Oregon Ducks cruise past Arizona Wildcats in blowout win

The No. 12 Oregon Ducks bulldozed their way to another blowout victory on Saturday and pushed their winning streak to five games in the process.

Oregon topped Arizona 49-22 in Tucson and improved to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in the Pac-12.

Bo Nix played one of the best games of his career and was 20-for-25 passing with 265 yards and ran for 70 yards and three touchdowns.

Noah Whittington ran for 92 yards on just six carries and broke off a 55-yard touchdown run. Bucky Irving ran for 67 yards on 12 carries, and the Ducks racked up 306 total rushing yards while averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

How it happened

The Ducks’ defense was on its heels early as Arizona quickly moved the ball 68 yards and into the red zones. But they were gifted a massive opportunity when Jacob Cowing and Jayden de Laura fumbled a fly sweep and DJ Johnson dove on the ball and recovered it for Oregon.

The big play from Johnson set the tone for the Ducks’ defense, which held Arizona to just 13 points in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Oregon offense was electric from the get-go. Noah Whittington broke off a 55-yard touchdown run on the second drive of the evening.

Then, to start the second quarter, Kris Hutson tore the top off the Arizona defense and made a 42-yard diving catch at the goal line. One play later, Nix punched in a 1-yard touchdown to give Oregon a 14-3 lead.

The Ducks kept their foot on the gas throughout the half and orchestrated an 86-yard scoring drive on their next series that was capped off by a 3-yard run by Moliki Matavao. The touchdown came with Oregon lined up in its vaunted “big boy” jumbo package.

Shortly after, though, Oregon’s defense suffered a massive blow as Dontae Manning was ejected for targeting after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Arizona receiver Jacob Cowing. Manning had been an integral figure for the Ducks until that point.

On the very next play following Manning’s ejection, Arizona running back DJ Williams broke free for a 52-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 21-10.

Oregon responded immediately, however, and dialed up a 75-yard scoring drive that, once again, ended with a touchdown out of the jumbo package. This time, Jordan James scored from one yard out with 34 seconds left in the half.

After halftime, the Ducks never slowed down.

They scored on their first drive of the half when Bo Nix punched in a two-yard touchdown run to cap off a 75-yard scoring drive.

Then, the Ducks’ defense provided another huge boost when true freshman cornerback Jahlil Florence grabbed the first interception of his career. Oregon capitalized on that by cashing in another touchdown run, this time from 23 yards out by Bucky Irving.

That pushed the Oregon lead to 42-13. Any hope that Arizona had of climbing back into the game vanished on the ensuing drive after Bennett Williams knocked a fumble loose and Micah Roth recovered it.

Once again, the Ducks capitalized. They went 57 yards on just five plays and Nix scored on his third rushing touchdown of the night. He is the first Oregon quarterback since Jeremiah Masoli in 2008 to accomplish that feat.

Toward the end of the game, Oregon gave some valuable reps to a number of young, backup players. Ty Thompson, Kyler Kasper, and Dave Iuli, among others, all got some run for the Ducks.