'This game is 100 percent on me'; Dan Lanning shoulders blame for Oregon's loss to Washington

SEATTLE — Throughout his tenure at Oregon, Dan Lanning and his staff have forged a reputation for dialing up gutsy fourth-down play calls — and often succeeding.

On Saturday, though, Oregon’s highwire act came crashing down as the No. 7 Ducks fell, 36-33, in a marquee showdown with No. 8 Washington. Camden Lewis’s 43-yard game-tying field goal attempt on the final play of regulation sailed wide right, and Washington’s fan base stormed the field as the Huskies dealt the Ducks another close, heartbreaking loss.

Coming into Saturday, Oregon was tied for eighth nationally with an 80% conversion percentage on fourth down. Against the Huskies, though, the Ducks failed on all three of their fourth-down attempts. Each one had game-altering implications.

While speaking with reporters after the game, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning shouldered blame for the loss and acknowledged the ramifications of his team’s fourth-down failures.

“I think that this game is 100% on me,” Lanning said. “I don’t think you guys have to look anywhere else besides me. I think every one of us can look at the decisions that were made today. And again, if you can make some of those decisions differently like I said, if you kicked the field goal before half. If you kicked the field goal somewhere else then it could have been a different result. You never know how the rest of the game is gonna play out, so you make those decisions based on the information you have.”

Washington scored the go-ahead touchdown on a two-play, 53-yard drive that was capped off by Michael Penix Jr.’s 18-yard pass to Rome Odunze to give the game its final score.

The Huskies were gifted great field position after Lanning and the Ducks opted to go for it on 4th-and-3 at the UW 47-yard line. If the Ducks had converted, they likely would have taken control of the game for good.

But Bo Nix’s pass to Tez Johnson fell incomplete, and Washington took over with 2:11 to go and capitalized immediately on its ensuing drive.

“We felt like our defense was playing well and then felt like we had an offensive play that was going to be successful,” Lanning said when asked why the Ducks opted to go for it late in the game. “(Washington) covered it well. But at that point, they’ve proven to be an explosive offense regardless of where they get the ball. Whether it’s going the length, obviously they went there twice in 33 seconds and they were able to score. We gave ourselves the ball back with plenty of time to go score again. We know that that honey hole for us is really a minute, 40 seconds to a minute, 20 seconds. We got it back with an opportunity to go score kind of in that window. But that being said, it didn’t work, So obviously, it will be second-guessed.”

Late in the third quarter, while trailing 29-18, Oregon marched 66 yards on 13 plays and had an opportunity to make it a one-score game. But, facing 4th-and-3 at the Washington 8, Nix threw an incompletion to Troy Franklin to end the drive.

“I’ll certainly go back and evaluate myself and it’s about adapting; the game is about adapting and figuring out where you can be better,” Lanning said. “You take one of those field goals early on and we are looking at probably a little bit different situation.”

The Ducks’ defense stood tall on the ensuing Washington drive, though, and forced a three-and-out. After a Huskie’s punt, the Ducks got the ball back at the 50 and needed just three plays to score on a Jodan James 10-yard touchdown run and cut the UW lead to 29-26.

Just before halftime, Oregon — trailing 22-18 — worked its way into a 4th-and-3 scenario at the Washington three-yard line with just five seconds left in the half. Rather than attempt a field goal to make it a one-point game, the Ducks looked to convert on 4th down with hopes of taking a lead into the half.

But Nix’s pass to Buckly Irving was broken up by Dominique Hampton.

“We felt that was an opportunity for us to get a touchdown and a touchdown changes the game,” Lanning said. “Obviously we’re probably not talking about it if we get a touchdown. That being said the one before half is one where you really can go back and say ‘Let’s take that field goal.’ It’s something I’m going to assess, go evaluate for me. We checked to see if we liked the looked. We liked the look. Before we ran the play we had a timeout if we didn’t like the look. We liked the look and we just didn’t execute.”