Dan Lanning praises Bo Nix for keeping Oregon in position vs. Washington

The Oregon Ducks came up just short on Saturday, falling to the Washington Huskies 36-33. While the outcome of the game is not one the Ducks were in favor of, their quarterback, Bo Nix, put together arguably his best performance of the season against one of, if not the top defense in the Pac-12 in 2023.

After the game, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning took a few moments to praise the performance of his star quarterback.

“He’s just a warrior; the guy’s a warrior,” said Lanning. “He battles every single time we step on the field. I thought he battled today; he made some elite plays. At times, did some things with his legs that he hasn’t had to do this season, and he did really well. I’m really proud of his performance. I know there’s a couple of plays that he wants to have back. But I’ll go to war with that guy any day.”

Nix was a problem for Washington’s defense Saturday afternoon. The super senior quarterback completed 33 of his 44 pass attempts for 337 yards (a completion percentage of 75), two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Unfortunately, Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was just as good as he put together a 302 yard, four touchdowns, and one interception performance.

Lanning takes ‘100-percent’ blame for Oregon’s loss

Lanning wasn’t pointing fingers following Oregon’s 36-33 loss to Washington on Saturday. Instead, the Ducks’ head coach accepted full responsibility for the team’s shortcomings.

“Both our coordinators prepared our guys to execute well. I think this game is 100% on me,” Lanning said. “I don’t think you guys got to look anywhere else besides me. I think every one of us can look at the decisions that were made today.

“If you could make some of those decisions different — if you kicked the field goal before the half, if you kicked the field goal somewhere else — that game could’ve been a different result. You never know how the rest of the game is going to play out, so you make those decisions based on the information that you have.”

Lanning was forced to make a few difficult decisions on Saturday. Perhaps his most controversial decision came with 2:11 remaining in the fourth quarter when Oregon went for it on fourth and three on Washington’s 47-yard line.