ATLANTA — Dante Moore’s cheeks were swollen and his eyes were still watery.

Bryce Boettcher had a limp.

And Dan Lanning, the third Duck to enter the press room after No. 5 Oregon’s 56-22 season-ending loss to No. 1 Indiana in the Peach Bowl, seemed shellshocked.

How could he not be?

His Ducks weren’t just beaten. They were demolished from the start. Moore threw a pick-six on Oregon’s first play from scrimmage, the Ducks were down 35-7 at halftime and those darn Hoosiers — the ones who have rocketed to the top of college football in two quick years under Curt Cignetti — wouldn’t even let Oregon surrender.

Down by 27 points with 13:04 to play, Lanning, the coach who will go for it on fourth down any time and any place, waved the white flag and sent out the punt team.

Well, the Hoosiers blocked the punt. And three plays later, Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza threw his fifth touchdown pass of the evening.

A year after losing to Ohio State 41-21 in the Rose Bowl, the Ducks closed out the 2025 football season with a 34-point loss in the Peach Bowl.

Seeking an identity

With the win, Indiana advanced to the national championship, where it will meet former Oregon coach Mario Cristobal and his Miami Hurricanes. It’s Indiana’s first national championship appearance and Miami’s first since 2003.

There’s no Georgia. There’s no Alabama or Ohio State. It’s new, fresh blood that’s about to win a title — the type of new winner Oregon has fancied itself for the last 20 years.

“There’s not a weakness in their game,” Lanning said of the Hoosiers, who handed Oregon its only two losses of the season. “They run the ball well. They stop the run well. They throw the ball well. They defend the pass well. You see a really complete team. A well-coached team. They obviously have a ton of belief, and deservedly so.”

If Oregon still had belief after Moore’s interception, it had less after he lost a pair of fumbles that turned into Indiana points. The redshirt sophomore finished the game 24-of-39 for 285 yards, two touchdowns and three turnovers. After playing one of his worst games of the season against Indiana in October, Saturday was even worse.

“The quarterback has to protect the football,” Moore said. “They have a great defense, great disguise and different looks, but you can’t win football games if you’re causing turnovers.”

The only thing Moore seemed to anticipate came when a reporter asked about his future following the loss.

“I knew that question was coming,” Moore said. “At the end of the day, I don’t know my decision yet. I’m going to talk to Coach Lanning and talk to my family and everybody, but at the end of the day, I don’t want to think about that right now.”

Should Moore choose to return to Oregon for another season, he’ll return to a program that finds itself in uncharted waters.

See, as much as Ohio State stung for the Ducks last season, it was still Ohio State. Oregon has been chasing the Buckeyes for decades. The Ducks wanted to be an OSU. They wanted to be a Georgia.

There’s some muscle memory in taking a loss to teams like that.

But Indiana? The basketball school?

Until this year, there was nothing in Bloomington that left Oregon fans wanting.

But on Saturday, well, the Ducks sure could have used the tidal wave of fans the Hoosiers brought to Atlanta. At 805,000, Indiana boasts one of the largest alumni bases in America, and it seemed like a tenth of them descended upon the Peach Bowl to drown out the slivers of green inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

It was Indiana — not Oregon — that had its billionaire booster, Mark Cuban, holding court on the sideline before the game.

It was Indiana — not Oregon — that had a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback dropping dime after dime after dime.

It was Indiana — not Oregon — that looked like the blue blood on this field.

“It sucks right now,” Boettcher said. “Not how I envisioned it, whatsoever.”

Oregon will regroup with another top-10 recruiting class. The Ducks will be active again in the transfer portal. When spring ball opens in a month, there will be plenty of talk about flushing what happened here on Jan. 9 in Atlanta and beginning the climb back up the mountain anew.

“We’ll learn the hard lessons here,” Lanning said. “You know what? Most people will never be in the position where they get to learn that lesson on the stage we have to learn on.”

A year ago on the big stage, Oregon learned it still wasn’t good enough to surpass college football’s old guard.

A year later in Atlanta, Oregon learned it’s not college football’s up-and-comer, either.

“They started off hot,” Lanning said, “and they really didn’t slow down.”