EUGENE, Ore. — Darron Thomas passed for three touchdowns and ran for another and top-ranked Oregon earned at least a share of a second consecutive Pacific-10 title with a 48-29 victory over No. 21 Arizona on Friday night.
LaMichael James shrugged off talk of an injury to run for 126 yards and two scores for the Ducks (11-0, 8-0), who trailed 19-14 at halftime but surged in the second half to stay on course for a trip to the BCS national title game.
The Ducks can lock up an outright conference title and a spot in the national championship game in Glendale, Ariz., next week with a victory at Oregon State.
It was the third consecutive loss for Arizona (7-4, 4-4), which ultimately couldn’t keep up with the Ducks’ speedy spread-option.
Nick Foles passed for a career-high 448 yards and three touchdowns, including an 85-yard score to Juron Criner.
Thomas completed 14 of 24 passes for 148 yards and an interception. Oregon finished with 537 yards total offense, but Arizona kept up with 506 yards.
Oregon was playing catchup the entire first half and trailed for just the second time this season at the break.
But the Ducks bounced back early in the second half with Josh Huff’s 85-yard scoring run, the longest play fromscrimmage for the Ducks this season. While the conversion failed, Oregon had a 20-19 lead.
Arizona hurt itself on Oregon’s next series, when they were called offside on Rob Beard’s missed 42-yard field goal attempt. That gave the Ducks a first down and Thomas followed with a 20-yard touchdown run to make it 27-19.
The Wildcats cut the lead on Alex Zendejas’ 41-yard field goal, but James ran for a pair of scores, one for 13 yards and another for a yard, to make it 48-22.
James has 19 rushing touchdowns this season, surpassing LeGarrette Blount’s score record 17 set in 2008.
James came into the game as the nation’s rushing leaderat 158 yards per game, but there were concerns about his health. After Oregon’s last game, a 15-13 victory over California, the Heisman Trophy hopeful was on crutches with a leg injury. He was able to rest the injury over a bye week and practiced on a limited basis.
He quickly showed he was fine by busting for a 38-yard run on Oregon’s first series. With the run, the sophomore became just the second Ducks player in history to run for 3,000 career yards.
Last season Arizona fans readied to rush the field but Oregon scored with six seconds left, sending the game into overtime. The Ducks went on to win it 44-41 in double overtime, spoiling Arizona’s chance for its first Rose Bowl bid.
Oregon went to Pasadena, Calif., instead, but this season that would be a consolation prize for the Ducks. They have already beaten second-place Stanford, so even if they lose the Civil War game to Oregon State, and fall into a tie for first in the Pac-10, they’ll go to the Rose Bowl.
Beat the Beavers and the Ducks will play for their first national championship.
Arizona ............... 14 5 3 7 - 29 Oregon .................7 7 20 14 - 48 First Quarter Ari-Criner 8 pass from Foles (Zendejas kick), 4:47.
Ore-Paulson 38 pass from Thomas (Beard kick), 3:12.
Ari-Criner 85 pass from Foles (Zendejas kick), 2:51.
Second Quarter Ore-Maehl 6 pass from Thomas (Beard kick), 14:04.
Ari-Safety, 9:56.
Ari-FG Zendejas 29, :04.
Third Quarter Ore-Huff 85 run (pass failed), 13:30.
Ore-Thomas 20 run (Beard kick), 4:44.
Ari-FG Zendejas 41, 2:46.
Ore-D.Davis 6 pass from Thomas (Beard kick), :36. Fourth Quarter Ore-James 13 run (Beard kick), 12:46.
Ore-James 1 run (Beard kick), 12:15.
Ari-Roberts 32 pass from Foles (Zendejas kick), 10:45.
Attendance-59,990.
Ari Ore First downs ..................................28 27 Rushes-yards ............................27-58 57-389 Passing........................................448 148 Comp-Att-Int ........................... 29-54-1 14-24-1 Return Yards ................................22 (-13) Punts-Avg. ................................4-37.3 1-30.0 Fumbles-Lost ..............................1-1 2-1 Penalties-Yards .........................10-80 4-31 Time of Possession .................. 29:27 30:33 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING-Arizona, Grigsby 16-44, Antolin 8-17, Foles 3-(minus 3). Oregon, James 28-126, Huff 3-103, Barner 15-71, Thomas 6-62, Alston 4-44, Team1-(minus 17).
PASSING-Arizona, Foles 29-54-1-448. Oregon, Thomas 14-24-1-148.
RECEIVING-Arizona, Miller 8-96, Douglas 5-81, Roberts 5-64, Grigsby 4-39, Criner 3-109, Cobb 2-46, Antolin 1-8, Nwoko 1-5. Oregon, Paulson 3-48, D.Davis 3-31, James 3-20, Maehl 2-27, Huff 2-18, Hoffman 1-4.
In another Pacific-10 game, backup quarterback Brock Osweiler threw for 380 yards and hit Aaron Pflugrad on two of his four touchdowns, and Arizona State (5-6, 3-5) kept its slim bowl hopes alive with a 55-34 victory over UCLA (4-7, 2-6).
Sports, Pages 24 on 11/27/2010