The big plays

Dennis Dixon going down early in Oregon's game against Arizona was, obviously, huge. Kwame Agyeman's fumble at the end of the fake punt was big, too. But I'm focused on three other key plays that I think were difference makers.

• The pass dropped in the end zone. It hit the receiver right in the number and would have put Arizona down a quick 15-0.
  
• Cason's punt return for touchdown. The back judge was so intent on where to drop his bean bag that he blew the obvious illegal block that sprung Cason. The play should have come back.
  
• Grigsby's one-yard run. Late in the fourth quarter, trailing by only seven points, the Ducks intially stopped the Arizona running back well short of the first down. But a great second effort got Grigsby over the line to gain for a fourth-down conversion, and Arizona subsequently moved the ball into field goal position and put the game out of reach.

It wasn't the Ducks' night. It also wasn't ESPN's night. Fowler spent the entire first half mis-identifying the Duck who dropped the pass in the end zone (it wasn't Williams). According to one of Fowler's play calls, Stewart ran up the middle and fumbled but the fumble was recovered by Leaf; in actuality, Leaf had the ball the entire time. Later, WR Derrick Jones dropped (another) pass; when they put up a follow-up shot to get his reaction on the bench, they got the wrong number 6 and showed Walter Thurmond III. And they never did correctly pronounce the name of Oregon's kicker. Finally, maybe this is just me, but what the guys with the microphones interpreted as a lack of life, hope and enthusiasm on the Oregon sidelines after Dixon's injury I took to be a lack of panic. I think the Ducks were confident that Leaf and the rest of the team were going to find a way to win.