Oregon scores early and often in blowout win over Hawaii

EUGENE, ORE. >> In warming up a crowd that eventually would swell to 52,779, the public address announcer declared, “It never rains in Autzen Stadium.”

No, but it can pour.

Dominating from whistle to whistle, 13th-ranked Oregon stormed to a 55-10 rout of Hawaii in a football game that was as close as the final score indicated.

“Sometimes you’ve got to fail to succeed,” UH quarterback Brayden Schager said, “and we definitely failed tonight.”

Coach Timmy Chang said, “Sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it’s not.”

The Rainbow Warriors received a rude awakening when a prankster pulled the fire alarm at 6:10 in the morning — nearly three hours ahead of the scheduled wake-up call — leading to an evacuation of the hotel where they were staying.

Later, the Warriors, who were headquartered in Salem because of a scarcity of hotel rooms in Eugene this weekend, made the 70-minute bus ride to the nonconference game.

And while Oregon tried to create a festive environment — a halau performed during timeouts, “Hawaii Five-0” and a song from “Moana” played; and huli-huli chicken was on the concession menu — the Ducks did not extend the aloha vibe onto the field.

UO scored on its first seven possessions, including five touchdowns. The Ducks amassed 560 yards.

Oregon frustrated UH with strategies both near (unleashing up to six pass rushers and blitzers) and far (using a two-deep zone that held the Warriors to zero completions on four throws of 20-plus yards).

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“We wanted to play fast,” said Chang, who calls the run-and-shoot plays. “We didn’t want to back down. That’s not the message we wanted to send to our guys. We wanted to do what we felt we could do. We felt we could move the ball in different ways. We didn’t get off to a fast start, and (the outcome is) what happens when you play good teams. If you don’t get off to a fast start, it doesn’t turn out the way you want in the end.”

The Ducks led 24-0 after the first quarter and 34-3 at the intermission.

With a combination of communication breakdowns and the heat of the Ducks’ pass rush, the Warriors amassed 5 yards in their first two drives. Schager started 0-for-5, with a tipped pass resulting in an interception to abbreviate the second possession.

Chang said the Warriors tried “some underneath stuff (where) you can dink and dunk and get guys where you need to get them. That’s what we wanted to do.”

But UH receivers managed an average of 2.9 post-catch yards, unable to break free from the Ducks’ speedy and clingy defenders. The Warriors were without running back Tylan Hines, who did not play because of an ailment, and tight end Greyson Morgan,who can slow a pass rush with his blocks or slide into space as a check-down receiver.

“The ‘next guy’ has to be up,” Chang said. “We’ll get (Hines and Morgan) back. We have to keep rolling.”

UH also was short-handed defensively, with weak-side linebacker Logan Taylor out for the year after suffering a torn ACL last week and shut-down corner Cam Stone missing his second consecutive game with a leg ailment. Nalu Emerson replaced Taylor in the lineup, amassing eight tackles, tied with safety Justin Sinclair for the team high.

“It was like I was at Laie Park playing with my boys, trying to fly around and make plays,” said Emerson, a Kahuku graduate, of his first career start.

But the Warriors had no answer for multiskilled quarterback Bo Nix; playmaking receivers Tez Johnson, Gary Bryant, Troy Franklin and Traeshon Holden; and a massive and agile O-line coached by former UH assistant A’lique Terry.

“They’re good at picking up blitzes,” Emerson said of the Ducks’ front five. “They’ve got good communication. They’re really quick and fast. We were trying to get behind them, and we had a hard time.”

Nix, who transferred from Auburn last year, was not sacked. The Ducks have not turned the ball over this year. He was 21-for-27 for 247 yards and three touchdowns. Two of the scoring passes went to Johnson, who was adopted by Nix’s family a few years ago.

On a play-action pass, Nix found Johnson all alone. Johnson completed the 49-yard scoring play 52 seconds into the game to give the Ducks a lead they would not relinquish.

The Ducks also found ways to outmaneuver the Warriors. A flea-flicker from Nix to a wide-open Franklin went for 40 yards and set up Jordan James’ 20-yard touchdown run. Later, the Ducks overloaded the right side with three tight ends. Running back Noah Whittington then took a handoff and zipped around the left side for a 41-yard gain. Two plays later, Nix rolled away from pressure and tossed a 1-yard scoring pass to Holden.

The Ducks amassed 210 yards on 30 carries, an average of 7.0 yards per rush. Whittington scored on a 34-yard run when he went left, then used a jump cut to sprint up the middle for a 48-3 lead. Johnson’s second touchdown came after he caught a pass on a slant, then broke to his left.

“Guys ran with toughness the whole night,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “We owned the ball.”

UH defensive coordinator Jacob Yoro said: “We went up against a really good team. When you go up against a team that’s that good, you can’t make the type of mistakes we made tonight. … This is not going to take away from our confidence. The guys understand what we can do and what we can be.”