'We were happy to finally get a chance to hit this guy'; Oregon defense racks up seven sacks against Shedeur Sanders, Colorado

In the week leading up to No. 10 Oregon’s showdown with No. 19 Colorado, there was plenty of chatter about Buffs’ star quarterback Shedeur Sanders and the challenge he would present for the Ducks’ secondary.

When push came to shove on Saturday, though, Sanders spent the better part of four quarters running for his life as Oregon’s front seven steamrolled Colorado’s offensive line.

The Ducks sacked Sanders seven times and held him to 159 yards and one touchdown on 22-for-33 passing as they cruised to a 42-6 victory in Eugene.

Saturday marked the first time since Sept. 30, 2017, against Cal that Oregon has tallied seven sacks in a single game.

Afterward, Oregon defensive end Brandon Dorlus didn’t attempt to hide his feelings about Sanders and what Saturday’s performance meant to him.

“We were happy to finally get the chance to hit this guy, man,” Dorlus said of Sanders. “To get the result like that, seven sacks, it just makes me happy. It was a great team win, great effort from the whole D- line.”

Throughout his Oregon career, Dorlus has been cited by his teammates as one of the program’s more prolific trash-talkers. On Saturday, he said he kept the chatter to a minimum.

“Today I made a promise to myself to keep it about football,” Dorlus said. “But it was amazing to get my hands on Shedeur and just to see how Coach Prime was sitting there and taking it all in. That’s going to stick with me forever.”

Before Saturday’s game kicked off, a video emerged of Colorado’s players scuffing the Oregon “O” logo at midfield.

Colorado players are all over the Oregon logo pregame 👀

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— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) September 23, 2023

Dorlus said that only added fuel to the fire for Oregon’s players.

“The whole goal was to show the world that we’re still Oregon, and they’re still Colorado,” Dorlus said. “Just because you have all of the YouTube videos and video cameras… It pissed me off that they came in here, stepped on our ‘O’ and all of that stuff. That’s the result you get when you do all of that.”

Jordan Burch finished the day with 2.0 sacks. Evan Williams had 1.5 sacks, and Dorlus, Teitum Tuioti, and Jamal Hill each had 1.0. Casey Rogers was credited with half of a sack.

“We just didn’t execute well; missed a couple of reads. I just can’t continue to take sacks like that,” Sanders said. “I was holding (the ball) too long.”

Throughout the first half, Oregon racked up 378 yards of total offense and limited Colorado to 21 yards — including -35 rushing yards — while racing out to a 35-0 lead.

The Ducks limited the Buffs to just four “big” plays of 15 yards or more during the first half. Their longest play of the half was a 21-yard completion from Sanders to Xavier Weaver.

Sanders was asked how the absence of star receiver Travis Hunter, who was sidelined with an injury, factored into Colorado’s offensive struggles.

“A lot. Travis is two players for us,” Sanders said. “But that’s not the reason why we didn’t win or lose.”

Oregon held Colorado to just 40 rushing yards allowed — the fewest since it held Washington State to 40 in 2019.

“They haven’t really been a team that has run the ball, so I think we knew there were going to be pass-rush opportunities,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “It really speaks to the patience of when we do execute a game, let’s go attack and be on the move. I thought our guys did a good job of that. When they don’t have great balance, it allows you to be more disruptive in the pass-rush game. It allows you to build your games on the front. Moreso for a passing game than a run game. I thought our guys did a good job of executing that.”