In the immediate aftermath of a 37-34 loss to No. 25 Washington Saturday night, first-year Oregon head coach Dan Lanning put the entirety of the blame for the result on his shoulders.

Oregon held a 31-27 lead going into the fourth quarter. After an interception at the goal line off of UW’s Michael Penix Jr. and a 10-minute-plus drive to follow it up, it looked like the Ducks might be able to take a two-score lead with less than five minutes to play. Instead, UW held Oregon to a red zone field goal and was able to tie the game at 34-34 on its next possession.

A questionable fourth-down attempt from Oregon’s own 34-yard-line gave the ball to UW right on the edge of field goal range. It gained 8 yards and then kicked what proved to be the game-winning field goal

“We made more mistakes at the end of the game that hurt us,” Lanning said. “This game 100% falls on me. Our players gave phenomenal effort. They tried really hard. We shot ourselves in the foot a few too many times in the first half but we were able to move the ball much better in the second half.

“That being said, we were unable to get a stop defensively.”

Lanning and the Ducks went for it on fourth down four times. They converted three of them, though the last attempt — a slip-up in the backfield — is going to be the one everyone remembers.

Oregon also attempted an onside kick in the second quarter after tying the game and didn’t get it.

“We’ve sat in this room and talked about them when they’ve worked out, now we’re sitting in this room and talking about them when they didn’t,” Lanning said. “The onside, that was my decision. Fourth down, you fall and you slip. It was going to be hard to convert in that situation, but we knew we were going into that situation. You look back and say in retrospect we should punt there. You also feel like, hey, you get that first then you’ve probably got a chance to go win the game.”

Until Saturday, Oregon’s creativity was met with execution. The Ducks were lacking in that department against the Huskies.

 

But Lanning also contended the Ducks had reason to believe they could convert a fourth-and-1 on the ground. The Ducks ran for 316 yards (adjusted for sacks) at 6.3 yards a carry against Washington.

“That was probably the only negative play in the entire second half in the run game,” Lanning said. “We’ve been a team that can get a yard or 2 yards consistently this year and we didn’t get it done there.”