Dan Lanning speaks on Oregon's fourth quarter struggles vs. USC

The Oregon Ducks kept their College Football Playoff hopes alive by essentially ending the Pac-12 title game hopes of the USC Trojans. The Ducks bested the Trojans on Saturday night, winning 36-27 primarily because of their offensive and defensive control of the game in the first half. But in the second half, it appeared as if Oregon let their foot off the gas just a little bit, allowing USC to have a hope of pulling off the upset.

Now that the smoke has settled, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning took some time on Monday to discuss his Ducks late-game struggles against the Trojans.

“Yeah, there are several things,” said Lanning when asked about his team’s issues. One, you’re playing a team that is one of the best offenses in college football and one of the best players in college football. So you know that they’re never ever out of the fight. And when that happens, you have to be able to go finish. And we did we finish. But they had a spark; they had some life because we gave them some opportunities.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Oregon had a 15-point lead, leading 29-14. Five seconds into the final frame, running back Bucky Irving added to that lead with a touchdown, giving the Ducks a 36-14 advantage. Oregon would not score again, and USC would put up 13 unanswered points. And according to Lanning, that was because some old issues surfaced at the wrong time.

“So whether it’s an untimely penalty or not getting the fouth down stop when you have a chance, I think some of those things showed up. And we talked about trying to play complete games; we talked about that process of good to great, and we still have steps to make in that direction. We still have some progress that we can make there. But our guys came in and attacked the day. I was really pretty pleased with their progress today and what they wanted to do out there and accomplish. Excited to see how they attack tomorrow.”

In the end, Oregon was able to walk away with a nine-point victory and remain on track to play in the Pac-12 title game in Las Vegas in early December. Currently, all signs point to a rematch of Oregon’s Week 7 narrow defeat at the hands of the Washington Huskies.

It was a tightly contested game in which the Huskies narrowly eked out a 36-33 victory. An Oregon would love nothing more than to exact revenge on Washington on the biggest stage the Pac-12 has to offer and put your ticket to the college football playoffs in the process.