Ducks suddenly up the creek once Dixon goes down

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Numb yet?

If not, check No. 2 Oregon for feeling in its extremities. The only two body parts that mattered for the Ducks were out of action:

Dennis Dixon's right arm and his left knee.

With Dennis Dixon out of uniform, the Ducks are out of luck. (AP)

Because the quarterback reinjured his knee, taking that golden arm with to the bench nine minutes into the game, Oregon became the latest casualty in this cruelest of falls -- because of the cruelest of falls.

That would be Dixon crumpling at the Arizona 20, untouched, with six minutes left in the first quarter of the Wildcats' 34-24 victory. Done for the game. Perhaps done for the year.

Never has a quarterback, a team and a season collapsed faster. Sensing the mother of all openings, Mike Stoops' previously underachieving Wildcats scored 24 of the next 27 points and sent this season spinning off its axis again.

For the rest of us, maybe these upsets have become routine. For certain, though, the Ducks -- who thought they were flying toward a championship berth -- aren't feeling much of anything.

Trading New Orleans for San Diego might seem fair. But The Big Easy is the site of the national championship game. The Holiday Bowl could be for the birds, make that the Ducks, now 8-2.

Oregon still could control its destiny for the Rose Bowl if USC beats Arizona State on Thanksgiving, but that's what the BCS has done to us -- make the Rose Bowl seem like a disappointment. Plus, that would be a Rose Bowl probably without Dennis Dixon.

"I feel bad for Dennis because his year was one of those magical years and it looks like it might be at an end," coach Mike Bellotti said. "I think he's probably done for the year, would be my guess."

Welcome to their world, Ducks. Michigan, USC, Cal, West Virginia, South Florida, Boston College and Ohio State, that is. Leave anyone out? Probably. This was the fifth time in seven weeks the No. 2 team in the AP poll has fallen.

The natural human tendency is let down when your superstar leaves the game. This time the grip loosening was palpable. When the Wildcats got it going they couldn't be stopped -- 24 points in a 14½-minute span over two quarters. An 11-7 Oregon lead turned into a 31-11 Arizona runaway.

"Of course, for a minute, everybody had that mindset," Ducks tailback Jonathan Stewart said of the letdown.