PISCATAWAY, N.J. — In the birthplace of college football, Oregon might have accomplished something never seen before in the 156 years of the game.
A performance so dominant in its overall efficiency that it’s difficult to comprehend that two teams are playing at the same sport, let alone belong to the same conference.
The No. 8 Ducks gained 750 yards on just 60 plays, third-best in the FBS this season and most against a Power Four defense, in a 56-10 mauling of Rutgers that was not remotely that close.
The Scarlet Knights had just 202 yards, including a measly 79 in the air from one of the most potent passing attacks in the country. Rutgers also committed three turnovers while its home confines of SHI Stadium turned into Autzen East by the end of Saturday night.
“All week we talked about operating to our standard,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “There’s still some moments that we’ll want back from that game, but overall I thought our players really attacked that. Regardless of what time it was in the game, who was on the field, these guys went and attacked, which is great. We talk about strength in numbers and we had that tonight as well.”
The 12.5 yards per play by Oregon (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten) is the second most in the Big Ten since at least 2000. It happened in the same game Oregon’s defense allowed just 2.93 yards, the Ducks best since Sept. 7, 2019 against Nevada. The gap is almost certainly the biggest in college football history — such statistics are not readily available.
“I was expecting our players to play with an edge,” Lanning said. “I was expecting them to execute and do their job at a really high level. The things that we were asking our guys to do, they were able to do and they did that tonight.”
Dante Moore (15 of 20 for 290 yards, three carries for 49 yards) threw four touchdowns and one interception and faced almost no pressure while exploiting every flaw of an overmatched Rutgers (3-4, 0-4) defense. He connected on eight passes of 20-plus yards, including six straight, with touchdowns of 30, 21 and 34 yards in that stretch.
Lanning said Moore was playing with joy again after a week of emphasizing doing such in the wake not performing well in the loss to Indiana. The fourth-year coach texted the redshirt-sophomore quarterback after last week’s loss and expressed the same level of support and confidence in Moore that he showed to Bo Nix amid his rocky UO debut against Georgia in 2022, a moment the eventual Heisman Trophy finalist and first round draft pick never forgot.
“The way he talks and communicates to me, calls me, have extra meetings with him,” Moore said. “Having a head coach I trust and he’s always telling me code words on the field, to remember my childhood self playing football in little league smiling.”
Moore was the one who called additional meetings amongst players during the week, including with the running backs and offensive line to go over protections after allowing six sacks last week.
Rutgers had just two tackles for loss and one came on the first play of the game.
“We really wanted to come out today and improve in that area,” said Noah Whittington, who ran for 125 yards and two touchdown on 11 carries and had a five-yard touchdown catch. “We took the necessary steps this week to do that and it showed today.”
Oregon averaged 11.5 yards per carry, with 13 runs of 10-plus yards, including six of 20-plus. It had 14 runs of 20-plus yards over its first six games. Runs of 68 yards by Whittington and 67 yards by Jordan Davison went a long way to skewing those figures.
A defense searching for more havoc generated it at all three levels of the defense: eight tackles for loss, including three sacks, eight pass breakups, two interceptions and two forced fumbles on 69 plays by Rutgers.
This isn’t the opponent or the outcome to make grand proclamations. The Scarlet Knights are going to have a difficult time winning a conference game this season.
But for a Ducks team that had to respond to its first loss of the season by going across country while facing plenty of questions about just how good it actually is, the result showed competitive character and resilience from a young roster loaded with talent.
“We’re a great team,” Moore said. “We put a lot of work off the field and on the field. Every week our mindset is to go 1-0. We did a great job this week, especially today of moving the ball down the field and the defense is always doing a great job stopping the (opposing) offense.”
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