What Dan Lanning said after Oregon Ducks blow 21-point lead to Oregon State

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No. 9 Oregon was defeated by No. 21 Oregon State 38-34 Saturday at Reser Stadium.

Dan Lanning recapped the Ducks’ third loss of the season.

Below is a transcript from Lanning’s postgame press conference.

DAN LANNING

“That’s a hurting locker room right now. I feel for the guys in there. Ultimately, a lot of moments led to that result. I have to give credit to coach Smith, his team, they came out prepared and played a complete game. We played about half a game or three-quarters of a game. We didn’t play enough of a game to finish there. They had some big momentum plays that really swung their way. We probably didn’t create enough of those. Win the takeaway battle but whenever you get blocked punts and drop a punt, have some big plays in the kicking game. Obviously, those took a big effect. We weren’t able to stop the run. They were more physical than us up front, they took advantage of that. Tried to get extra hats down there in the run, weren’t able to be successful there. Credit to them, big win for them. Opportunity to grow for us, roll up our sleeves and get back to work.

On whether he felt there was potential for punter situation to be disastrous:

“It matters the most when it matters. I don’t know if you ever sit there and prepare for disaster but you know when it’s not to the standard. It showed up in this game, we had some issues. Those don’t all belong to the punter. The first one we don’t do a good job of protection. I’ll have to go back and see what the operation time was. Whenever you’re not consistent, and that’s not a strength for you and that showed up tonight; they were much better on special teams than us tonight.”

On fourth down decisions inside UO territory:

“No, I mean, we’ll have to go back and look at the plays. But no, we’ve been aggressive in our nature a majority of the year and a lot of times it’s worked for us. I think we also look back and say, ‘OK, fourth down, you’ve had two punts that went completely disarray, I like my chances on fourth and 1 of trying to run the ball and get it rather than lining up for another punt that maybe won’t be successful.’”

On not being able to stop the run:

“We had poor gap controls at times. Tried movements, tried a couple different things as far as getting hats in the box. I think when you go back and look at it you’re going to see a team that was more physical at the point of attack today than we were. They were getting movement up front, we weren’t owning our gap, they were. Did a good job, their runners did a good job running forward, falling forward.”

On if he’s been involved in a game where a 21-point lead swings so quickly:

“I’ve been in a lot of games and I’ve certainly been in games that have been on the wrong side of things. I don’t know if I can point to one similar quite to that, but certainly been on the wrong end and the right end of a game like that before.”

On whether he felt they were complacent:

“I don’t think players got complacent or people got complacent. I don’t think our team got complacent. I think ultimately they made some plays and we lost on the details. I think you’re going to go back and you’re going to say, ‘OK, this is what my job is on this play’ and you’re going to see one person not executing it the right way. You’re going to see one thing that went wrong and those little things add up and become big things, those small details.”

On how he defines how two fourth quarter leads were blown in three games:

“We didn’t get it done. I don’t know what definition you’re looking for necessarily but ultimately, we didn’t get it done. Those are two moments that we got to go back and reevaluate ourself and do a better job.”

On run game when Bo Nix is limited:

“I think it’s been a little bit more of a challenge. I think anybody watching can see that. I think we have got to find some creative ways and I think we had some moments we were able to fight off some tough runs. But certainly a different game, we got to find ways to be able to do that.”

On Bo Nix’s play:

“I thought he felt comfortable at times. I know he’ll come back here and tell you that he missed a couple passes that he wished he could have had. There’s some moments, probably wouldn’t pull it thereon the fourth down. I think if he handed that, he’d feel a lot better. That being said, Bo’s been a consistent leader for us all year. He’s playing in a tough situation right now, he’s playing banged up but he’s showed a lot of heart to be able to do that. He’s been our leader all year. He’s done a great job for us all year. Certainly proud of him and his effort.”

On if he’ll be watching Apple Cup:

“We’ll be paying attention to it close for sure. We had the opportunity to make sure we didn’t put it in somebody else’s hands today and we didn’t do that. We’ll follow it close.”

On if they were too predictable on final red zone situation:

“Probably.”

On final fourth down pass:

“We’ve scored on a similar play throughout the season. The timing was a little bit off on the snap; the snap was a little bit late so that made the timing of the rub route a little off place as well.”

On snaps that were late in the play clock:

“We don’t mind snapping a little bit later. Certainly we’re trying to see what they’re in defensively and make sure we’re able to get in the right check at times. You give your quarterback the freedom to be able to check some plays that’s going to happen. But if you get the ball snapped in time, that’s OK. Certainly there were some of them that were a little bit later than we hoped.”

On Chase Cota:

“I thought he battled. A guy that’s been banged up this year. For him to come back and impact this game was impressive to see.”

On what the message to the team after Apple Cup based on a win or loss:

“We have a plan for both. We’ll be able to play it out based on the result of that game.”

On what he tells Kris Hutson and Alex Bales:

“Ultimately, I think those guys are going to look at it and use them as learning moments. You had to learn in that situation. Some of those are going to be moments that we know that we’ve coached before and we’ve addressed them before and obviously, if it still happens on the field then we’re not doing a good enough job of coaching that and got to coach it better. But you look for an opportunity to grow. Opportunities to grow for those guys, opportunities for us to grow as a coaching staff. You want to expect a different result. If something’s happening, more than once, that’s really on us as coaches.”

On if Kris Hutson should have called for a fair catch on the kickoff that bounced inside the 5:

“Yeah, that would have been a good move in that situation.”

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