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.”

If He Thinks Players Were Looking Too Far Ahead:

“No, I don't. I don't get that feeling from our players that they were looking too far ahead. I think they have high aspirations, but I think their focus has been on the immediate.

"We didn't execute well enough. I think there has to be a higher temperament in practice, a higher level of focus in practice for us to be able to execute. And then we have to be faster making adjustments throughout the game. People are going to play us differently at times. They did a great job on both sides of the ball of playing us a little bit differently, and we have to make adjustments quickly."

Late Fourth-Down Decisions:

“There in the fourth, the idea is that you get more than half of it back on third down. But on the same note, when you're looking at less than three or four minutes in a game, you have to be aggressive when you know you need a touchdown.

"Ultimately, had we stopped them consistently on defense? No. I think you have to be more aggressive. You go back and say, 'Okay, on third down, can we find a play that gets us four yards or gets us half of it back?' We didn't do that.

"Again, I think we'll be second-guessed 100 percent. We're going to go back and evaluate the third downs and the fourth downs that we did convert and the ones that we didn't. But you're not going to be a team that has success if you can't execute properly and take advantage of those situations."

If There Were Issues With Communication:

“That probably falls on me from a decision standpoint of, 'Is this one that we want to try to flip the field or not?' But ultimately, again, you're in a go-type situation regardless."

Why Discipline and Execution Didn’t Improve:

“Yeah, it's hard to explain. We have to go back and watch the film to see exactly where the lapses are. Again, when you play a team that's explosive like that, and we knew they were going to go fast and create one-on-ones, we have to go see who was executing and who wasn't.”

“We'll go back and watch that film and find the guys who are able to do that at a high level for us. In some ways, I thought we were better from a penalty standpoint. It's a loud environment. The goal is to take the environment out of it.”

“We didn't take the environment out of it because of the way we played the game, and that created some of the penalties that existed. Once you go back and look and see what it was, I know we had a facemask on the fourth down.”

“I'm sure if they called it, I'm sure it was right. But there are moments in there where it's like, man, there were some real opportunities to get off the field or stay on the field that really cost us."

Emotions in the Locker Room:

“They're frustrated and upset. They want to get to work. Again, it didn't happen today, so you have to get great answers and say, 'Okay, here's what we have to go attack to improve.'"

If There’s Concern About the Offensive Line:

“Yeah, I think we have to improve in the run game. We have to find more creative ways to be able to run the ball.

"Obviously, we had some guys who got banged up as well. Trent (Ferguson) got banged up. Doug (Utu) wasn't really able to go today. So we have to evaluate that and continue to make sure that we can figure out our strengths and figure out what we're able to do at a high level when it comes to running the ball."

Quarterback Dante Moore’s Performance:

"I have to go back and watch it. I think there were moments where he played really well, and I think there were moments that he certainly wishes he had back. We didn't protect the quarterback well enough today. It's also about what we're asking him to do."

Injury Update on Tight End Jamari Johnson:

"Yeah, Jamari really got banged up in the last game, and we'll see where he's at this week in practice."

If the Weather Delay Had an Impact:

"I don't think the delay impacted us. I think that would just be an excuse that somebody wanted to use."

Linebacker Devon Jackson Highlight Plays:

“Yeah, those were big plays and really kept us in the game. Like I said, it wasn't as close as it looked. They got to the red area a couple of times and had turnovers in the red area. It could have been a little worse than what it really looked like.”

"So certainly, those were highlights for him. Being able to score on defense is huge. We didn't capitalize on the momentum swing that we were able to create there, though."

How to Hit the Reset Button:

"Ultimately, I've been a part of teams, I've been a part of two national championships, and in both of those seasons, we had losses. Those locker rooms felt similar to this.”

"What did it end up being about? Getting better and going back to work. So I just told the guys the same thing: We have to go back to work.

"You can't start thinking about the end goal, which I don't think these guys are doing. You have to think about right now, where we can improve and where we can get better. I've seen it firsthand with teams. That's what we ultimately have to do and go attack."

Concern Over Lack of Focus:

“I think there are definitely concerns in general from our performance standpoint. It's not about the players. It's about what we're asking them to do as coaches and, again, what we're putting out there on the field. We have to be able to execute at a high level, and if we're not, that falls back on myself.

"So, we have to evaluate everything that we're doing. On the same note, a lot of what we're doing is the same stuff that we've had a lot of success with in the last few years. So, it's not like you throw stuff in the trash. You figure out where the holes are, how you patch the holes, how you fix them and attack them.

"Maybe it wasn't as much a lack of focus from the players as it was a lack of execution. It's making sure that we're asking them to do the things they have to do in practice. I don't know if we gave them enough of those looks in practice that showed up in this game."

Execution on Last Offensive Play With Running Back Dierre Hill Jr.’s Fumble:

“No. That's a play that everyone will look at, and the reality is this ballgame is in no way, shape or form on Dierre. We've seen him make a million plays here for the Ducks.”

"When you put yourself in that situation, plays like that can happen at times. It's easy to say, 'Oh, it was that play.' Ultimately, there were a myriad of plays. There were several plays where we didn't play well enough to win this game."

If He Expected a Fourth Quarter Fight:

“Ultimately, you don't know what any game is going to look like. I thought our guys prepared, but they gave us a lot of looks that were a little bit different, especially defensively, than what we had prepared for.

"We had prepared and anticipated what we thought we were going to see. I thought their defensive coordinator did a great job of changing things up.

"We're always alert for a heavyweight fight. That's what we felt like we came into last week. We were down at halftime, and you come out and score on that first drive.”

“Obviously, they got the field goal, and then we score on the first drive. You feel a little bit of momentum building. But ultimately, we didn't get enough stops and we didn't convert enough."

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