OT Thriller!
Oregon escapes Tennessee (30-27) OT
Knoxville, TN (AP)-- Coach Alan Baxter must have been pulling his hair out towards the end of this game, after starting off with awful offensive production, Oregon ends the game with a huge overtime victory over Tennessee 30-27 in triple overtime.
In the 1st Quarter, it was bad after it started. Masoli throws an interception which leads to a Tennessee touchdown on the next possession. Stephens would find Rogers for 12 yards and the score, Tennessee would strike first making the score 7-0 for halftime.
At halftime, Coach Baxter yelled at his team for making no offensive effort. He told his staff that the defense couldn't be the ones doing all the work all night long. Coach Baxter told his offense to make the plays, if not then they would hate being at practice the whole week.
It seemed that the players couldn't get the message stuck in their head, because in the 3rd quarter, Tennessee would rack the points up. Tennessee would strike again with a Brown 4 yard dash into the endzone, increasing their lead 14-0. Then Tennessee would score again on a Lincoln 30 yard field goal, increasing their lead again 17-0.
Coach Baxter had veins popping out of his neck while pumping his offense up. In the 4th quarter, it seemed like the pep talk helped as Oregon went out and drove the ball down the field, the drive ended with a Masoli 45 yard pass to Holland for a TD, cutting the lead to 17-7. Oregon's defense then came out and make a huge stop to give Oregon the ball back, but they was running out of time. Oregon would drive the ball down the field but couldn't get out of bounds. Oregon would score on a Masoli 6 yard screen pass to Crenshaw for the TD, cutting the lead to 17-14. Oregon had to make one more stand against the Tennessee offense, and they did it again. Oregon would get the ball back with only 48 seconds left, and the ball was on the Tennessee 43. Oregon tried an tried to get the ball in the endzone but failed. It was 4th down and the very short ranged kicker Williams comes out to attempt a 33 yard field goal. He kicks it and it goes through the uprights, tying the game 17-17. The game heads to overtime!
Oregon would win the overtime coin toss and would elect to be on defense first. Tennessee would capitalize their end of overtime first on a Brown 2 yard TD run, taking the lead 24-17. Oregon would try their best to score and did, on a 3rd and Goal, Crenshaw gets his number called and punches it into the endzone for 2 yards and the score, tying the game 24-24. On the next Oregon possession, Masoli would throw an interception giving Tennessee the overtime possession. Oregon's defense would hold Tennessee to a field goal attempt of 42 yards, the kick goes wide right and we're heading to a 3rd overtime. Tennessee would start with possession, Oregon yet again would hole Tennessee to a 42 yard field goal attempt, but this time Lincoln kicks it through, taking the lead 27-24. Oregon had all the pressure set on them, Coach Baxter drew up plays that would get them closer into field goal range. He wouldn't need them, on the 5th play on the drive Crenshaw takes the ball and rushes it up the middle and breaks free. He would score on a 12 yard TD run, claiming the overtime victory 30-27.
After the game, Coach Baxter wanted to punish team but knew that they won the game. He told the offensive squad that he wanted more production out of them. He didn't want to rely on the defense or special teams all the time.
Code:
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT FINAL
Oreogn 0 0 0 17 13 30
Tennessee 7 0 10 0 10 27
Notables:
Game Ball - ORE, A. Crenshaw : 16 Att, 80 yards, 2 TD (OT GW)
ORE QB - J. Masoli : 9-14, 148 yards, 2 TD (200.2 QBR)
ORE DE - T. Turner : 6 Tkls, 4 TFL, Sack, Deflection
TENN QB - N. Stephens : 9-25, 113 yards, TD (71.1 QBR)
TENN RB - B. Brown : 28 Att, 130 yards, 2 TD
Nick Crowley: 12-26, 100 yards, 2 INT (L Miami 12-20)
Matt Lechtner: DID NOT PLAY (WEEK 2 BYE)
Kyle King: DID NOT PLAY (W Michigan 33-27 OT)
Travis White: 6 Rec, 41 yards, TD - 1 KR, 21 yards (L Notre Dame 27-33)
Dillion Causey: DID NOT PLAY (WEEK 2 BYE)
Jason Dooley: DID NOT PLAY (WEEK 2 BYE)
Alton Ng: 4 Tkls, 3 TFL, Sack, INT, 2 DEFL (W Colorado 17-13)
Kyle Kirtz: 5 Tkls, TFL (L Notre Dame 27-33)
Trevor Larson: NO PANCAKE BLOCKS, NO SACKS GIVEN (L Miami 12-20)
Matthew McClung: 5 Rec, 135 yards, 2 TD - 1 Att, 4 yards (W FCS East 34-3)