EUGENE, Ore. - Oregon escaped its opener with a win, but not with its reputation fully intact.
No. 2 Oregon needed a fourth-quarter stop to finally breathe Saturday at Autzen Stadium, holding off Boise State 34-27 before a crowd of 57,652. Maddux Madsen’s fourth-and-10 pass late in the game fell short, and only then did the Ducks get the kind of relief their performance had been missing for most of the afternoon.
Dan Lanning didn’t dress it up afterward. The Ducks, loaded with national championship expectations and talent, looked nothing like a team ready to roll from the opening kick.
Boise State scored on its first possession, then shut down Oregon’s first two drives. A muffed punt in the second quarter set up another Broncos score, and suddenly the visitors were in control, leading 17-7 at one point and 17-14 at halftime.
“We didn't win the critical situations. We didn't start fast,” Lanning said. “The performance and execution has to be better.”
The problems were spread across the box score and the eye test. Oregon was flagged 10 times for 90 yards, including two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. The Ducks also lost the turnover battle and spent more than 31 minutes on defense while Boise State kept the ball moving.
“A lot of it was self-inflicted,” Lanning said.
“That's not winning football. Not good enough, not to our standard.”
CBS reported that Lanning’s halftime message was as blunt as the scoreboard suggested: “We need to turn it the F up and turn it the F on,” he said.
Lanning later described the balancing act of trying to jolt a team without losing control of the moment.
“You've got to figure out what button you're going to push, right?” Lanning said of his approach to his team's struggles. “Is this one where you need to go ahead and ramp it up and change the energy and the juice, or is this one where you need to have patience?”
Dante Moore said Lanning brought exactly the kind of response Oregon needed.
“Coach Lanning came in with this juice and screaming, you know, in a positive way,” Moore said, “saying, 'The score is 0-0, let's respond.'”
The Ducks did answer right after halftime, opening the third quarter with 17 straight points. Even then, Boise State kept hanging around, and the game was still tied in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Oregon finally created separation when Moore hit Dakorien Moore on a 62-yard touchdown pass to put the Ducks ahead for good. The final margin was still narrow, especially for a team with lofty goals, and Oregon’s edge in yardage - nearly 200 more than Boise State - only underscored how much cleaner this could have looked.
“We've got a lot to learn,” Dante Moore said. “Thank God it wasn't a 50-point blowout because this just shows us who we are right now and how we have to attack [the rest of the season].”
Lanning and Moore both framed the game as a warning and a lesson. That perspective matters in Eugene, where Boise State also pushed Oregon in the 2024 opener before the Ducks won 37-34 on a last-second field goal and went on to an undefeated regular season and a Big Ten title.
“You love having a challenge early,” Lanning said. “At times you want to get a win in every situation.
It's going to be a win that we can learn from, right? There are things that we can attack and improve coaches as well.
I think that's what will show up.”
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For Oregon, the attention is flattering, but it also comes with the familiar weight of expectation. The Ducks have been to the national title game before, in 2010 and 2014, and the next step is the one that has eluded them. Being talked about as a future champion is one thing, but living up to a forecast like this starts long before January. [Read more 🡒]