Dan Lanning explains how Oregon will use rivalry loss as motivation

After an eight-game win streak over the course of their season, Oregon fell flat on their beaks with a pair of losses to end the season. The defeat to Washington came in a shootout where some late calls could have potentially avoided those slip-ups. However, the Duck’s loss at Oregon State was a full-on meltdown and now Dan Lanning wants to see his team learn because of it.

Lanning spoke about what his team could take away from a frustrating loss like the one against the Beavers during his postgame press conference on Saturday. He said he really hopes that it can become a lesson for his players. With that said, he also didn’t withdraw himself or his coaches from the blame either.

“Ultimately, I think those guys are going to look at it and you’re gonna use them as learning moments,” said Lanning. “You hate to learn in that situation. And some of those are going to be moments that we know that we’ve coached before. And we’ve addressed them before. Obviously, if it still happens on the field? We’re not doing a good job of coaching that and we’ve got to coach it better.”

Oregon did everything right through three quarters. They held a 31-10 lead late in the third and hadn’t let the Beavers score since the opening period. It was nothing but a collapse from there, though. Oregon State then scored four touchdowns, including three unanswered in the fourth quarter. They took a 38-34 lead from that stretch and they never looked back.

It happened so quickly that you couldn’t really blame Oregon for feeling shell-shocked both in the moment and after the loss. Nevertheless, a moment like that is nothing but frustration if they don’t find a way to get better from it. That’s why, as they now prep for their bowl game, Lanning wants to see some sort of growth from his program, which means the staff as well as all the way down to his players.

“You look for an opportunity to grow. Opportunities to grow for those guys, opportunities for us to grow as a coaching staff,” Lanning said. “You want to expect a different result. (But) something’s happening more than once? That’s really on us as coaches.”