This game was effectively over two plays into the 4th quarter when Oregon scored its fourth touchdown and expand the lead to 24 points. At 62% called passing plays, this was a somewhat more pass-heavy dataset than most games this season – the average in the other 10 FBS games prior to garbage time is 57% pass plays.
During Oregon’s first three possessions of the game, the offense was fairly balanced and more methodical than usual, at 53% passing and with the first drive taking up the most time of any all season. But the fourth was a quick-tempo scoring drive at the end of the half that was all called pass plays, and then as the lead grew in the second half OSU’s defense began loading the box to dissuade the Ducks from eating up too much clock by running the ball as they had at the beginning of the game, which led to a significant shift in run-pass balance strong enough to tip the entire dataset the other way.