Darron Thomas threw for 187 yards and two touchdowns before he left with a left leg injury and ninth-ranked Oregon survived his absence with a 41-27 victory over No. 18 Arizona State on Saturday night in Eugene, Ore.
Thomas appeared to injure his left knee early in the second half when Sun Devils linebacker Colin Parker fell on his legs.
It was the second straight game that the Ducks have lost a key player to injury. Running back LaMichael James dislocated his elbow in Oregon’s last outing, a 43-15 win over California on Oct. 6.
Kenjon Barner, who started in place of James, ran for 171 yards and a touchdown, while freshman De’Anthony Thomas ran for 73 yards and two scores for Oregon (5-1 overall, 3-0 Pac-12).
Brock Osweiler threw for 291 yards and two scores for the Sun Devils (5-2, 3-1), who have lost seven straight to the Ducks.
It was Oregon’s 20th straight victory at Autzen Stadium, as well as the Ducks’ 15th straight victory over a conference foe.
There was speculation that James might try to play, but he took the field in sweats. The nation’s leading rusher hurt his right elbow against Cal on Oct. 6, but this week wouldn’t rule himself out against the Sun Devils.
Without James, Oregon had a tough time getting its vaunted running game going against the Sun Devils in the first half, but the Ducks would end up with 327 rushing yards — 269 in the second half.
On the first series of the game, Barner’s fumble was recovered to by the Sun Devils, who went on to take the early lead with Osweiler’s 20-yard TD pass to Gerell Robinson.
Oregon tied it midway through the first quarter when De’Anthony Thomas ran a pitch from Darron Thomas 16 yards for a touchdown.
The Sun Devils went up 14-7 on Osweiler’s 26-yard pass to Mike Willie. It looked like Oregon had evened it again when Barner broke away with a 59-yard scoring run, but the TD was called back because of an illegal blocking call.
The Ducks did pull even on Darron Thomas’ 28-yard touchdown pass to Lavasier Tuinei. The junior quarterback, who had just connected with Josh Huff on a 45-yard pass, was on the run and looked almost as if he were throwing the ball away — but he caught Tuinei streaking across the back of the end zone.
Utah 26, at Pittsburgh 14: John White ran for 171 yards and Coleman Petersen kicked four field goals in the tricky Heinz Field winds to lead Utah by reeling Pittsburgh, 26-14 .
The Utes (3-3) snapped a two-game losing streak behind the legs of White and Petersen and an impressive defensive effort to improve to 9-0 all-time against current members of the Big East.
Petersen, who’d made four field goals all year coming in, converted kicks of 23, 34, 39 and 45 yards in winds that gusted over 30 mph.
Utah’s Derrick Shelby returned a late interception 21 yards for a touchdown as the Utes sent Pitt (3-4) to its second straight loss.
The Panthers managed just 120 total yards, turned it over three times and a reconfigured offensive line allowed quarterbacks Trey Anderson and Tino Sunseri to get sacked six times.
Pitt running back Ray Graham managed a season-low 46 yards, more than 100 yards below his average.
The injury-riddled Utes, playing without leading receiver DeVonte Christopher and quarterback Jordan Wynn, won by holding onto the ball, something they failed to do in losses to Washington and Arizona State when they turned it over a combined 10 times.
Quarterback Jon Hays completed 14 of 23 passes 127 yards and a score without throwing an interception, though the game belonged to White, Petersen and Utah’s front seven.
BYU 38, at Oregon State 28: Riley Nelson threw for 217 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 87 yards to lead the Cougars (5-2) to a victory over the Beavers (1-5).
Cody Hoffman had nine receptions for 162 yards and a TD for BYU.
Sean Mannion passed for 306 yards on 27-of-43 accuracy for Oregon State. He was intercepted twice, bringing his season total to nine.
BYU has won four straight. It is 3-0 since Nelson replaced Jake Heaps, a graduate of Skyline High in Issaquah.
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