EUGENE -- The only thing stopping Oregon on Friday night was itself.

Michigan State's decent run defense was no match for Jordan James, who had a career-high 166 yards and a touchdown. The Spartans offensive line, which entering having allowed 10 sacks in five games, gave up five more to the No. 6 Ducks, with 2.5 coming from Jordan Burch.

James and Burch bookended a dominant performance at Autzen Stadium that was nowhere near as close as the 31-10 final made it appear.

Oregon (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) drove at least 48 yards on seven straight drives, including four straight scoring drives. If not for a pair of interceptions in the red zone by Dillon Gabriel, the rout would have been on far earlier for the vastly overmatched Spartans.

In search for more explosive runs, the Ducks got seven runs of 10-plus yards, six from James, including a 41-yarder.

"I've been waiting to get one of those all year," the junior running back said. "It felt great to finally get that going."

James averaged 6.9 yards over his 24 carries and Oregon ran for 5.8 yards per carry, the most against Michigan State this season. Even with the goal for more runs of 20-plus yards, Dan Lanning will settle for the abundance of James' hard runs on Friday.

"I thought we ran the ball effectively tonight," Lanning said. "That's something we have to continue to do to be a great team."

Yet the spotlight for the night belonged most to Burch, the fifth-year defensive end who is meeting his potential to be a game-wrecking pass rusher. Burch recovered a fumble by Aidan Chiles in the end zone during the first quarter to swing momentum back to Oregon and later dropped Chiles for 2.5 sacks, a career best, to bring his season total to a five, most in the Big Ten.

"He's playing with great violence and he's the kind of person that shouldn't be blocked one-on-one and we're doing a good job defensively of creating one-on-one opportunities for him and he's doing a good job of taking advantage of those," Lanning said. "He'll be the first one to tell you that great rush starts with great coverage. It starts with other guys on the front that do a great job rushing that makes him have a one-on-one. He's been able to take advantage of those and that's what we expect from Jordan."

One of those fellow defensive linemen who has freed up Burch this season is defensive tackle Derrick Harmon, who transferred to UO from Michigan State in the summer. Harmon was motivated to beat his former teammates and had a sack and pass breakup on the night, adding the havoc the Ducks continue to cause, with Burch leading the charge.

"That guy is an animal," Harmon said. "Having somebody out there on the edge that can push the pocket, rush the passer, stop the run, it's good."

No. 6 Oregon (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) vs. No. 3 Ohio State (4-0, 1-0)

Burch is showing the promise that made him one of the top edge rushers in the transfer portal following the 2022 season. Before the season defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi said Burch could produce double-digit sacks and he's on pace to do so.

"It all comes with preparation, listening to the coaches," Burch said. "I feel like if I did everything they said I could do, that's what shows on the field. Taking in coaching and believe that I can do it."

It was a performance similar to that of former Oregon edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux against UCLA in 2021, when he had two sacks in a game with multiple NFL general managers in attendance.

With New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen among the 59,802 in attendance Friday night, Burch utilized his power moves to torment Michigan State's overmatched offensive tackles and attack Chiles, who he said "kind of fell into my hands a few times."

Burch said he tries not to think about the NFL, yet, but knows he's helping himself a lot by how he's playing this season.

"I really don't try to think about it too much as the season's going on," Burch said. "But I know that's big, I try to perform as well as I can to help my draft stock throughout Saturdays."

The performances of James and Burch outweighed but do not erase the mixed results from Dillon Gabriel. The Ducks quarterback was 20 of 32 for 257 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and had three carries for 22 yards and a score.

But his two forced throws inside the red zone stalled two of UO's first four drives and kept a game that eventually got to be 31-0 closer than it needed to be for longer than necessary.

"Don't necessarily like it one bit, but was forcing things early and things that need to be corrected," Gabriel said. "We talk about playing the next play and having to respond -- there's not option -- you go back out there and you got to keep swinging. That's what I kept doing."

Oregon's defense had another lock down performance against an inferior foe, holding Michigan State to 250 yards, with just 130 through through the first three quarters, and caused havoc on more than 25% of plays over that time.

"I think ultimately that's our standard that we want to be able to perform to week in and week out regardless of opponent," Lanning said. "There's a way you that want to go out there and play defense."

For all the attention Gabriel and the offense generated throughout the offseason, and justifiably so, it's been the defense that's been more consistent and dominant through the first five games. The best defenders are performing at a high level reflective of their talent and NFL potential.

Lanning has spoken about the Ducks finding their identity, specifically on offense, at the beginning of this season. Thus far, a case could be made that the team's identity is built on what could prove to be an elite defense, though that will have to be proven against better competition, starting next week against No. 3 Ohio State.

"I think there's going to be moments within this season that both sides are going to have to lift each other up and you want to be able to play complementary football," Lanning said. "At times we've certainly played great defense. At times we've played great offense. For us to be who we want to be we got to be able to do that across the board, special teams, offense and defense.

"We always talk about at some moment you might have to put each other on each other's back. That showed up a couple of times in this game. It'll be something that's going to continue throughout the season if we want to be a great team."