Urban Meyer addresses Dan Lanning, fourth down attempts vs. Washington

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning took a few chances against Washington that ended up not paying off.

The Ducks went for it on fourth down three times against the Huskies in Saturday’s Pac-12 showdown. Oregon was 0-3 on those attempts.

Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer joined On3’s Tim May recently and discussed the decisions by Dan Lanning to be aggressive on fourth down.

“You know, 20 years ago, there was no analytics. And if there was, I never had it. You know, you went with your gut, you went with your heart and you went with experience. And so a lot of times, I did go for it on fourth down, even when analytics might tell you to kick the field goal,” Urban Meyer said. “But analytics, I’ve found, are very aggressive. The analytics tells you to go for it more, and I was an aggressive coach. There’s times when I’d say, ‘What’s it say?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, we should go for it here.’ And I’m like, ‘Really?’ And I wouldn’t do it. So I don’t know if [college coaches are] losing their mind.”

Oregon went for it on fourth down one time in each of the final three quarters.

Just before halftime, the Ducks faced a fourth-and-goal from the Washington 3. Rather than kick a short field goal, Oregon went for it on fourth down and was stopped.

During the third quarter, the Ducks trailed 29-18 and drove to the Washington 8, before Bo Nix threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-3 as the Ducks once again passed on a short field goal attempt.

Finally, with a chance to put the game away in the final minutes, Oregon went for it on fourth-and-3 from the Washington 47, rather than punting and trying to pin the Huskies deep.

Washington took over while trailing 33-29 with 2:10 remaining. Michael Penix Jr. and the Huskies quickly regained the lead and held on for the win.

Urban Meyer didn’t necessarily mind the decisions by Dan Lanning, even if they didn’t work out for Oregon.

“When I was a young guy, I went for it all the time. I was one of those guys. I would tell our players, ‘We’re going to blitz a lot, and I want to hit the quarterback as much as I can. And we’re going for it. I want an aggressive team.’ And players love to hear that,” Meyer said. “The Oregon one, I watched it. And I don’t think that was analytics. I think that’s a coach that’s trying to set the tempo for his team and it didn’t work.”