The Ducks Beat Michigan. Again.

A big win, in a big house, with some big injuries.

The Ducks took their biggest road test by storm and stomped Michigan 38-17—the Wolverine’s largest home defeat in over four years.

Their decisive victory over the defending national champs was marked by the return of some star players, but some tough injuries, too.

Jordan Burch was back for the first time since sustaining a leg injury in practice prior to the Ohio game.

For my own mental health, I had already counted him out for the rest of the year. I figured that I wouldn’t hold out hope if it was a fairly serious knee injury, especially since he has some serious NFL aspirations.

But much to my delight, he was back out there and looked ready to roll.

He seemed to be on the, “Jeff Bassa Comeback Plan,” seeing as how he mostly played on key situations and had a rather quiet day with three tackles, and most of those coming on run downs.

But Burch—along with Harmon and our linebackers—was still vital in holding the run-heavy Wolverines to just 105 yards in the ground.

He definitely wasn’t back in full form chasing after the QB—no Duck really was—but to get your All-Conference type edge rusher back on November 2nd is an absolute blessing in the world of being an Oregon fan.

We also welcomed back Terrance Ferguson from an appendectomy he had just before the Purdue game. He looked 100% healthy and roughly 6.43 grams lighter (the average weight of the human appendix).

T-Ferg caught two passes for thirty-four yards, and he brought us down to the goal line on a twenty-yarder where he nearly scored and broke the “Zero Tight End Touchdown” curse we’ve been experiencing this season.

Kenyon Sadiq has been an electric weapon in Ferg’s stead, but it’s going to be really nice for Dillon to get his second-favorite safety blanket back as we approach the scariest hours of the season.

Especially since the injury report giveth, and it taketh away.

On the second offensive play of the game, Tez Johnson suffered an apparent shoulder injury from which he never returned.

We still don’t know the extent of his injury, but he came out of the locker room in street clothes and a sling, and just yesterday he reposted (and then deleted) a rather somber black and white photo to his instagram story.

All signs point to a very bad injury to our best wide receiver. That stinks.

If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that Oregon has two other WR1s on the roster, and while Evan Stewart is a known threat, I think Traeshon Holden is going to be the true difference maker down the home stretch.

Holden was the next man up on Saturday and he had himself a career day with six catches and a massive 149 yards.

I’d even go as far to say he was the spitting image of Tez Johnson.

Maybe he didn’t find the end zone, but he had one clutch catch after another, and we’re going to need that exact brand of workman-like wide receiver play from him in every game moving forward.

Not only is he a productive player, but he’s a great teammate, too.

People seem to forget that Holden was gracious enough (read: was required) to step aside and allow the young Justius Lowe to get some key in-game experience in the Ohio, Purdue, and Illinois games.

Gary Bryant Jr. and Kyler Kasper don’t seem to be coming back any time soon, so we are fortunate that Holden oh-so-selflessly allowed Lowe to get up to speed and provide us with vital depth in the pass game.

But Tez’s absence won’t merely be felt on offense.

Sometimes a player gets injured and you’d hardly even know he was missing, and other times it’s very obvious. Our first punt return without Tez was one of those other times.

On Oregon’s only turnover in the game, freshman receiver Ryan Pellum fumbled a punt and set Michigan up for their first touchdown. It was a very sad sequence since obviously he wanted that play back and the CBS cameras kept cutting back to him hanging his head on the sideline.

Pellum is a young player that will definitely grow, and if Traeshon Holden is Dan’s model for comebacks, we might even hope for something really special from him one day.

But for now, it looks like Evan Stewart is going to return punts for a bit, and I would have no problem if he just wanted to fair catch everything the rest of the way.

Another one of those other times where an opponent immediately attacks a replacement player was late in the game when Marcus Harper went down and the redshirt sophomore, Kawika Rogers, had to come in for him.

On the next play, Michigan’s Mason Graham blasted Rogers directly into the backfield and blew everything up. It didn’t foreshadow good things for Oregon’s offensive line without Harper, but Rogers did settle in a bit and blocked for Jordan James’ spread-covering touchdown at the very end.

Harper’s injury is allegedly way less serious than Tez’s. Dan said in the postgame that Harper himself told him he’s, “going to be fine.”

And I hope he’s right because this group of five big fellas have been a revelation ever since they got together in the Beaver game, and it would be a shame to break up the party now.

Oregon got some stars back, and they might have lost a few others, and those injuries were the story of this game as far as I’m concerned.

We hopped out to a big lead like we always do, and then we went into airplane mode in the third quarter like we always do.

Now, my smartwatch’s heart rate data would indicate that this was NOT the kind of game where we should have shifted down like that, but it’s starting to look like Dan believes that’s the way football should be played this season, so we’re just going to have to live with it for now.

I’m very glad to have Burch and Ferg back, and I’m devastated that I might have seen Bo Nix’s brother play his last snap in a Duck uniform.

But that’s just the nature of November in college football, and you don’t make it to mid-January without having to survive these kinds of setbacks.

Go Ducks.

UPDATE 2:21 PM Monday, November 4th:

Tez might just return to the field this season after all.