The Oregon Ducks came up short on Saturday losing to rival Washington 36-33. Head coach Dan Lanning did not have his best game coaching as the team missed three fourth down attempts including one late in the game that set up the winning score. After the game, Lanning owned up to his mistakes saying the loss was “100% on me”.
Oregon Ducks Head Coach Dan Lanning Takes Blame For Loss
The Ducks defense had a goal-line stand with six and a half minutes to go in the game. Facing fourth-and-3 from the Washington 47-yard line, Lanning opted to go for it to effectively end the game. Bo Nix threw an incomplete pass and the Huskies took over with a short field. Lanning felt comfortable going for it because his defense had been playing well in the second half. “That being said, it didn’t work,” Lanning added. “So obviously it will be second-guessed.” We’ve seen this throughout the football season in both the college and pro levels. Coaches are getting aggressive and when it doesn’t work out, a lot of people begin to question the decisions.
Not The Only Questionable Call
The end of the first half also saw Lanning be aggressive. A fourth and goal from the three-yard line was missed as time expired in the half. Oregon could have opted to kick the field goal but instead tried to go for the score. That three points was the difference at the end of the game. Lanning talked about this play as well.
“The one before half is where you can say let’s take that field goal. And it’s something I’m going to assess. Go evaluate for me. We checked to see if we liked the look. We liked the look before we ran the play — we just didn’t execute.”
Execution was the problem in these plays throughout the game. Oregon had the opportunities but could not come away with the big conversion at critical times in the game.
For all the criticism that we can put on Dan Lanning, the Oregon Ducks did have a field goal in order to send the game into overtime. While it was missed, it wasn’t like the Ducks did not have an opportunity to win the game. Oregon will now try and run the table the rest of the year and hope that the chips fall their way with other teams losing.