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Oregon on top Ducks' defense cools down No. 6 Bruins
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- UCLA ran into a road block. Maurice Morris ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns as Oregon beat No. 6 UCLA 29-10 on Saturday for its 17th straight home victory and the Bruins' seventh road loss in a row. "I don't consider it an upset, just a big win," Morris said. Oregon (3-1) dominated in almost every category, holding UCLA to minus-9 yards rushing in the Pac-10 opener for both teams. "If you're going to win championships, you've got to win on the road," UCLA coach Bob Toledo said. "We just didn't perform." UCLA was coming off a victory over then-No. 3 Michigan, and opened the season with a win over Alabama -- also No. 3 at the time. Both Toledo and Oregon coach Mike Bellotti had talked about the importance of the crowd before the game. "The atmosphere here was amazing," Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington said. "Right from the opening kickoff it was electric. I've been here for four years and it still gave me the chills." Oregon never trailed, and the best UCLA could do was tie the game at 10 midway through the third quarter. Harrington drove the Ducks from their own 20 to the UCLA 35 on the opening series before kicker Josh Frankel put the Bruins deep in the hole on their own 14 with a punt off a fake field goal. Harrington opened the scoring on the next Oregon series, driving the Ducks 54 yards in eight plays before shoving his way into the end zone from a yard out to make 7-0 at 7:22 into the game. Harrington did not score from the air, but led a balanced passing attack with 15 completions on 34 attempts, good for 153 yards to seven Oregon receivers. Keenan Howry led with five catches for 43 yards. Josh Frankel kicked field foals of 26, 24 and 28 yards for the Ducks, and missed from 44 and 39. UCLA did not get on the scoreboard until nearly five minutes into the third quarter, when Chris Griffith nailed a 46-yard field goal with room to spare. Freddie Mitchell scored the only touchdown for the Bruins when backup quarterback Drew Bennett got into the game long enough to throw a 54-yard TD pass that was mostly Mitchell on the run after he broke through the entire Oregon secondary untouched. The touchdown tied the game at 10 with 6:44 left in the third quarter. On the previous UCLA series, Mitchell caught what looked to be a scoring pass in the corner of the end zone, but it was ruled out of bounds. "I knew it was a touchdown, you knew it was a touchdown, everybody does," Mitchell said. "The ref knew it too because he looked at me like he was sorry." Ryan McCann started at quarterback for UCLA, fumbling twice and throwing one interception. He finished with 13 completions in 33 passes for 152 yards, and was sacked three times to end up with minus 35 yards on the ground. "It took us awhile to get started, and then we didn't execute," McCann said. He fumbled the first snap of the game before it was whistled down because of a false start, one of five false start penalties for UCLA in the first half. McCann's main contribution was a 51-yard quick kick that got the Bruins out of a deep hole at their own 23 on third-and-25 in the first quarter following three false-start penalties in a row. On the previous series, McCann threw the one interception of the game, overshooting Mitchell. Rashad Bauman plucked it away for Oregon, returning it 14 yards on a wild scramble across field. McCann was briefly out of the game when the Bruins made their other big mistake in the first half. Bennett missed a pitch to DeShaun Foster and Oregon recovered, then went 50 yards in 12 plays to score on the 26-yard field goal by Frankel. In the closing minutes, McCann lost a bad snap and Oregon recovered on the UCLA 4, setting up Morris' final touchdown. UCLA was again without starting quarterback Cory Paus, who
separated his shoulder against Alabama, and defensive end Kenyon
Coleman, out for a month with torn knee ligaments.
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