Dan Lanning analyzes Oregon's struggles on defense

Oregon finally suffered its second defeat of the season this past weekend in a thrilling 37-34 home loss to Washington. After eight wins in a row following the Georgia blowout to start the year, the Ducks had re-asserted themselves back into the thick of the College Football Playoff hunt. A second loss generally means that opportunity is out the window. But still, an admirable first season for Dan Lanning given how it started.

Saturday, it was the defense that ultimately gave in. Husky quarterback Michael Penix run amuck against the Ducks, tossing the ball for over 400 yards and two touchdowns to torch Oregon for the second-most points they’ve allowed so far this season. If you’re pointing to one side of the ball as the reason for the loss, it was certainly the defense.

After the game, Lanning was asked about the poor defensive effort, to which he provided no clear answer as to what went wrong, but knows it’s on him and the staff to get back to practice and figure out how to come out better prepared against a tough Utah squad this coming week.

“You’ll have to go look, you know, at what you have. You’re playing with the same group, you’re playing with the same, you know, scheme at times. You got to figure out what you can do better. And obviously we haven’t fallen into that. But yet we can still get better there.”

Still time and room for improvement on the defensive side of the football, per Dan Lanning. Those improvements are going to have to come pretty quickly, though, if they’re going to make any difference this season.

Lanning sends message after loss: ‘I love this team’

Despite a heart-breaking second loss of the season on Saturday, Lanning isn’t down on his team at all.

“The message was, ‘I love this team,’” he said. “We didn’t really finish this game the way we want, but we’ve been a connected team all year and that doesn’t change because of this result. My love is not based on the result of this game. I love that locker room, I’m proud of that locker room. We didn’t play the way we wanted to play, and that really falls on me.”

A player’s coach for you. Takes the blame for the loss and doesn’t throw his guys under the bus. Instead, just a reminder in these tough times that he still loves his team. Onward and upward for the Ducks and Dan Lanning.