Oregon Football: 3 takeaways from tight win over Washington State

Justin Herbert engineered the game-winning drive for Oregon football as the Ducks survived Washington State 37-35 on Saturday night.

After blowing a late lead, Oregon Football drove down the field with just a minute remaining to set up a game-winning field goal by the shaky Camden Lewis to give the Ducks a 37-35 win over Washington State to snap a four game losing streak against the Cougars.

The Ducks blew a two-score fourth quarter lead thanks in large part to some questionable decision making by head coach Mario Cristobal. Leading by six with just over three minutes remaining, Cristobal elected to punt from the Cougars 33-yard-line on fourth-and-6. Two minutes later, the Cougars took a 35-34 lead after a 90-yard touchdown drive engineered by Anthony Gordon.

Oregon rode a monster night from running back CJ Verdell, who rushed for a career high 257 yards and three touchdowns, and an opportunistic defense that came up with two big first half takeaways to help hold off Washington State on Saturday night in Eugene.

With Verdell and the ground game rolling, Mario Cristobal didn’t ask much of his star quarterback Justin Herbert, but the future first-round NFL Draft pick came up clutch at the end of the game, engineering the game-winning field goal drive after Washington State took the lead with just a minute remaining.

After three straight PAC-12 losses, the Cougars have looked much better in recent weeks. They rolled to a win over Colorado last week and then pushed Oregon to the brink of an upset on the road at Autzen Stadium. The loss drops Wazzu to 4-4 on the season, but fans on the Palouse have to be encouraged by the in-season improvement their team has made, and they could be in line for a big finish to the season.

The win for Oregon moves the Ducks to 7-1, and keeps them undefeated in conference play. Only rival Oregon State has less than three losses in the Pac-12 North, giving the Ducks a stranglehold lead in the divisional race as we head into the final month of the regular season.