A year after getting dominated twice by Utah, No. 12 Oregon secured revenge and showed program growth with a gritty 20-17 win over the No. 10 Utes on Saturday in a late-night Pac-12 showdown. The win puts the Ducks on the precipice of reaching Pac-12 Championship Game under first-year coach Dan Lanning.
After the disappointment of a rivalry loss to Washington last week that knocked Oregon out of College Football Playoff contention, the Ducks had to soldier through some injuries to outlast the Utes. Most notably, quarterback Bo Nix was clearly hobbled after suffering a leg injury late in last week's game. The Auburn transfer looked far less than 100% healthy, but threw for 287 yards anyway and came up with a huge first-down run to ice the game late in the fourth quarter.
If Oregon beats rival No. 23 Oregon State next week, it will match up with No. 7 USC in the Pac-12 title game. The Trojans were among a handful of CFP hopefuls to survive scares on Saturday and remain in the national title hunt as they outlasted No. 16 UCLA 48-45.
The only team in the top seven of this week's CFP Rankings that didn't lose or get pushed to the brink of defeat on Saturday was No. 6 LSU. The Tigers beat visiting UAB 41-10 and improved to 9-2 ahead of their regular-season finale with Texas A&M next week. With No. 5 Tennessee losing at South Carolina, the Tigers are likely to move up in next week's CFP Rankings as they seek to become the first-ever two-loss team to make the CFP field.
College football scores, schedule: Week 12
No. 3 Michigan 19, Illinois 17 -- Takeaways, recap
No. 4 TCU 29, Baylor 28 --Takeaways, recap
No. 8 Alabama 34, Austin Peay 0 -- Recap
No. 18 Notre Dame 44, Boston College 0 --Recap
No. 1 Georgia 16, Kentucky 6 -- Takeaways, recap
No. 9 Clemson 40, Miami 10 -- Recap
No. 2 Ohio State 43, Maryland 30 -- Takeaways, recap
No. 11 Penn State 55, Rutgers 10 -- Recap
Texas 55, Kansas 14 -- Recap
South Carolina 63, No. 5 Tennessee 31 -- Recap
Arkansas 42, No. 14 Ole Miss 27 -- Recap
Oklahoma 28, No. 22 Oklahoma State 13 -- Recap
No. 7 USC 48, No. 16 UCLA 45 -- Takeaways, recap
No. 6 LSU 41, UAB 10 -- Recap
No. 12 Oregon 20, No. 10 Utah 17 -- Recap
Check out the entire Week 12 scoreboard
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