Top 10 Greatest Oregon Ducks Games Ever Played

This is #1 and it is not close. November 12, 1994. Washington is driving to win the game and clinch the Rose Bowl. Kenny Wheaton jumps the route, picks it off, and takes it 97 yards the other way. Jerry Allen loses his mind on the radio. "Kenny Wheaton is gonna score!" Oregon goes to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1958. The modern era of Oregon football, everything you know and love about this program, starts with The Pick. Every other entry on this list only happened because this one happened first.

First Big Ten season. #1 Oregon hosting #2 Ohio State. 60,129 fans inside Autzen and every single one of them on their feet for the entire fourth quarter. Oregon won by one point. The atmosphere was unlike anything the stadium has ever produced, and that is saying something for a venue that has been hostile territory for 30 years. Yes, Ohio State got revenge in the Rose Bowl. Does not matter. This night belonged to Eugene.

Marcus Mariota vs Jameis Winston. The defending national champions and the reigning Heisman winner against the Ducks and the new Heisman winner. Oregon scored 59 points. FIFTY NINE. In a national semifinal. Against a team that had won 29 straight games. Florida State had no answer, no adjustment, no prayer. This was the most complete performance in Oregon football history. The Ducks made the defending champs look like a scout team.

I was in Glendale for this one. Oregon lost, and it still makes the top 5. That tells you everything. 12-0 going in. Cam Newton was superhuman. Lost by 3. Three points from being national champions. I still think about the onside kick. I still think about Michael Dyer. Late in the game, Dyer was tackled by Eddie Pleasant and his knee and elbow clearly hit the turf. He was down. I watched the replay on the screen in the stadium. He was down. No whistle. Dyer got up and ran 37 yards, setting up the game-winning field goal. The replay confirmed it. The refs did not call it. I have never gotten over it. No Oregon fan has. We never will.

De'Anthony Thomas. 91-yard touchdown on his first carry. Then a 64-yard touchdown on his second carry. 2 touches, 155 yards, 2 touchdowns. In the Rose Bowl. Oregon had not won the Rose Bowl in 92 years. Ninety two. The drought was almost as old as the forward pass. LaMichael James ran for 159 yards. The offense put up 45 points. The monkey was off the back and the celebration in Pasadena was 92 years in the making.

Joey Harrington and the 2001 Fiesta Bowl. Oregon was supposed to lose this game. Colorado was big and physical and everything the Ducks were not. Harrington shredded them. 38-16. Oregon finished #2 in the country, the highest final ranking in program history at that point. This was the game that proved Harrington's entire career was not a fluke. The billboard in Times Square was not a gimmick. Oregon belonged with the big boys.

Down 14 points in the fourth quarter. Against Wisconsin. In the Rose Bowl. Again. Justin Herbert refused to let it end. Threw the go-ahead touchdown with under 5 minutes left and Oregon held on by a single point, 28-27. Mario Cristobal was crying on the sideline. Herbert won Rose Bowl MVP in his final college game because he came back for his senior year when he could have gone top-10 in the draft. That is what Oregon means to the players who get it.

I was there Halloween night. I remember the costumes in the student section and the feeling that something different was happening. #3 USC walked into Autzen. They did not walk out. 47-20. Oregon put 47 on a defense that was supposed to be one of the best in the country. Pete Carroll looked confused. Chip Kelly looked like he had been doing this for 20 years, not 8 games. The rest of America realized Oregon was for real that night. We already knew.

Week 2. In Columbus. 100,000 fans wearing scarlet and gray. Oregon was supposed to get crushed. Instead the Ducks won 35-28 and the Horseshoe went silent. The biggest road win in program history, and it is not particularly close. This was the game that put Dan Lanning's future program on the national radar (even though it was still the Cristobal era). Oregon can win anywhere against anyone. This game proved it.

Season opener. Michigan came to Eugene expecting a competitive game. They left embarrassed. Oregon 39, Michigan 7. Dennis Dixon introduced himself to America with a performance that had Heisman voters reaching for their ballots in September. This was the opening act of the greatest what-if season in Oregon history. Dixon was magical. The offense was unstoppable. For two glorious months before the knee injury at Arizona, Oregon looked like the best team in the country.