What Dan Lanning Said After Oregon Lost to Washington
On Saturday night, the No. 6 Oregon Ducks lost a thrilling shootout to No. 25 Washington Huskies 37-34 in Eugene.
Head coach Dan Lanning met with reporters after the game. Below is a transcript of his postgame press conference.
Opening Statement
"Well, certainly not the result we had hoped for. I think our guys played the entire game. They certainly didn't quit, they didn't throw in the towel. I think you have to give Washington credit. They played a complete game and we made more mistakes during the game that hurt us. This game 100% falls on me. Our players gave phenomenal effort. They tried really hard. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times the first half but were able to move the ball much better in the second half. That being said we weren't able to get a stop defensively. So, things that we have to attack moving forward."
On what a head coach says to a defensive coordinator that allowed 400 yards
“They’d watch the film, and they’d try to figure out why and then they’d establish a plan of attack to move forward.”
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On the message after the game to his team
"The message was I love this team. We didn't finish this game the way we want. But we've been a connected team all year. That doesn't change because of this result. My love's not based on the result of this game; I love that locker room. I'm proud of that locker room. We didn't play the way we wanted to play and that really falls on me."
On how Troy Franklin's illegal touching call was explained to him
"Told the guy went out of bounds. I'm anxious to hear more of an explanation, but just that he went out of bounds and came back and touched the ball first when he came back."
On second guessing fourth down decisions
“We’ve sat in this room and talked about it when they worked out and now we’re sitting in this room talking about them when they didn’t. The onside (kick), that was my decision. The guy moved a little bit where it wasn’t there when we thought it was there earlier in prep. On fourth down you fall and slip and it’s going to be hard to convert in that situation. But we knew that we were going in that situation you look back and you can say in retrospect ‘we should punt there, have a chance,' but you also feel like hey you get that first, you probably have a chance to go win the game.”
On what went into going for it on last fourth down with Noah Whittington slipping
"Obviously we were able to run the ball there in the second half. I don't know that they stopped us much there-- that's probably the only negative play the entire second half in the run game. So, we felt like we're going to fall forward. We've been a team that can get a yard or two yards consistently this year and we didn't get it done there."
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On if Bo Nix's injury impacting a field goal try rather than going for it on 4th and 3 in fourth quarter
"To be determined, we had a play ready that we felt like we liked. Certainly felt like we could potentially go win the game but when that situation changed, that probably changed our approach."
On third-down struggles
"We missed some layups early. I think we had a free runner on the very first third down, he scrambled you gotta make that play when you have the opportunity--there it was a bang-bang play there at the end on the long touchdown. We had a guy that looks like he was right there. Didn't make a play on the ball, gotta get better playing the ball in that situation. I don't know that it's one thing here or there it's just the magnitude of moments that we gotta go evaluate. "
On halftime protection adjustments
“Establishing the run game a little bit in the second half probably created a little bit more time there.”
On Bo Nix’s status and the decision to bring him back
"We're going to always think about our player's health first. At that moment we felt like Bo wasn't able to go. Have to get him evaluated and see where things are actually really at with him. He came back and said, hey Coach I feel like I can go and I said you sure? Medical staff said he was good so we went back with him."
On team moving on from defeat
"We got a tight locker room. I think our players recognize that and realize that and this won't change their approach."
On Christian Gonzalez's potential interception and if Lanning thought about using a timeout to allow for a review
"There was a thought. At the end of the day, tie's going to go to offense when both teams show possession of the ball. So we felt pretty confident that it'd probably end up being the same result."
On correcting repetitive defensive issues
“We’ll have to go look. You’re playing with the same group, you’re playing with the same scheme. At times you gotta figure out what you can do better. Obviously we haven't fallen into that yet, but we can still get better there.”
On 19 play-drive near end of game and high snap
"We were in good sequence. We were in good rhythm going. That's gonna happen at times, but that's no excuse. Our guys had confidence going into that drive and obviously did a great job within that series. But I think if you go back and look at this game we're gonna see a multitude of times that we really just stopped ourselves and weren't necessarily stopped."
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