Travis Dye rushed for a career-high 211 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries to help No. 4 Oregon better its chances of qualifying for the College Football Playoff with a 26-16 win against Washington on Saturday evening in a Pac-12 game in Seattle.
Anthony Brown passed for one touchdown and ran for another for the Ducks (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12), who were ranked fourth in the initial College Football Playoff rankings released on Tuesday night.
The Ducks should move up after No. 3 Michigan State lost to Purdue 40-29 on Saturday.
Washington (4-5, 3-3) took an early 9-3 lead and only trailed by a point at halftime, but ultimately was held to 166 total yards on the day and finished 3-for-12 on third down.
Dye carried the ball five straight times for 68 yards on Oregon’s first drive of the second half, and Brown capped it with a 2-yard touchdown run to make it 17-9 with 9:38 left in the third quarter.
Dye scored on a 19-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to stretch the lead to 24-9.
Washington running back Sean McGrew scored his second rushing touchdown of the game from 2 yards out to cut it to 24-16 with 11:13 left.
The Ducks reached the Washington 5-yard line with about three minutes left, but penalties backed the Ducks out of field-goal range, and the Huskies got the ball back at their 10 with 2:14 remaining.
After three straight incompletions, Washington opted to punt the ball away with 1:59 left, but the ball was snapped out of the end zone for a safety to increase the lead to 26-16.
McGrew scored on a 1-yard run to give Washington a 7-0 lead with 12:14 left in the first quarter.
The Ducks answered with a 46-yard field goal by Camden Lewis on their second drive to make it 7-3.
Dye was tackled in the end zone for a safety to make it 9-3 with 7:01 left in the opening quarter. However, Brown found Devon Williams in the back of the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown pass to move the Ducks ahead 10-9 with 5:08 left in the first half.
–Field Level Media