Las Vegas Bowl
1997
Oregon 41
Air Force 13
LAS VEGAS (Dec 21, 1997 - 00:00 EST) -- All week long, Oregon coach
Mike Bellotti kept insisting his team belonged in a postseason game. Two
plays into the Las Vegas Bowl, Air Force found out why. The Ducks, who
barely had enough wins to qualify for a bowl, opened the major college
bowl season with a bang Saturday, scoring on their first two plays from
scrimmage to spark a 41-13 win over No. 23 Air Force.
Pat Johnson stunned the Falcons with a 69-yard touchdown reception on
the first play of the game, then Saladin McCullough went 76 yards up the
middle the next time Oregon got the ball. In just 2:06, Oregon had
already scored more points than Air Force's opponents averaged all year,
and the rout was on. "It was a convincing win over a good team. That
should boost our stock," Bellotti said after his team finished the
season at 7-5.
Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry was one of those convinced. "They're the
best offensive team we've played this season. They're much better than a
6-5 team," DeBerry said.
Johnson, the 1995 Pac-10 400-meter champion, scored on passes of 69 and
78 yards and Tony Hartley caught two other touchdown passes for Oregon.
The bowl season was only 18 seconds old when Johnson streaked down the
left sideline to catch a pass in midstride from Akili Smith and go 69
yards for a touchdown. "I know we can get deep on anybody," Johnson
said.
After an Air Force punt, McCullough took a handoff up the middle on
Oregon's next play from scrimmage and ran 76 yards for another score to
put the Ducks up 13-0 with only 2:06 run off the game clock. "I thought
the first play of the game really set the tempo for them, and the second
play really set them on fire," DeBerry said.
Oregon led 26-0 at halftime, bottling up Air Force's option offense and
not allowing the Falcons (10-3) to complete a pass until midway through
the second quarter. It was the first win in the last five bowl games for
the Ducks, hadn't won a bowl game since beating Tulsa in the 1989
Independence Bowl. Oregon took a total of only 69 seconds for its three
offensive scores in the first half, the last coming on a five-play,
71-yard drive that put the Ducks up 26-0 on a 7-yard pass to Hartley in
the end zone with 28 seconds left in the half.
The second half wasn't much different, with Oregon needing only 37
seconds for its first score and 42 seconds for another. Oregon's longest
offensive scoring drive came in the third quarter when the Ducks needed
48 seconds to go 71 yards and find the end zone on a 7-yard pass to
Hartley. A game that had been billed as Oregon's potent offense against
Air Force's stingy defense developed instead into a lopsided contest
that forced Air Force out of running its option offense in a futile
effort to get back into the game. "The extra week we had to prepare for
the option made a big difference," Bellotti said.
The lone bright spot for the Falcons' offense came in the third quarter
when Jemal Singleton ran 51 yards to set up a quarterback sneak by Blane
Morgan that drew Air Force to within 26-7. Air Force's other score came
on a 45-yard fumble recovery return for a touchdown by tackle Bryce
Fisher.
By the time the fourth quarter began, both teams had their second and
third teams in with the game long since decided. Air Force had allowed
only 12.4 points a game during the regular season, third in the nation
behind Michigan and Ohio State. But Oregon had that much and more after
only two minutes of play before a crowd of 21,514 in the sixth annual
bowl.
Oregon had finished tied for seventh in the Pac-10 with barely enough
wins to qualify for a postseason bowl. It was enough, though, to get an
invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl, which went to an at-large format this
year after five years of matching the Mid-American and Big West
conference champions.
McCullough, who was pulled late in the third quarter after running 17
times for 150 yards, finished the season with 1,343 yards, surpassing
the school record of 1,211 yards held by Bobby Moore.
Attendance- 21,514
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
UO- Johnson 69 pass from
Smith (Frankel kick)
UO- McCullough 76 run (kick failed)
Second Quarter
UO- Parker recovered
blocked punt in end zone (kick failed)
UO- Hartley 7 pass from Maas (Smith kick)
Third Quarter
AFA- Morgan 1 run (Wright kick)
UO- Hartley 21 pass from Maas (Spence pass from Maas)
AFA- Fisher 45 fumble return (pass failed)
Fourth Quarter
UO- Johnson 78 pass from Maas (Smith kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
UO- McCullough 17-150, Maas 5-40, Latimer 5-30, Cooper 6-27, Crump 5-26
AFA- Singleton 13-66, Ruff 7-27, Brown 1-16, Farmer 1-13, Paroda 5-12
Passing
UO- Maas 9-15-0-188, Smith 4-10-1-87, Feeley 3-4-0-42
AFA- Morgan 6-19-59
Receiving
UO- Johnson 5-169, Hartley 3-35, Spence 2-59, Collins 2-5, Parker 1-22,
Weaver 1-20, Brust 1-6, Haynes 1-1
AFA- Newman 2-29, Ruff 2-10, Rillos 1-13, Farmer 1-7
