STILLWATER, Okla. - Dan Lanning was hunting for a jolt, and he went to the kind of move that has come to define his coaching personality.
Twice in the second half of Oregon’s 39-31 loss at Oklahoma State, the Ducks coach chose to go for it on fourth down in risky spots at Boone Pickens Stadium. Twice, Oregon came up empty. And twice, the Cowboys turned those stops into points.
Lanning didn’t shy away from the logic behind the calls.
“I think you had to be aggressive in those moments, especially when you’re not having success, to keep it going,” Lanning said. “But if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, then you create short fields.”
Oklahoma State coach Eric Norris said the decisions caught him off guard, but he understood what Lanning was trying to do.
“I think he was trying to get something going and get some of the momentum on offense,” Norris said. “And credit to our defense for making those key stops and getting it back to our offense.”
The fourth-down choices didn’t directly decide the game. Oregon still had a chance late, down one possession with time left on the clock, before running back Dierre Hill Jr. fumbled with 1:50 remaining. Oklahoma State recovered at the Oregon 40-yard line and drained the rest of the clock.
Still, the sequence laid bare how much Oregon was fighting its own offense all night.
The first gamble came in the third quarter with Oregon trailing 27-24. Facing fourth-and-7 at the OSU 43, Lanning stayed aggressive.
Dante Moore was sacked, and Oklahoma State took over at its own 48. The Cowboys moved to the 26 and knocked through a 44-yard field goal to stretch the lead to 30-24.
The call fit the broader trend in modern football, where teams are more willing to keep the offense on the field in opponent territory rather than settle for a punt that might end in a touchback or a return that flips field position anyway.
But Oregon’s passing game was having a rough night, which made the decision a tough one to sell. Moore finished 14 of 29 for 191 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, and he took five sacks behind a shaky offensive line. Dropped passes and errant throws kept the Ducks out of rhythm.
The second fourth-down try came in the fourth quarter, with Oregon down 36-31 and facing fourth-and-8 from its own 33. The play sent Moore rolling right before he threw toward Hill near the Oregon sideline. It didn’t work, and Oklahoma State later added a 31-yard field goal to make it 39-31 with 3:11 left.
Lanning said one reason for bypassing a punt was the possibility of keeping the game within one score if the Cowboys settled for three. That’s exactly what happened, though Oregon’s last push ended with Hill’s fumble.
There was also the matter of Oregon’s defense, which spent a long night on the field and gave up 554 total yards. Oklahoma State held the ball for 36:54, compared with 23:06 for the Ducks. Lanning said giving the Cowboys another possession on a short field wasn’t appealing, especially with his defense wearing down.
In his view, the real frustration wasn’t just the failed fourth-down plays. It was that Oregon often didn’t make enough progress on the earlier downs to make those calls cleaner.
“I think there will be second-guessing, 100%,” Lanning said. “We’re gonna go back and evaluate the third downs, the fourth downs that we did convert, and the ones that we didn’t. Got to be able to take advantage of those situations if we’re gonna be a team that has success.”
The fourth-down gambles didn’t lose the game by themselves. But they did spotlight a team still searching for answers.
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