EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon football team extended the nation’s longest nonconference home win streak and remained unbeaten through three games this season with a 55-10 win Saturday over Hawai’i before 52,779 fans in Autzen Stadium.The No. 13 Ducks entered the night with the longest nonconference home winning streak in the nation after Alabama’s loss to Texas the previous week. Saturday’s win was No. 32 in a row for Oregon in nonconference games in Autzen.Oregon also entered this week as the top scoring team in the FBS, averaging 59.5 points per game. They nearly matched that average Saturday, with Bo Nix throwing for three touchdowns, Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden each having two touchdown receptions and Jordan James running for two scores.“Really fun atmosphere tonight,” UO coach Dan Lanning said. “I thought our team started really fast, and showed what we were capable of from an efficiency standpoint really in all three phases.”Saturday’s win sets up a showdown in Oregon’s Pac-12 Conference opener next Saturday with Colorado. That game will kick off at 12:30 p.m., and will be televised by ABC.“Every game is important, so that doesn’t necessarily change for us,” Lanning said. “But what do I want to see? Growth. I saw a team when I walked in that locker room tonight, their eyes were burning through their skulls because they’re hungry to get better. And that’s what I want to continue to see.”The Ducks (3-0) entered the weekend looking to clean up some penalties and tighten up their pass defense after a win the previous week at Texas Tech. Through three quarters — before plumbing their depth to get younger players experience — Oregon allowed just 79 passing yards and had six penalties for 45 yards. The Ducks led 48-3 entering the fourth.That said, three penalties on Oregon contributed to the Rainbow Warriors’ first-half drive to a field goal, and two more occurred on their late touchdown drive.“In a lot of ways I thought we were really close to playing a complete game,” Lanning said. “But that overshadowed it a little for me.”Nix finished 21-of-27 passing for 247 yards, and he now has eight passing touchdowns with no interceptions through three games; as a team, the Ducks still have yet to commit a turnover. Nix threw both the passes his childhood friend Johnson caught for touchdowns, and one of the two caught by Holden.Backup QB Ty Thompson also threw a touchdown pass to Holden, of 60 yards in the fourth quarter.James had both of his rushing touchdowns in the first half, giving him five in two games at home this season. Those two scores, two field goals by Camden Lewis and one TD each by Johnson and Holden helped Oregon to a 34-3 lead at halftime.“We felt like we didn’t perform how we were supposed to perform last week,” Holden said. “Practice this week, we felt like the offense had a great week of preparation. And we went out there and showed what we could do.”Tysheem Johnson had eight tackles to lead the UO defense, and Khyree Jackson had an interception for the second straight game. Jordan Burch and Popo Aumavae added sacks for the Ducks, who didn’t allow a touchdown until there was just 2:28 left in the game; at that point, Oregon was playing as many as 10 true freshmen at a time on defense.“I feel like we played disciplined for the most part,” Jackson said. “I think it’s a couple of things we’ve got to clean up. Because we know we’re gonna be playing better teams as the season goes on. So we don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot. But I think we did better — we made progress today.”Noah Whittington rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown to lead Oregon on the ground. Bucky Irving added 59 yards on 12 carries, as the Ducks averaged seven yards per carry on the night. Thompson finished 5-of-7 passing for 102 yards and the long touchdown to Holden.
