Oregon won the 2013 Fiesta Bowl’s first half in Kansas State fashion. Despite getting outgained by a tad and breezed past in time of possession, special teams play had the Ducks up by two scores.
2013 Fiesta Bowl results: Oregon sprints into Arizona sunset, 35-17
If Chip Kelly goes, he goes with Tostitos. All of them.
Oregon won the second half in Oregon fashion. The offense found its pace (fast), the defense picked off Collin Klein at the end and the Ducks blasted to a 32-17 lead before Kenjon Barner set to pounding the rest of the door down and icing away Oregon's second BCS bowl win in a row.
As for the Oregon defense: The ultra-efficient Collin Klein was limited to 4.9 yards per pass on the day.
Barner finished with 142 on the ground, much of it right up the middle at that solid K-State defense. De'Anthony Thomas sounded the alarm on the game's opening play, breaking 94 yards for a kickoff return before catching a 23-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Mariota. The freshman quarterback started cool and finished with only a 50 percent completion rate, but made the big throws that counted most and ran for 64 yards and a touchdown of his own.
Mariota and safety Michael Clay (sack, nine tackles) were named the players of the game.
Rankings ramifications: Whether Chip Kelly leaves or not, this is a preseason top-five team. Mariota, Thomas and tons of other talent return, the coaching staff is already set up to absorb his exit and many, many more touchdowns are on the way. K-State will be in the same boat it's always in: overlooked, especially minus Klein and Arthur Brown. They'll be fine.
"We want Chip! We want Chip" echoes as Ducks go victory formation: twitter.com/BryanDFischer/…
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) January 4, 2013
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