(Associated Press)
Despite abbreviated outings, Saint Louis School alum Marcus Mariota continues to strengthen his Heisman Trophy candidacy.
Mariota accounted for a career-high seven touchdowns to lead the second-ranked Oregon Ducks to a 57-16 Pac-12 Conference victory over Colorado on Saturday in Boulder, Colo.
The sophomore quarterback went 16-for-27 for 355 yards and five touchdowns, including a pretty 75-yard connection with Bralon Addison during a 29-point first quarter. He also rushed for 43 yards and two more TDs against the Buffaloes before finishing up his day with the Ducks up 57-16 midway through the third quarter.
Mariota has played a full four quarters only four times among his 18 career starts for the Ducks, and he’s yet to play into the fourth quarter this season, as Oregon has scored 55 or more points each game while rolling up a 5-0 record.
Even playing part-time, Mariota has racked up stats for the Ducks. He has thrown for 1,358 yards and 14 touchdowns, completing 76 of 134 passing attempts with no interceptions for an efficiency rating of 176.3.
He’s tied for second on the team in rushing with 338 yards on just 28 carries — an average of 12.1 yards per carry — with seven rushing touchdowns.
Mariota is at or near the top of a number of Heisman Trophy watch lists, having gone into the Colorado game at No. 2 on the Heisman Pundit straw poll and at No. 1 on ESPN and Huffington Post’s watch lists.
Mariota adds to his career résumé
• Mariota has now thrown at least one touchdown pass in all 18 games of his Oregon career, and has thrown for and run for a TD in seven consecutive games.
• Mariota has now gone 202 attempts without an interception, breaking the UO record of 178 set by Kellen Clemens in 2004. His last interception came in the first half of last year’s game against Stanford.
• Mariota passed Chris Miller and Akili Smith to move into sixth on the Ducks’ all-time list for career passing touchdowns, with 46. His school-best career TD-INT ratio is 46-6.
Good job keep up the hard and good work