Oregon Coach Dan Lanning Takes Blame for Oklahoma State Upset

The No. 6 Oregon Ducks sparked plenty of concern with a narrow Week 1 victory at Autzen Stadium on Sept. 5. Those concerns only seemed to grow in their first road game of the season vs. the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Week 2.

After kickoff was delayed by almost 90 minutes due to lightning strikes in the area, the Ducks and Cowboys took the field. The team that entered with 30 straight home opening wins controlled the first half, with Oregon trailing 24-17 at halftime.

oregon ducks dan lanning oklahoma state cowboys devon jackson penalties messiah hampton big ten dante moore offensive line — Oregon head coach Dan Lanning takes in the rain as the Oregon Ducks face the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Sept. 12, 2026, at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The entire day was disjointed for the Ducks. After recording 10 penalties in Week 1, the Oregon offense committed seven penalties for 66 yards in Week 2. The Ducks never kept consistent momentum, and a 39-31 loss puts their College Football Playoff hopes already in major jeopardy after Week 2.

Coach Dan Lanning addressed the defeat postgame and revealed how penalties hurt the Ducks. He also pulled back the curtain on his controversial decision to go for it on 4th-and-8 on the Oregon 33 with under seven minutes left.

When asked whether he regretted his offensive and defensive coordinator hires, Lanning put the blame squarely on himself.

Lanning and linebacker Teitum Tuioti were made available to talk to the media, notably, no quarterback Dante Moore.

Opening Statement:

“Credit to coach Morris and his staff. You know, if it weren't for the takeaways that we had on defense, it doesn't even look like it looked.”

“You know, that being said, there's a lot of opportunity for improvement. There's overall as a team. We didn't tackle well. Week one, we didn't tackle well. Right in week two, right? We didn't win the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball. Got to do a better job there.”

“There's a lot of things that you can look at and evaluate and say, ‘Okay, let's go to work.’ Ultimately, on the same note, every single goal is still in front of us. Right, we control our destiny, but this is a game that we need to show improvement. We didn't show improvement, so we have to see that now move forward with our team.”

“We've got a locker room that's hurting, obviously. But on the same note, Oklahoma State went and won that game, and we didn't do the things that you have to do to win that game, right? And we owe that resolve to ourselves. So that's what happened.”

“We can be a team that goes and learns from it and becomes a lot better. I know there'll be a lot of questions about fourth down situations, and we get to be aggressive in those moments, especially when you're not having success to keep it going, but if it works, it works. If it doesn't, then you create short fields.”

“Ultimately, still an eight-point game there at the end. If you can score and get a touchdown, get an extra point or a two-point conversion to have an opportunity to go to go to a tie. But we didn't do that. We didn't have a lot of rhythm on offense today.”

“Again, defensively, we gave up way too many explosives, some poor discipline, not winning at the point of attack, and our guys are much more capable than that. So all of that starts with me, right? Every bit of that starts with me. I didn't prepare our guys well enough to play.”

“Didn't come with the right mindset. We didn't have enough plan on either side of the ball to be able to execute at eye level, and that cost us today.”

If He’s Second Guessing His Coordinator Promotions:

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

“No, I think it's the easy thing to say if you're watching, like, ‘Oh yeah, it's obviously an OC-DC thing.’ No, it's a combination of the staff, right? The decisions I make, right? The decisions we make as an offensive staff, the decisions we make as a defensive staff, and then execution.”

“All those things play into it, and every bit of that I own, I'm responsible for, right? Ultimately, plays don't matter unless you execute the play. Right now, can we call better plays? Absolutely, on both sides of the ball.”

“But that's not, this isn't a (Chris Hampton), this isn't a Drew (Mehringer), ‘Oh, that's the reason.’ Like, no, no. We have to go execute plays. If we were executing plays and they weren't working, that'd be different.”

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