No. 10 Oregon Ducks deliver statement win, topple No. 9 UCLA Bruins

There were plenty of questions surrounding Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks ahead of the Ducks’ Saturday matchup with the UCLA Bruins.

How would quarterback Bo Nix perform on the big stage?

How would Oregon’s defense hold up against an impressive Bruins offense?

Would Chip Kelly return to Eugene and get the better of the program he helped build into a national power?

By the time the final whistle blew in Eugene on Saturday, Lanning’s Ducks put all of those questions to rest. No. 10 Oregon delivered a monumental 45-30 win over the No. 9 UCLA Bruins in front of a raucous Autzen Stadium crowd and catapulted itself back into the College Football Playoff conversation in the process.

Oregon outgained UCLA 545 to 448 in terms of total offense, and sophomore receiver Troy Franklin had a banner day. Franklin finished with 132 yards and one touchdown on eight catches.

Bo Nix finished 21-for-26 with 278 yards and five passing touchdowns. He also ran for 51 yards on eight carries.

The Ducks held UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson to 27-for-39 for 262 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.

Neither offense managed to get out of first gear early on as the Ducks and Bruins traded field goals and ended the first quarter tied 3-3.

But the offensive floodgates opened from that point, with the two teams combining for 38 points in the second quarter. Oregon took the lead when Nix found Terrance Ferguson wide-open for a 17-yard touchdown to make it 10-3.

UCLA responded with a 36-yard touchdown from Thompson to Keegan Jones to tie the game.

But Oregon put its foot on the gas at that point and provided its fans with one of the more memorable quarters in recent program history.

The Ducks took back the lead on a jaw-dropping 49-yard touchdown catch by Troy Franklin. Then, on the ensuing kickoff, the coaching staff dug into its bag of tricks and dialed up on a surprise onside kick that was recovered by Ducks’ kicker Andrew Boyle.

The sequence sent the Autzen Stadium crowd into a frenzy, and the Ducks rode the momentum for an eight-play, 56-yard scoring drive that was capped off with a Jordan James touchdown run to make it 24-10.

The Bruins were forced to settle for another field goal on their next drive, and the Ducks got the ball back with 3:04 in the half. That provided them with just enough time to orchestrate a 10-play, 88-yard scoring drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Nix to Franklin and sent them into the half with a 31-13 lead.

After halftime, the game was never in doubt.

UCLA knocked in another field goal on its first drive of the half, and Oregon responded by sucking the Oxygen out of the game with a 15-play, 82-yard drive that ate up over seven minutes’ worth of clock and ended with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Nix to Cam McCormick.

That made the score 38-16 and put the game out of reach for all intents and purposes.

Nix put the nail in the UCLA coffin early in the fourth quarter when, facing 4th-and-4 at midfield, he fired a strike to Bucky Irving for a 37-yard touchdown to push the Ducks’ lead to 45-23.