Flying Ducks confuse Cardinal.

Byline: Rob Moseley The Register-Guard

STANFORD, Calif. - Oregon's defensive coaches figured Stanford had a pretty good idea of how the Ducks had been attacking the opposition this season.

So the Ducks relied on a bit of subterfuge Saturday, and it resulted in 10 sacks of Cardinal quarterbacks in Oregon's 16-13 victory at Stanford Stadium.

"They were checking out of a lot of our blitzes," UO linebacker Anthony Trucks said. "So what we were doing was bringing blitzes from different sides, when they were thinking they were going to come from the other side. We were basically making them check out of what they wanted to do. They had a play set, and we disrupted it."

Each member of Oregon's starting front seven had at least one sack, with the exception of middle linebacker Jerry Matson, who had a team-high eight tackles.

End Chris Solomona and tackle Robby Valenzuela each had two sacks, end Devan Long had 1 1/2 and tackle Haloti Ngata had one as the defensive linemen combined for seven; backup Matt Toeaina combined with Long and finished with a half-sack.

The Ducks got to Stanford starting quarterback Trent Edwards three times in the first quarter, and a big hit by Valenzuela early in the second quarter knocked him out of the game. Backup T.C. Ostrander was sacked the other seven times.

"Our D line acted like it was the scout team all of a sudden," Matson said. "Maybe he was holding the ball too long, I don't know, but they must have sacked them six, seven times."

Anthony Trucks, A.J. Tuitele and Ramone Reed also had a sack each, as Oregon's linebackers continue to blitz opposing quarterbacks more and more each game.

"It was fun," Trucks said. "It was more pressure on the quarterback than we've had the last couple games. It was good for us to get in on the sack count."

But it wasn't just sacks Saturday, as the Ducks limited Stanford's running backs to 51 yards on 17 carries. The lost yardage on the sacks resulted in the Cardinal totaling minus-8 rushing yards for the day.

The stout run defense forced Stanford to the air for 39 pass attempts, with some success.

On the Cardinal's lone touchdown drive, they completed four passes of nine yards or longer, three of them resulting in third-down conversions.

In all, the Cardinal threw for 269 yards, just about their average for the season.

All those passes also resulted in a few interception opportunities for the Ducks, none of them successful.

Oregon cornerback Aaron Gipson was so disconsolate after dropping three potential interceptions Saturday that he was being counseled by safety Demetrius Spates as they left the field, with Gipson hanging his head as if the Ducks had lost.

"I'm happy we got the win, but I evaluate my individual performance, and I had a couple plays where I definitely could have turned the game around and didn't capitalize," Gipson said. "I consider myself a playmaker, that's what I do, so I was upset."

For the most part, the Ducks said, the switch from Edwards to Ostrander at quarterback didn't seem to affect Stanford's playcalling, or the way Oregon attacked. Regardless of who was under center, the Oregon defense blitzed throughout the day, and the Cardinal struggled to react.

"They didn't know where it was coming from," Matson said, "and they didn't know how to pick it up."

CAPTION(S):

Oregon's Jerry Matson (52), Devan Long (92) and Chris Solomona (47) salute Duck fans after the victory.