Oregon Ducks quarterback Bo Nix (10) signals to the sideline during the second half against the Portland State Vikings at Autzen Stadium. Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports

Oregon opens season with record-setting performance

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 9/2/23

The No. 15 ranked Oregon Ducks opened their 2023 season Saturday with a tune-up game against FCS Portland State, and it ended up being a record-setting day for the Ducks offense.

Oregon set a modern-day program record by scoring 81 points in an 81-7 thrashing of an overmatched Portland State team that had no answer for anything the Ducks offense was doing.

It also resulted in the person inside of the Oregon Duck mascot having to do a whopping 546 pushups in celebration of all of the points.

RIP Duck.

Cause of death: 81 points worth of pushups. pic.twitter.com/QEvTtPBgzT
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 2, 2023

Oregon's Heisman hopeful quarterback, Bo Nix, had a particularly big day in the win by completing 23-of-27 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns before he was removed from the game.

His backups didn't exactly let, up as Ty Thompson and Austin Novosad came off the bench to go a combined 10-for-11 for 94 yards and another touchdown in mop-up duty.

Oregon's win was one of many lopsided blowouts on the Week 1 slate of games as several power conference schools played lesser teams that were no match for them.

No. 20 Oklahoma beat Arkansas State 73-0, while No. 22 Ole Miss rolled over Mercer by a 73-7 margin. Notre Dame also had no contest from Tennessee State in a 56-3 win.

These games may not be fun to watch from a competitive standpoint, and fans are not really getting anything out of them, but these smaller schools get paid a decent chunk of money to show up and get blown out, while teams like Oregon, Ole Miss, Notre Dame and Oklahoma add an automatic win to their resume.

Not ideal. But it is the way the NCAA works.

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