Oregon vs. UCLA final score: 3 things we learned from the Ducks’ 42-30 win

On a beautiful, warm Los Angeles afternoon, Oregon reminded the rest of the Pac-12 who’s still in charge.

The Ducks’ offense turned UCLA into little more than a speed bump en route to a (deceptively close) 42-30 victory. Marcus Mariota starred in the victory, throwing for 210 yards and rushing for 75 more to go along with four total touchdowns. Oregon’s whole offense operated inside its comfort zone for most of the day, and it’s hard to find any area, any level where UCLA succeeded on defense.

That defensive failure was plainly evident to the guys on UCLA’s sideline, especially defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Here’s the scene after one Oregon touchdown in the second quarter:

Ulbrich (whom Jim L. Mora later described as “like a little son,” and he meant it in a nice way) was rather demonstratively telling his head coach to call the defensive plays himself instead. And again, that was in the second quarter, with the score at 15-3; things only got worse from there.

UCLA would go on a late charge, scoring 20 unanswered points in the last 10 minutes to make the score respectable, but make no mistake: this was an Oregon blowout all the way. The Ducks led by double digits for the last 39:42 of game play, and UCLA never had the ball in anything less than a three-possession game in the entire fourth quarter. So, yeah. Jeff Ulbrich may want to yell some more.

1. Oregon is still the big dog of the Pac-12. The Ducks don’t officially have control of the Pac-12 North yet; Stanford’s still tied at 2-1, and Cal may or may not still have control of the board for another week (pending the Washington game currently underway). But make no mistake—the Ducks will be the highest-ranked team in the conference by a substantial margin come Sunday, and for good reason: this was a demolition of an ostensibly good UCLA team. If the offense and defense both show up like that every week, Oregon’s not losing again in the regular season.

2. Brett Hundley’s running out of chances to prove he’s worth the hype. With erstwhile Heisman candidate Brett Hundley running the show at quarterback, the Bruins offense was subpar for the second straight week. Hundley was badly inefficient on the day, throwing 37 times for 218 yards (and not topping the century mark until his 28th pass, with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter); his Heisman candidacy is effectively over. It’s a bummer, the dude can ball, but on this big stage he wilted badly until the game was out of reach.

3. Marcus Mariota is back in the Heisman conversation. It’s up to you whether Mariota ever stopped being a contender for the Heisman after the underwhelming night he and the Ducks had against Arizona last week, but a performance with 285 total yards of offense (on only 34 plays, no less), four scores and no turnovers against a strong UCLA defense is a winner every step of the way. He even scored dribbling the ball, kind of, and when you can play basketball on a football field and still whip the defense, yeah, you’re pretty good.