Well I didn't see that coming. If you told me that UCLA had 342 yards and four turnovers while Oregon had two turnovers with 571 yards including 352 on the ground, I would have told you it was a recipe for a blowout larger than USC-UCLA.
But that's not what happened.
UCLA was nearly run out of Autzen, down 35-17 at the half, but they refused to be humiliated like they were by the Trojans. Oregon left some points on the field, having missed scoring opportunities to score two other touchdowns.
But I think it comes down to one simple thing: fouls. Oregon was horrendous, committing silly personal fouls and overly-aggressive offside penalties at critical downs, with 10 penalties for 115 yards. Meanwhile UCLA committed just 3 fouls for 20 yards. By comparison against USC, Oregon had just 3 penalties for 25 yards.
If Oregon hadn't committed so many fouls, I think UCLA might not have scored and this game would have been a major blowout.
Ducks can't be that sloppy against better opponents whether it's fouls or turnovers -- if they need a reminder, the last time they committed so many fouls (12 penalties for 95 yards), they lost big to LSU.
Good luck to the Ducks and towards winning their first Rose Bowl in nearly a century (1917).
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