gabe Marks, respectively, ending the drive with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Williams with one second left on the clock. WSU had not beaten Oregon since 2006, losing by an average of 29 points per contest.