The No. 1 Oregon Ducks narrowly avoided an upset on the road as the Wisconsin Badgers took them to the wire, but the Ducks would prevail Saturday night in a 16-13 thriller at Camp Randall Stadium.

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel had his worst game of the season in the close win over the Badgers. Gabriel didn’t throw for a touchdown for the first time all season, but completed 22 of 31 passes for 218 yards and an interception. The Ducks quarterback also rushed 11 times for seven yards.

The Ducks survived their biggest scare of the season since their 32-31 win over Ohio State on Oct. 12. Gabriel said in his post-game press conference after the game that everything came together in the end and Oregon came out on top.

“It’s hard to win. And big games have to happen in big moments,” Gabriel said. “And I thought a lot of our players made those things happen, you know, as a fourth down stop on the defense. Atticus[Sappington}withbigkicksandbeingperfectinthatsituationandwhenweneededitonOIthoughtthatwedidagoodjobofmakingitbutlikeIsaidwewerestillabletohelpourselvesandsetfieldgoalswhichallowedustoyouknowgetpointsmorethanplusfour”

“But I think in general it’s hard to win games, and when you have a team that knows how to win and doesn’t question anything, I think that speaks volumes about the guys we have in our building,” Gabriel continued.

Oregon’s offense went scoreless through the second and third quarters as they struggled mightily through the air at times, something Gabriel attributed to third-down inefficiencies and negative plays.

“I thought we moved the ball really well early. I thought we did some good things early. And get the first one (down) first and move that way, but I struggled at times in the third downs and then got negative points on my part. So all that doesn’t help me play efficiently,” Gabriel said. “But I think you look at certain drives when we needed them. I thought we played really well. But yeah, I just got to clean that stuff up.”

Gabriel added that it took a total collective team effort to pull off the comeback win for the Ducks.

“Just a bunch of guys who have played a lot of football and know what it takes to win,” Gabriel said. “It’s not easy, like I said. Being in this situation, one more game, it’s just hard to do.”

Oregon’s streak of nine straight games scoring 30 or more points was snapped by the Badgers. On a positive note, Gabriel made his 60th career start, the most among active FBS quarterbacks and one shy of former Duck Bo Nix’s FBS record for starts by a quarterback.

“Find a way,” Gabriel said during the postgame broadcast on FOX. “Whatever it takes. We had a bunch of unselfish players who wanted to win. It didn’t look the way people might have thought, but that ‘W’ on the scoreboard is all that matters.”