Dan Lanning has been criticized over his choices during Oregon’s 36-33 loss to Washington at Husky Stadium in Seattle, Wash. on Saturday. The Ducks head coach did admit to one regret after the game.
Oregon played aggressively on offense and turned the ball over on downs three times. They did so once right before halftime, again late in the third quarter, and then the final time came with just over two minutes left in the game. In all, they were 0-for-3 on fourth downs, and many people have pointed to that as the biggest reason for their loss.
After the game, Lanning took the blame for the defeat and said he needs to do better. While he defended his decisions to go for it in the third and fourth quarters, he admitted he probably should have kicked a field goal before halftime.
“The one before half is where you can say take that field goal,” Lanning said after the game via The Oregonian’s James Crepea.
Dan Lanning: "The one before half is where you can say take that field goal."
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) October 14, 2023
Oregon was down 22-18 just before halftime and had a 4th-and-goal at the Washington 3 with six seconds left in the second quarter. Rather than kick the field goal to go down by one and with some momentum entering halftime, Lanning’s Ducks went for it and threw an incompletion. That allowed Washington to maintain a four-point lead and the momentum. Oregon also got the ball to begin the second half and punted.
You can debate all of Lanning’s decisions, but the one even he recognizes was a poor choice was the one before halftime.
