Quarterback Dillon Gabriel and the No. 6 Oregon football team will try to get to 2-0 on the season when they host nemesis Boise State at 7 p.m. Saturday at Autzen Stadium. The Broncos are 3-0 all time against the Ducks, though the teams haven’t met since 2017.
Follow along for updates, highlights and photos throughout the game.
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Dillon Gabriel was sacked on back-to-back plays by nickels Rodney Robison and Seyi Oladipo for a combined loss of 15 yards to kill the Oregon drive. Those were the fifth and sixth sacks allowed this season by the Ducks, who allowed five total in all of 2023 and all of 2022.
Ashton Jeanty scored on a 3-yard run on the second play of the second quarter as the Broncos go back on top. Boise State’s scoring drive was 9 plays, 75 yards and lasted 5:16.
The Ducks have the lead but the Broncos have the ball at the Oregon 3-yard line when play resumes.
Also notable on the Ducks’ scoring drive was a switch on the offensive line. Starting right guard Iaponi Laloulu was moved to center in place of Charlie Pickard and Nishad Strother came in at right guard.
Just like that, the Ducks looked like the Ducks again. Oregon went 72 yards in three plays and 51 seconds to take the lead. The drive started with a 67-yard pass from Dillon Gabriel to Evan Stewart that put the Ducks at the BSU 5. One play later, Gabriel ran into the end zone untouched for the 1-yard TD with 4:36 to play in the first quarter.
Another three-and-out for the Ducks offense, which will punt for the second straight possession. They have 12 yards on six plays so far in the game.
Oregon men’s basketball alum and NBA champion Payton Pritchard was honored in front of the sold-out Autzen Stadium crowd during a first-quarter break in the game.
The West Linn native and four-year starting point guard for the Ducks from 2016-20, helped the Celtics defeat the Dallas Mavericks during the NBA Finals in June.
In 19 postseason games, Pritchard averaged 6.4 points, 2.1 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game.
Pritchard joined Jim Loscutoff (Boston 1957, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64), Greg Ballard (Washington 1978), Jordan Bell (Golden State 2018) and Chris Boucher (Toronto 2019) as Oregon alums to win an NBA title.
Pritchard was the 2020 Pac-12 player of the year and also won the 2020 Bob Cousy Award. The consensus All-American is the winningest Duck in program history, winning 105 of his 144 games played.
The Broncos scored on a 43-yard field goal by Jonah Dalmas with 9:29 to play in the first quarter to take the lead.
Broncos’ right guard Roger Carreon suffered a lower leg injury on the second play of Boise State’s offensive series and had to be carted off the field.
The Ducks went three-and-out and punted on fourth-and-two in the game’s opening drive. After an opening 7-yard run by Jordan James, the Ducks gave up another sack of Dillon Gabriel (fourth of the season) and Gabriel was forced to scramble on third down to avoid the pass rush.
The Broncos won the coin toss and will start on defense after deferring to the second half. Kickoff is moments away in Autzen Stadium.
Linebacker Jeffrey Bassa, right guard Matthew Bedford and wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr., are in uniform and going through pregame warmups with less than an hour to go until kickoff against Boise State.
All three players were listed as questionable on the Ducks’ availability report that was released at 5 p.m. today.
Whether it was in front of a furious home crowd in Eugene, during an infamous night on the blue turf in Boise, or at a neutral field in the Nevada desert, there have been a couple common themes in the history of football games played between Oregon and Boise State — bitter losses for the Ducks and bad memories for their fans.
It will be Boise State’s first visit to Eugene since 2008, when freshman quarterback Kellen Moore led the Broncos to an upset victory in a game marred by cheap shots from the Boise State defense, including one penalized hit that knocked Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli out of the game in the first quarter.
It will also be the first game between the teams since Boise State manhandled the Ducks in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl.
But neither of those games have anything on the 2009 season opener in Boise, when Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount delivered a postgame right jab to Broncos’ defensive lineman Byron Hout that rocked the college football world.
It’s been 15 years since “The Punch” — a reaction by Blount to what he said was taunting and a racial slur directed at him from a helmetless Hout on the field after the game — but the bad feelings between the two teams actually began a year earlier in Eugene.
Starting inside linebacker Jeffrey Bassa has been listed as questionable on Oregon’s official Big Ten Availability report for the Saturday’s game against Boise State.
The senior was in and out of last week’s win against Idaho but had been at practice this past week.
Also questionable for Saturday are right guard Matthew Bedford and wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr. Both were questionable last week as well and neither played.
Ruled out for the game against the Broncos are defensive backs Jahlil Florence and Dakoda Fields, offensive lineman Dave Iuli, tight end Brashear, defensive lineman My’Keil Gardner and kicker Andrew Boyle.
Oregon vs. Boise State will be streamed on Peacock. Andrew Siciliano and Michael Robinson will call the game from the booth at Autzen Stadium, with Laura Britt reporting from the sidelines.
ESPN’s Football Power Index gives the Ducks an 80% chance to win. Here’s what others have to say.
Consensus game lines and odds as of Friday:
Saturday’s forecast called for a high of 87 with a temperature of about 79 at kickoff.
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