Flashback to a season in the past, nearly one yr to the day of Ohio State’s first Massive Ten Convention assembly with this system. Oregon was in Seattle to face bitter rival Washington, which constructed a two-touchdown lead on the Geese within the second half.
Touchdowns from a Bo Nix go to Troy Franklin and a Jordan James carry rapidly gave Oregon the lead, just for Michael Penix Jr. to guide a drive that culminated within the Huskies scoring the go-ahead landing with 98 seconds remaining.
The Pac-12 Championship Recreation rematch lower than two months later was extra of the identical: Oregon erased a three-point deficit, took the lead into the fourth quarter, however couldn’t do sufficient to carry on.
Comparable situations performed out in 2021 losses to Utah and in a confounding late-season setback at Arizona State in 2019. This time was totally different, thanks partially to Geese, who skilled earlier heartbreaks.
One such participant is working again Jordan James, whose landing carry within the Pac-12 Championship Recreation final December gave Oregon a fleeting lead over Washington. He set the tone towards Ohio State.
“Jordan, man, he runs like he’s pissed off on a regular basis,” Geese coach Dan Lanning mentioned in his postgame press convention.
If James is certainly working a bit indignant, he deserves to be after final season’s near-misses. In a recreation that Lanning mentioned could be decided by physicality and establishing the bottom recreation, James’ depth was important.
His 115 yards helped Oregon obtain a 155-141 dashing benefit on Saturday. And it wasn’t simply holdovers from the earlier season contributing to the victory over Ohio State; switch quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s 32 yards had been essential as properly. Twenty-seven of these yards got here on a fourth-quarter landing, the final time both squad reached the top zone.
That’s noteworthy, contemplating two packages lengthy synonymous with explosive offense went the subsequent 13:20 with out scoring touchdowns. Oregon has lengthy been adept at outgunning its opponents by way of revolutionary offense, an id cultivated from the identical College of New Hampshire teaching tree that gave Ohio State its head coach, Ryan Day.
Calling performs for the Buckeyes on Saturday was Chip Kelly, the identical former UNH coach whose method to hurry-up and unfold offense fostered Oregon’s rise to nationwide prominence within the 2010s.
Warranted or not, the knock on previous Geese groups underneath Kelly and his successor Mark Helfrich—who coached Oregon to that inaugural Playoff championship—was that they lacked the physicality to beat groups like Alabama and Ohio State. Thus, by successful with physicality and clutch protection towards a Kelly-coordinated offense, Oregon’s win carried additional significance as a full-circle second.
There might not have been an even bigger play in that context than Matayo Uiagalelei sacking Ohio State’s Will Howard with 1:46 remaining, because the Buckeyes wanted solely to succeed in field-goal vary to inflict additional heartache on the Geese. Pushing Ohio State again 9 yards and consuming nearly 30 seconds modified all the complexion of the Buckeyes’ ultimate possession.
With that final defensive stand, Oregon secured a win that didn’t clinch a nationwide championship. The Geese are solely midway by way of their regular-season slate. It additionally didn’t assure them a Massive Ten title or perhaps a spot within the Massive Ten Championship Recreation—the loss to Washington 364 days prior proved as a lot.
However by successful the kind of recreation that has so typically eluded Oregon within the final decade, the Geese took a symbolic and significant step towards their subsequent finest probability to win a nationwide championship since January 2015.
