Dan Lanning Doesn't Hold Back on Oregon Penalties vs. Boise State

EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 2 Oregon Ducks’ anticipated start to their 2026 season began at Autzen Stadium with a less than stellar performance in a 34-27 win against the Boise State Broncos. Mental mistakes played a key role in the narrow victory, with 10 penalties costing the team 90 yards.

Coach Dan Lanning made his feelings loud and clear after the season opener. He addressed everything from penalties and mental mistakes to the Autzen Stadium atmosphere and performances from his receivers.

oregon ducks dan lanning boise state broncos dante moore jeremiah mcclellan penalty evan stewart jamari johnson autzen — Oregon head coach Dan Lanning looks on as the Oregon Ducks host the Boise State Broncos on Sept. 5, 2026, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Dan Lanning's Evaluation on Mental Mistakes and Penalties:

“Some mistakes happen, and they're going to happen. Some of them are discipline penalties. You know, to have multiple post snap penalties; those are the things that can't happen. Bear had one, right? Peyton Woodyard had one.”

“That's where you're giving free opportunities. They're kicking off from the 50-yard line, have a chance to flip the field, right? We give them a first down to move the ball in the red area when we have an opportunity for a stop.”

“So those are the things that absolutely have to be eliminated. And then you saw some different faces in there, some guys that never got to experience a game in Autzen, but they have to prepare for that. I thought they handled that on their side better than we did. So, there's going to be some cleanup there.”

Everything Dan Lanning Said After Boise State Game

Opening Statement:

“First off, want to thank our crowd, great as always. You know, another sellout here. You know Autzen. They made a difference today. We didn't do enough ultimately to be able to make them proud consistently.”

“There's a lot that we can do a lot better. This almost is kind of a flip side of the last time that we played Boise, where in a lot of ways we won the game with total yards and some situations, but we didn't really win the critical situations. They win some of those critical situations. They played better in special teams than us today.”

“They did better on fourth down. We kind of gave them an opportunity, a chance to hang around. Was proud of the way we were able to attack right before half and put in that touchdown. I thought our quarterback operated really well. Went back and evaluate the film, but thought he did some really good things.”

“But to be able to win the middle eight and kind of gain some momentum back. Defense, we were just off schedule too much tonight. It was too many 2nd-and-5’s, too many 2nd-and-4’s, especially in situations where they're going to have a go for it mentality. And then again, too many penalties. You have 10 penalties for 90 yards.”

“That's not winning football. So some things we had to clean up. I was happy with our prep going into this performance. I felt like the guys worked hard. We just didn't execute some fundamental things that we have to be much better at, and ultimately, we got the win. And Boise State's always tough to play. You know, Spencer does a great job with his team.

“They had some good scheme and some good elements that they executed well. I think playing that quarterback tonight, that guy's going to win a lot of games for their team this year. That team's going to win a lot of games this year. You know, he played really, really well, in my opinion, for them. But ultimately, did enough to come away with a win. Didn't play or start the way that we wanted to start this game.”

How Much First-Game Nerves Played a Factor:

Oregon ducks dante moore dan lanning boise state broncos drew mehringer chris hampton autzen stadium eugene — Oregon Ducks offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer | Jake Bunn

“I thought Drew called a really good game. I don't think there was any disjointedness when it comes to that, I think there's execution. All right, there's a couple plays where you talk about okay that was good process, bad result.”

“Right, third guy comes off the guy, man to man. We're gonna have a conversion on third down, and in reality, it's unsound in what played out. So that's you know they won that result, but the process we were right in what we were calling the penalties is what we have to eliminate, and again we talk about starting fast.”

“We didn't start fast tonight, so that didn't show up for us. We kind of had our backs against the wall there early, and I thought the guys responded to that. We wanted to see how we handle adversity, but as far as communication, I thought that was really clean throughout the day on offense and really on defense as well. The performance and the execution has to be better.”

Assessment of Pass Rush:

“Yeah, I thought one, we in the first half we didn't do as good of a job really handling their quarterback on movement. You know, he scrambled in the table gain some yards. I'm guessing he was close to one of their leading rushers at least in the first half.”

“Right, we did a much better job caging the quarterback in the second half. I thought we rushed with power, but also some awareness there in the second half. And I thought coach Hampton did a good job with that one of some pressures too to give those guys some opportunities.”

oregon ducks boise state broncos uniforms stripe out autzen stadium dan lannin dante moore big ten green yellow helmet — Oregon Ducks Uniforms | Jake Bunn

“They, in some ways, refused to participate in the pass-through game by having chippers and some guys that were really aware of it, and then they hit a really timely screen. They hit the right call on the right play by us, but it was really poor effort across the board, which are the things we can't see. But our pass rush should be a strength for us.”

“We got to get better at stopping the run and doing a better job on first down to give us the opportunity to rush the passer. Because when we can, we'll be dynamic.”

If It’s More Difficult to Have Patience Early in the Season:

oregon ducks boise state broncos dan lanning dante moore jeremiah mcclellan evan stewart autzen stadium — Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson, left, and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning shake hands as the Oregon Ducks host the Boise State Broncos on Sept. 5, 2026, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

“I don't know if it's difficult. I think the measure for me is you got to figure out what button are you going to push, right? Is this one where you need to go ahead and ramp it up and change the energy in the juice, or is this one where you need to have patience?”

“And you know, ultimately for me, I felt like that was one where we had to click it in high gear, and the player-led leadership that we talked about off season has to show up. There has to be some accountability, and again, we'll have that throughout the next week.”

The Run Defense:

“Yeah, not good enough. Not good enough. Not to our standard.”

The Locker Room at Halftime and the Touchdown Right Before:

“I mean this was a situation where we were able to flip the middle eight, score a touchdown there right at the end of half. I think guys had better awareness of what they had to attack.”

“We ran the ball more effectively in the second half offensively at times, and certainly controlled momentum a lot better. But I don't know how many drives we had in the second half. Excluding the last drive, I think we scored.”

“You had a field goal or touchdown on almost every drive in the second half, which was necessary because we weren't getting great stops. But the locker room itself, the guys had good energy. They understood what they had to attack, and they were able to perform a little bit better as a unit. But again, just not good enough.”

Receiver Jeremiah McClellan’s Impact on the Offense:

“Yeah, he had the juice and energy and consistency that I see every single day in practice, and that's something I want to keep challenging him to bring. But he brought that consistently throughout the day to day, and I didn't say it, but again I thought our field goal kicker performed really well in situations and made the ones that he needed to make.”

“Gage did a good job in some critical situations and saved us, and we were able to get points in moments where it was tough.”

Two-Minute Situation With Quarterback Dante Moore:

“It's a combination of both. We certainly work those situations a ton throughout fall camp, throughout spring ball. He's been a part of them now here at Oregon multiple times. But I thought he did a great job having understanding what we were going to get from a coverage standpoint and where the ball needed to go, and giving us an opportunity.”

Assessment of the Offensive Line:

“Yeah, good at times, bad at times. Overall, did a good job of protecting the quarterback. I think they had some exotic pressures that they were able to dial up on some rundowns. I think there's some things that we got to look at there from the schematic standpoint for us.”

“But it seemed like the effort was there. I don't know that we had to push that we needed consistently. So we'll go back and watch it and get a better evaluation.”

Seeing Autzen Stadium Full:

“It's one thing you always count on about this place is that our fans are unbelievable, right? And when we have a game here, then they're going to be here, right?”

“They're going to bring energy, and they're going to fill the stadium. That's something that I love about this place. Football matters here, and that's one thing that our fans have created and made this place really special.”

Explosiveness of the Offense With Three Top Receivers:

“I think credit's deserved. I thought Drew again called a really good game from a standpoint of finding opportunities to either create a double move or work crossing routes on certain looks, coverages. I thought guys were in sync. They played on the selfish ball.”

“It seems like the ball was distributed pretty evenly, and guys took advantage of those opportunities. But yeah, I think it makes it hard when you have multiple guys that can be explosive.”

Receiver Evan Stewart’s Return and Special Teams Performance:

oregon ducks dante moore quarterback boise state broncos big ten autzen stadium dan lanning drew mehringer — Oregon Ducks receiver Evan Stewart | Jake Bunn

“I think that's the part of his game that I just caught him before we went in the locker room, and I have all the belief in the world and having the trust. I think any of us that if we struggle with one, it's gonna be hard to go get the next one.”

“Sometimes we just gotta fight through that and work through it. And obviously, the one didn't come clean, right? And then later on, we saw one that wasn't clean. But if you look outside of that, I thought Evan played a good game.”

“Again, I'll watch it and evaluate what that looks like. But I got the most trust in Evan because of how hard he's worked, and that means we gotta create some more of those moments for him in practice, right, where it's a challenge and where it's tough, but he's been very consistent throughout practice and be able to field those balls, and that's just something he's going to have to be able to work through, and then continue to challenge ourselves to find other guys that can also do those things.”

Lessons From an Early Challenge vs. Boise State:

“Yeah, you love having a challenge early. Again, I think a lot of what we did today was self-inflicted, but I think this is, at times you want to get a win in every situation. This can be a win that we can learn from, right? In a lot of ways, and you don't want to have to fall on the other end of that to be able to figure out what you have to improve.”

“There's going to be a wake-up call for some of our guys in there of things that we can attack and improve, coaches as well, and I think that's what'll show up. And then again, I would bet a lot of money that team wins a lot of games this year.”

“I got a feeling that's a really good Boise State team. Well prepared, they're well coached, they executed really well. So I don't, I wouldn't be surprised. You see that team have a lot of success before the season's over with.”

Quarterback Dante Moore’s Performance:

“I thought Dante played, from my seat, played extremely well. Got some good right checks, and again, I thought they had some good answers. But some of the plays that we will celebrate in our program. Are the decisions to throw the ball away?”

“Are the decisions not to you know not to put the ball at risk? I thought he operated really clean. I thought there was a clean plan, right, for him to be able to execute. I thought that showed up consistently for him. We don't have to win because of our quarterback, right? We got to make sure our quarterback doesn't cost us and put us in.”

“He played well enough to put us in position to win. In a lot of ways, played to where we could win today because of him. So, he had some great plays. He had somebody's on the other end of that every time. Somebody's catching that ball, but he has a great play.”

“Somebody's protecting for him up front. He'll be the first one to tell you that. But to know that we can throw to win, right, is certainly a positive. And he threw a win today.”

Assessment of How the Team Handling Adversity:

“Yeah, we'll address. I mean, some was really good, some was not good enough. I didn't see anything that was disturbing, but you can't you can't look like a deer in headlights when things don't look right.”

“And I thought ultimately our players as a group attacked that. There were moments in this game where it didn't look good. You're down 10 points. What's that? How are you going to react? And I thought they handled that well, but we'll get an assessment of it and continue attack it.”

Dylan Williams’ Role on the Defense:

“He certainly earned it in fall camp. He's worked extremely hard, put himself in position. He's made a lot of plays in fall camp, and there's certainly moments today as you're watching as a coach like us continue to figure out how to get that guy on the field and utilize his skill set.”

“So, I'm proud of Dylan's growth, man. He's a guy that stuck through it, right? It's had limited opportunities up until this year, but I'm anticipating Dylan having a big year for us and growing from the moments that he had today.”

If He Was Pleased With How They Ran the Football:

“I don't know how many snaps we had in the first quarter, but I would guess there's not a lot. I know they had they won the time of possession right early on, but I'd have to go evaluate. I didn't think we ran the ball to our capabilities today.”

Cornerback Davon Benjamin Earning Reps:

“Yeah, same thing we always say. There's no such thing as old enough as it's good enough, and he's got skill set. He's really instinctual as a player, right? And I think those moments that that really showed up today, right? He could be tight in coverage.”

“He's played a variety of positions in high school. That's really carried over and helped him be able to be a guy that can impact us here. But looking for him to continue to grow, right? Whatever he did today, there should be some moments I know that he can do better, right?”

“On the same note, I think he had an energy and focus on what he had to attack and improve, and there's going to be some moments growing from that."

"But if you play winning football boards, he's going to be out there in the field, and we'll definitely take a hard look at today and see what we can attack and improve. But Davon’s earned those opportunities because of what he's done in other drop ball games.”

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