Stewart, Ducks run wild on Dawgs

The theme the past five weeks has been that the Huskies are not a second-half team. Things didn’t change much on the scoreboard as the Dawgs fell to Oregon 55-34 in front of 66,481 fans at Husky Stadium, but this time you couldn’t really blame the offense.

It was Washington’s defense which was victimized today, as the Ducks ran for 465 yards and totaled an astounding 661 yards of offense on the hapless Husky defenders who surrendered a record 39 first downs.

The 465 yards surrendered by the Dawgs was also a record as well.

Oregon RB Jonathan Stewart, making his only appearance at Husky Stadium, rushed for a career-high 251 yards and two touchdowns while Andre Crenshaw added 113 yards and two scores and QB Dennis Dixon put up 99 yards and one score on the ground as well.

Dixon also completed 19 of 30 passes for 196 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

For the Huskies, offensively QB Jake Locker had his best game at the helm of Washington’s offense running for 78 yards and throwing for 257 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.

Oregon got out to a quick lead as they took their first two drives in for scores on drives of 61 yards and 80 yards, but Washington was able to answer back when Locker hit WR Anthony Russo down the center of the field for an 83-yard pass play.

Russo finished the night with five receptions for 127 yards and the one touchdown.

WR Marcel Reece also had a good night, catching two passes for 64 yards and two touchdowns both rainbows over Duck defenders, one for 38 yards and one for 26 yards.

All night RB Louis Rankin got good yardage when the Huskies opted to run the ball. He carried the ball 11 times for 73 yards and also caught a screen pass on third-and-eight and took it to the house for a 43-yard touchdown pass tying the game early in the third quarter at 24 apiece.

Oregon then stalled and the Huskies had the chance to take the lead, but Locker made is only real bad decision of the night when he tried to hit Russo down the right sideline, but was picked off by CB Jarius Byrd at the Oregon seven.

Oregon then proceeded to march 93 yards in 15 plays for the go-ahead score and never looked back the rest of the evening.

Defensively, Washington was led by the 15 tackles of S Darin Harris while CB Byron Davenport added 13, S Mesphin Forrester totaled 12 and LB E.J. Savannah netted 11.

Washington (2-5, 0-4) will now turn their focus to Arizona (2-6, 1-4) who fell to Stanford at home 21-20.