Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
The Ducks got the win thanks to the chill leadership of Dante Moore — and an assist from Mountain View Seeds outside of Salem.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Of the many things that stand out at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, it has to be noted that the grass is immaculate.
It hits you by surprise as you walk in — surrounding the stadium are seemingly miles of turf trampled by the 100,000-plus that pack into the 65-year-old palace every Saturday. It’s muddy. It’s crowded. It’s chaotic.
But once inside, fans are treated to 57,600 square feet of pristine Kentucky Bluegrass, whose deep green pops under the lights and in contrast to the team’s annual White Out.
For Penn State’s sake, the groundskeeper needed to mow it a little lower.
It was on Oregon’s first touchdown drive of the game — a 10-play, 80-yard series that gave the Ducks a 10-3 lead in the third quarter — that the grass came into focus. On first-and-goal from the PSU 9, Oregon running back Noah Whittington ran into a wall up the middle, made a second effort to fight for yardage and ultimately coughed up the football. Beaver Stadium erupted as Zakee Wheatley returned the turnover 39 yards down the left sideline.
But then the referee turned on his microphone and sent most of the 111,015 in attendance into a chorus of jeers: The play was under review.
And during that review, America was treated to a close-up of Whittington’s right knee brushing the blades just before fumbling.
No turnover. No momentum swing for Penn State. New life for the Ducks.
On the next play, the Ducks struck when Dante Moore connected with Dierre Hill Jr. on a screen pass for the first touchdown of the game.
“Those guys handled that moment well,” Lanning said of his sideline during the review. “They were so locked in and focused. It’s hard to be focused for a 60-minute — or an overtime — game. They were. They were focused for more than 60 minutes today. We needed every one of them. We needed every play, every amount of focus from our team, and that was a challenging game.”
Oregon fans have sworn “Dyer was down!” for 15 years. Penn State fans could be saying “Whittington didn’t touch grass!” for the same.
But that knee touched. And the health — and height — of that grass came with a slight Oregon assist.
Tuckahoe Turf Farms in New Jersey provides the sod for Beaver Stadium.
Any idea where Tuckahoe gets the seeds for its 365ss blend of Kentucky Bluegrass?
That would happen to be Salem’s Mountain View Seeds.
As Lanning would say, the grass is damn green (north of) Eugene.
Death by paper cut
I wasn’t on the field at the end of the game — getting that at-the-horn game story live is a bit tricky in double-overtime conditions — but by the time I got to Oregon’s media tent, my phone was blowing up with texts from friends concerned about Lanning.
I didn’t really get it. When the Oregon coach came into the media tent, his eyes were intense and focused but it didn’t feel out of the ordinary as he opened up by saying he thought Oregon’s win was “the best game I’ve ever been a part of.”
Then I woke up this morning and saw the photos and videos.
Such as this one:
And this one:
And this one:
Well, can’t say he doesn’t care, right?
However, despite the war cry, the wild eyes and the Sunday morning trolling of Penn State on his Instagram, Lanning isn’t so crazy as to start calling game in a two-possession matchup.
The cameras caught Oregon’s coach making a throat-cutting motion after Jordon Davison pushed Oregon’s lead to 17-3 with an 8-yard score on fourth down early in the fourth quarter.
“I was saying that’s another cut,” Lanning said. “This game was about 1,000 cuts. We’re getting another cut. That’s another cut. That’s another cut. We’re going to stack as many cuts as we can possibly get. The game ain’t over until it’s over. … We had to get another cut and eventually that cut was going to be a jugular. And that last interception was a jugular.”
The cool, calm Heisman front-runner
For as riled up as Lanning can get, Moore strolled into his media session in loafers, a sweatsuit, headphones resting above his ears and a large black neck pillow.
The 20-year-old couldn’t have looked more comfortable after the biggest game of his career as he talked about the challenge of doing that in front of the largest crowd ever for an Oregon football game.
“Playing on the road, six-hour flight, playing a White Out game — these are the things you pray and dream about as a kid,” Moore said. “Playing in this environment as a whole team, we just knew we were going to be on the road and there’s not going to be many fans for us. Thank you to the fans that traveled for this game, coming out from Oregon. But overall, I felt like everybody had each other’s backs.”
Moore finished the game with three touchdowns and no turnovers while completing 74 percent of his passes. Keep in mind: In Moore’s five starts with UCLA in 2023, he completed 54% of his passes and never completed more than 50% against a conference opponent. In his only previous start against a ranked opponent, Moore was 15 of 35 (43%) with an interception and red zone fumble in a 14-7 loss.
“I had a lot of mistakes that game,” Moore said. “One thing I was thinking about is I wasn’t confident in the game plan as a player not knowing everything. As a true freshman at 17 years old, there’s a lot you have to handle as a quarterback in that offense.
“But overall, I feel this week we practiced so hard as a whole team. Even the defense, they made sure they pushed me this week. The environment — we had some practices where we blasted the volume super loud to get ready for this environment. Overall, playing on the road can be very difficult, especially when you’re far away from home. Travel can be a little different. But we came out with the win, and it’s a blessing.”
With the win, will Moore jump to the front of the Heisman race? His coach doesn’t think it’s much of a question.
“I think we have the best quarterback in college football,” Lanning said.
Discipline on the road
Yes, it was loud as heck inside of Beaver Stadium. From the press box, it didn’t seem quite as loud as Autzen in Eugene — but the windows in the box are half covered and could dampen the sound.
Regardless, the White Out lived up to the billing. I’ve never seen that many people tailgating in my life. I’ve never seen that many people in white in my life. And I’ve never seen a crowd with butts in every seat that early before kickoff.
Those Penn State fans were ready. But so, too, was the Oregon offensive line. Penn State forced just one Oregon false start — and it was called on tight end Jamari Johnson.
Good luck guessing next game’s leading rusher
Did the Ducks finally go away from their revolving-door running back rotation once faced with a good defense?
Nope.
This week, Hill Jr. (82 yards) and Whittington (25 yards) led the Ducks with 10 carries apiece after combining for five against Oregon State. Oregon’s leading rusher coming into the game, Jayden Limar, had seven carries for 17 yards. Jordon Davison had four carries for 17 yards. And Makhi Hughes? The heralded Tulane transfer didn’t even make the trip.
The Ducks were effective enough on the ground, outrunning Penn State 176-139 while using Moore more than we’ve seen so far. The QB finished with 10 carries for 35 yards — including a 3-yard keeper on fourth-and-1 to keep the Ducks alive in the first overtime.
“We felt like this is a game we needed to win, and we were going to run our quarterback at times,” Lanning said. “He took some hits. That guy is tough, tough as nails. But we felt like at times we’re going to have to play 11-on-11. You can’t play 10-on-11. They’re a really good defense. In those critical moments, where do you want the ball? Who do you want to have it in their hands? He did an unbelievable job.”
Speaking of hits
It’s 6:03 p.m. on Sunday here at Pittsburgh International Airport as I write this, and your guess is still as good as mine as to how this wasn’t targeting.
Lanning thought it was. So too, randomly, did Harold Reynolds. The former Seattle Mariners second baseman is a Eugene native and spent the second half in the press box clad in a black Oregon sweatsuit.
After the hit on Jayden Limar went to review and came back without the call, Reynolds spoke for the collective Oregon fanbase when he proclaimed:
“How is that not targeting?!”
A few moments later, a message rang out over the PA system reminding all that there’s no cheering allowed in the press box.
Funny aside: I didn’t come into the weekend thinking I’d play lead blocker for the MLB Network host at some point, but after the game it was Reynolds and me trying to cut through thousands of Penn State fans as we made our way to Oregon’s locker room.
Don’t know if I rate as good of a teammate for him as Ken Griffey Jr. but I’m sure it’s close.
A 10/10 trip
Oh, was I ready to not like this thing. It was about a 15-hour day for me getting to Pittsburgh on Friday — thank you, American Airlines — and I was pretty daunted by the prospect of making the 2.5-hour drive to and from State College the next day.
But I’ll tell you what: I’d do this trip 10 times over. For one, the Penn State atmosphere was incredible. The tailgating and athletic complex really put into perspective the difference in scale between some of these OG Big Ten schools and the Pac-12 defectors.
Friendly people. Parking at the stadium was far easier than I anticipated. The sunset from the deck of the recently renovated Penn State press box was unreal. So was that game.
Unexpectedly, so too was Pittsburgh. I’d never been here before and I’m grateful that, for once, I followed the advice of former Oregon beat writer Jeff Smith and didn’t catch the first flight out of town this morning.
Instead, I slept in, grabbed a monster sandwich for $9 at Primanti Brothers and took a stroll around the city on a beautiful sunny day.
The walk across Roberto Clemente Bridge to get to the Pirates’ stadium might be one of the coolest setups I’ve seen in all of Major League Baseball.
