No. 2 Penn State 38, Oregon 20

Jan. 1, 1995
Pasadena, Calif.
Attendance: 102,247

Oregon wasn’t satisfied with just advancing to the Rose Bowl, not intimidated by facing an unbeaten opponent supposedly armed with the best offense in history nor awed by the largest crowd ever to watch the Ducks play football. And, when it was over, Oregon proved it truly belonged in Pasadena.

The Ducks represented its league for the first time in 37 years in the post-season game reserved for the champion and no Pacific-10 Conference sympathizer was embarrassed to have Oregon as itsemissary. The Ducks’ offense pushed second-ranked Penn State around for 501 yards and its defense lived up to its advance billing.

It was Oregon’s resolve that was tested when All-America tailback Ki-Jana Carter streaked 83 yards on Penn State’s first offensive play to saddle the Ducks with an early 7-0 deficit. It didn’t take Oregon long to knot the score and senior quarterback Danny O’Neil’s second touchdown pass of the day brought the Ducks back to a 14-14 stalemate following linebacker Reggie Jordan’s interception of Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins.

Oregon’s offense was not appreciably scuttled throughout the game. O’Neil contributed in some form to 13 Rose Bowl records, including individual marks for passes attempted and completed and yardage through the air.

Penn State led the nation in offense with a 520-yard average, but was held below that figure by Gang Green, the acronym for Oregon’s aggressive defense. The Big Ten Conference champion scored all three second-half touchdowns after taking possession in Oregon territory.

O’Neil’s record day resulted in tight end Josh Wilcox catching 11 passes and flanker Cristin McLemore 10 more.

SCORING
PS.......Ki-Jana Carter 83 run (Brett Conway kick), 10:50, 1st
UO.......Josh Wilcox 1 pass from Danny O’Neil (Matt Belden kick), 10:05, 1st
PS.......Brian Milne 1 run (Conway kick), 1:26, 2nd
UO.......Cristin McLemore 17 pass from O’Neil (Belden kick), 4:54, 3rd
PS.......Carter 17 run (Conway kick), 3:53, 3rd
PS.......Carter 3 run (Conway kick), 2:01, 3rd
PS.......Conway 43 FG, 5:43, 4th
PS.......Jon Witman 9 run (Michael Barninger kick), 4:24, 4th
UO.......Ricky Whittle 3 run (pass failed), 2:44, 4th

Individual Leaders

Rushing
Carter (PS) 21-156, Milne (PS) 9-36.
Whittle (UO) 12-45.

Passing
O'Neil (UO) 41-61-2-456
Collins (PS) 19-30-1-200.

Receiving
Wilcox (UO) 11-135, McLemore (UO) 10-90,
Engram (PS) 5-52, Scott (PS) 4-41.