Huskers Stumble on Oregon Trail of Tears

Another big game and another three-point loss

Oregon outside linebacker Teitum Tuioti brings down Nebraska running back Isaiah Mozee. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

One of the questions going into Saturday night/Sunday morning’s game at Oregon was whether the Huskers would have any gas left in their tank after the previous week’s emotional three-point loss to Indiana.

The answer to that one was yes — that is, at least for three quarters. But in the fourth quarter, the Duck offense took over, scoring the last 11 points of the game to hand the Huskers their second consecutive loss to a preseason Top 10 team.

To be sure, before the season began, most football pundits had the Indiana and Oregon games as Nebraska losses.

However, the depleted Oregon quarterback room coupled with how tough Nebraska played Indiana gave hope the Huskers might pull off an upset and down the Ducks (no pun intended).

The reason for the Ducks’ QB problems centered on their starting quarterback, Dante Moore, who suffered a vicious hit in the USC game a couple of weeks earlier. It may be a while before he’s cleared to play.  

Dylan Raiola had a rough outing against UCLA in his first start as an Oregon Duck. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Ducks’ next game after USC was a 17-15 home loss to UCLA. In that game, backup Oregon QB and former Nebraska starter Dylan Raiola was the starter. He threw two interceptions and was benched in the fourth quarter in favor of former walk-on Brock Thomas.

More on that game later.

Another burning question for Saturday’s showdown with Nebraska was whether Dylan would see action against his former Husker teammates.

At first it didn’t look as if Raiola would play. Thomas started the game but had a rough time with the Husker Blackshirts. Guess who came off the bench in the fourth quarter to save the day for the Ducks?

Of course it was Dylan Raiola. Trailing 6-14 in the final period, Raiola led the Ducks to two long scoring drives that resulted in 11 unanswered points for Oregon. The last score was a touchdown and a successful double point try with 28 seconds to go.

That was the first time NU trailed the entire game.

Ouch.

Bad Coaching?

This week on a sports yak show in Omaha, I heard someone excoriating Oregon’s head coach, Dan Lanning, for starting Thomas instead of Raiola against Nebraska.

The critic’s reasoning was that Lanning was not very bright for his decision to start Thomas.

Maybe so. But let’s look at some facts.

The week before Oregon hosted Nebraska, it had a home game with UCLA. Duck starter Dante Moore couldn’t play, so Raiola got the start.

Dylan Raiola gives an interview after the Ducks' comeback win over Nebraska. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

So how did DR do in that game? Raiola was 6/19 (32%) for 43 yards, no TDs and 2 interceptions. He was benched in favor of Thomas, who went 11/15 (73%) with one TD and no interceptions. He nearly rallied the Ducks to a win. BTW, UCLA is ranked No. 9 in this week’s AP poll.

With Nebraska next up, Lanning went with his hot hand, Thomas. Tell me why was that a bad decision.

It’s true, Thomas’ performance wasn’t stellar Saturday night, but that was due largely to how the Blackshirts were stifling the vaunted Duck offense. For the night, UO managed to score only one touchdown and a total of 17 points.

So why didn’t Lanning bring in Raiola earlier in the game?

Could it have been that Lanning knew the Husker defense was running out of gas late in the game and wanted to protect his five-star QB from the wrath of a physical Husker defense? Remember Raiola’s shaky performance the week before.

In the end, maybe Lanning wasn’t so dumb after all.

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