EUGENE - Oregon entered Saturday with all the trappings of a powerhouse and left with something a lot uglier: a 17-15 loss to No. 21 UCLA and a season that now looks thoroughly off the rails.
The Ducks are 3-2, and at this point the talk about the College Football Playoff feels more like wishful noise than a real plan. If Oregon wins its final seven games, including at Ohio State on Nov. 7, then the conversation can start. Until then, the bigger story is the damage already done.
“This is a bad football team.”
That’s the central truth hanging over Dan Lanning’s group after five weeks. Oregon has plenty of talent and plenty of money behind it, and none of that has translated into results.
The Ducks were ranked No. 2 in the preseason polls. Now they look far closer to a Las Vegas Bowl outfit than a playoff team.
Lanning inherited a team that reached the national semifinal last season, kept key talent in place and added even more through the portal and recruiting. Instead of taking a leap, Oregon has gotten worse.
The reasons are all over the place: coaching, execution, discipline. The reality is harsher than any of them.
When Lanning was asked about the future of offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer, he said, “Everything has to be up for evaluation,” but that only underscored how much of this falls on the head coach. Lanning chose to promote from within when he replaced Will Stein. That decision belongs to him.
Saturday’s mess fit the season. Oregon even showed up in “Origin of Speed” uniforms, a nod to the program’s fast-paced past, but the present version looks nothing like a dynamo. The Ducks are a middling team wearing the costume of something better.
The quarterback situation turned chaotic, too. Dylan Raiola was thrust into the spotlight, then benched after a rough afternoon that included two interceptions.
Oregon as a team coughed it up seven times. Raiola, who played well in emergency duty against USC two weeks earlier, fell back into the same frustrating habits that made him such a volatile player at Nebraska.
His worst moment came late in the third quarter, when he fired a back-foot throw into double coverage and was sent to the bench. Still, he did not dodge the fallout.
“I’m going to work my hardest to not let that happen again,” he said.
It wasn’t all on him. The Ducks’ offensive line never gave him much help, and without a usable run game, every throw became a survival play.
Now Oregon may have to sort through another quarterback question. Dante Moore practiced this week while working through the concussion protocol, and Lanning said, “I anticipate that there’s going to be an opportunity for him to be back out there,” but that hardly guarantees anything. If Moore can’t go next week, Lanning will be forced to pick between Raiola and Brock Thomas against Nebraska.
Thomas, a lightly recruited hometown player, was the one who gave Oregon its best spark against UCLA and nearly pulled off a wild comeback. Given what happened Saturday, he looks like the clear choice.
The Bruins, under former James Madison coach Bob Chesney, deserve plenty of credit for the win. Nico Iamaleava also had a messy afternoon and nearly matched Raiola mistake for mistake, which kept UCLA from turning the game into a blowout. Iamaleava’s lost fumble at the one-yard line in the first quarter was a huge moment, and it helped keep Oregon within reach.
Even then, the Ducks had chances. Lanning’s decision to go for two on the first touchdown of the game was questionable.
Evan Stewart nearly broke free as time expired. Oregon could look at the film and find enough small openings to argue it might have survived the day.
But that would miss the larger point.
This was the worst, most disastrous game of Lanning’s tenure, and it came in the middle of the most dysfunctional season of his time in Eugene. The Ducks still had a path to win. That says less about hope than it does about how much has already gone wrong.
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Big Ten Weighs In On Controversial Ending To UCLAs Biggest Win
UCLAs 17-15 road win over Oregon already had the feel of a game that would linger, mostly because the Bruins leaned on their defense and left the Ducks chasing a result that slipped away in the fourth quarter. The finish turned on a sequence that had everyone in Autzen looking twice, as Oregon came up short on two separate two-point tries while trying to keep pace in a one-possession game.
The postgame conversation only grew louder once the Big Ten acknowledged an officiating error on the spot of the ball for the second conversion attempt and released a statement saying it had reviewed the play and remains committed to consistent rule application. For Oregon, that does not change the result, but it does add another layer to a loss that will be replayed for a long time whenever the Ducks look back at how close they came. [Read more 🡒]
Oregons Biggest Early Problem Starts With A Troubling Offensive Line Miss
Oregons early-season offensive problems have been easy to see and even easier to trace back to the front five. The Ducks have not gotten the run game going the way they expected, and the pass protection has been shaky enough to make life harder on backup quarterback Dylan Raiola, even with talented backs in the room. It has left a roster that should be able to move the ball looking out of sync in the one area that usually gives a team its identity.
Dan Lanning has already acknowledged the evaluation miss, saying the staff believed too much in its in-house offensive line talent after losing key pieces and did not lean enough on the transfer portal to patch the group. For Oregon, that is the uncomfortable part: this is not just about one bad game or one bad stretch, but about a foundational issue that can ripple through everything the Ducks want to do on offense. The line has to stabilize first, and until it does, the rest of the attack is stuck waiting. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Has A Dylan Raiola Reunion Brewing With One Big Catch
With Dante Moore still in concussion protocol, Oregon is heading into its matchup with Nebraska with the quarterback picture unsettled, and that naturally puts Dylan Raiola back in the spotlight. The backup arrived with plenty of buzz and has already shown the range that comes with being thrust into a bigger role, following a strong showing against USC before a rough night in the loss to UCLA.
Raiolas next chance could come against the school he once called home, which gives this game a little extra weight even before the kickoff. For Oregon, it is less about the reunion angle than the practical question of who will be under center, and that uncertainty leaves the Ducks waiting on a decision that could shape the way this trip unfolds. [Read more 🡒]