Dante Moore didn’t just survive Oregon’s Week 1 stress test - he owned it.
The Oregon quarterback put together the best game of his young season, throwing for a career-high 378 yards and three touchdowns as the No. 2 Ducks edged Boise State 34-27 on Saturday at Autzen Stadium. The Broncos hung around all afternoon and pushed the game to the wire, but Oregon found enough answers to stay unbeaten at 1-0.
It wasn’t smooth early. Oregon managed only 66 total yards in the first half and went into the break trailing 17-14.
But once the Ducks settled in, Moore took control and Oregon scored on every second-half possession. One of those drives covered 87 yards in just under three minutes, a sign of how quickly the Ducks’ offense can shift gears when it gets rolling.
Moore completed 28 of 37 passes and spread the ball to seven different receivers. Jeremiah McClellan was the biggest beneficiary, finishing with 150 yards on six catches and a touchdown.
Jamari Johnson and Dakorien Moore also reached the end zone, while Evan Stewart added 72 yards on eight receptions in his first game since 2024. Jordon Davison supplied Oregon’s first score of the season, finishing with 12 carries for 90 yards.
The biggest swing came late in the fourth quarter, when Moore connected on a 62-yard catch-and-run with 7:51 left to put Oregon ahead for good.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game,” Moore said in the CBS postgame interview with Jenny Dell. “They came in here two years ago and put in the same effort.
As a guy who experienced that game, we knew it wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. So when we were down or when we were up, we always had that next-play mentality.”
Oregon piled up 497 total yards, but Boise State made the Ducks earn every inch. Maddux Madsen kept the Broncos in the fight with 181 passing yards and three touchdown throws of his own, and Boise State carried a 17-14 lead into halftime. Oregon’s defense, though, came through when it mattered most, shutting Madsen down on the final drive to close out the win.
Afterward, Dan Lanning pointed to the kind of lesson his team just took on.
“It reveals character,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning told CBS' Jenny Dell after the game. “We won the game.
There’s a lot to fix, there’s a lot to clean up. I think these guys are going to come out motivated.
The Ducks now head into their first road game of the season, a Sept. 12 trip to Oklahoma State for a 9 a.m. PT kickoff. The Cowboys opened with a 24-10 loss to Tulsa, but Stillwater will still give Oregon a real road environment after a Week 1 game that asked plenty of questions and gave the Ducks some hard-earned answers.
In Other News...
Boise State Opens At Oregon With A New Warning Taking Shape
Boise States season opener at Oregon will come with more than just the usual road-game glare at Autzen Stadium. The Ducks are building a massive new indoor football practice facility called 2.Mo nearby, a 170,000-square-foot project that is already nearing full height and shaping up to be the largest of its kind in college football. The buildings distinctive design has made it hard to miss, and the timeline points to a 2027 completion.
For Oregon, the project has become part of the programs larger message under Dan Lanning, who has framed the facility as a reflection of where the Ducks are headed. For Boise State, it is another reminder of the scale and ambition waiting on the other sideline, even before the first kickoff. The opening week setting already figures to be loud enough without the backdrop of a program building something even bigger in plain sight. [Read more 🡒]
Boise State Caught Oregon At The Right Time On Offense
Oregon came into its Week 1 matchup with Boise State missing some pieces that could have changed the feel of the game before it even settled in. Wide receivers Iverson Hooks and Jalen Lott were not part of pregame warmups because of injury or unavailability, while sophomore edge rusher Nasir Wyatt also looked like he was working through something, even though he was on the field for the first half.
The Ducks still had key receivers Evan Stewart, Dakorien Moore and Jeremiah McClellan available, and they all had a role in the contest. Even so, the early availability picture gave Boise State a chance to face Oregons offense with a little less of its usual margin for error, which is the kind of break that can matter when a team is trying to start fast against a high-level opponent. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Suddenly Has A Serious Week 1 Problem At Autzen
Autzen Stadium got a jolt right away in Week 1, and Boise State spent the first half making the crowd sit with it. The Broncos, listed as a 24.5-point underdog, grabbed control with an opening-drive touchdown and then took advantage of a muffed punt to build a 17-14 halftime lead over No. 2 Oregon.
Boise States start has been about more than just a hot opening script, too, with Maddux Madsen helping the Broncos stay on schedule and the defense repeatedly stepping up in key spots. Oregon gets the ball to begin the second half, which gives the Ducks a chance to reset the game quickly, but the bigger question now is whether Boise State can keep forcing them to play from behind in a building that was supposed to be a tough early test, not a tense one. [Read more 🡒]