A special game from special teams propels Ducks past Iowa

IOWA CITY, IOWA – In the immediacy of Atticus Sappington’s 39-yard go-ahead field goal, Oregon’s coaching box inside Kinnick Stadium remained silent.

While the Ducks were leading a game where yardage and scoring didn’t come easy, this was still the Hawkeyes — and this was still a game where special teams had already proved to be the difference.

There were still three seconds on the clock, there was still a play to run and Iowa’s dangerous returner Kaden Wetjen was still on the field.

It wasn’t until Sappington fired a squib kick away from Wetjen and it hit the turf, bounced into the air, smacked Iowa’s Braeden Jackson in the face, and then disappeared into a sea of white and green, that it was finally over.

The Ducks had won 18–16, beating Iowa in a downpour, at its own game, while playing without stars such as Dakorien Moore, Kenyon Sadiq and Alex Harkey. 

But those guys don’t play special teams, nor were they on the field when a loud “F— yes!” boomed out of Oregon’s box as the coaches fled to make it down to celebrate.

You want exorcised demons? 

An Oregon Ducks season that very well could have been over — for all intents and purposes — was saved, in November, by a kicker.

Sappington scored nine of Oregon’s points on field goals, hit his extra point and Oregon coach Dan Lanning wanted to make sure he pointed out that play after the play.

“Nobody’s going to credit the squib kick there at the end,” Lanning said. “But obviously, they struggled to field the squib. I just thought our specialists played really well today. We felt coming into this game that defense was going to be really important and the special teams had to be special. And they were tonight.”

The running game, defense and Sappington will certainly get their due from this one. 

On a day where Oregon rushed for 261 yards and passed for just 112, the Ducks limited the Hawkeyes to 278 total yards. They used a massive Brandon Finney Jr. forced fumble in the third quarter to flip momentum, sacked quarterback Mark Gronowski twice and tallied four tackles for loss.

But also: Remember long snapper Luke Basso in this one.

The reason the Ducks took the lead early was thanks to the slippery hands of Iowa long snapper Bryant Worrell, who nearly chucked his first snap for a punt out of bounds for a safety before following up with his second attempt by doing just that.

Oregon led 2–0 — helpful points for an offense missing a trio of weapons – as quarterback Dante Moore struggled to find consistency in the rain. The Ducks led 12–7 at the half, with a working-man 19-yard touchdown run from Dierre Hill Jr. They even led 15–7 going into the fourth, a lead that seemed comfortable until Iowa started doing Iowa things.

A program known for its grit and its determination to stack everyone on the line and run the ball, the Hawkeyes marched upfield for scores twice in the fourth — a 58-yard field goal from Drew Stevens, followed by a 3-yard Gronowski keeper that capped a 12-play, 92-yard touchdown drive which took nearly seven minutes off the clock and left the Ducks down 16–15 with 1:51 to play.

To that point, Moore’s biggest play of the game had come with his legs — a 49-yard QB option that set up a 40-yarder that Sappington drilled in the third quarter. But with time not on his side, Moore had to start throwing on that final drive.

On first-and-10 at midfield, with the rain subsiding and 23 seconds left on the clock, Moore finally found it, throwing a ball into a sliver of a window for receiver Malik Benson to snag for a 24-yard gain.

It was the best throw of the season by Moore, who shook off a 13-of-21, 112-yard, night with no touchdowns and an interception to make the big play.

“I was on the field when he threw that pass and he couldn’t have put it in a better spot, honestly,” said running back Noah Whittington, who rushed for 118 yards. “Great throw by him. Great grab by Malik. 

“It was raining. It’s hard to throw the ball. It’s very hard to throw. I had a drop today. It was wet, but no excuses.”

No excuses, but Whittington can’t admit he was exactly confident when Oregon’s drive then stalled on Iowa’s 21-yard line and the field-goal team came out with the game on the line.

See, Sappington hasn’t done this a whole lot. Yes, the senior kicker had a game-winner against Boise State last year, but he had also missed two of his last five attempts coming into Saturday, hadn’t attempted a field goal since Indiana and, well, there’s the history he was going against.

Oregon’s playoff chances fizzled in 2023 when Camden Lewis’ 43-yard attempt went wide right at the end of regulation at Washington. Then there were Alejandro Maldonado’s missed kicks in 2011 against USC and 2012 against Stanford.

And while Whittington was 10 years old in 2012, he said he was praying and didn’t want to watch as Sappington lined up for a 39-yarder with the game on the line.

That is, until Moore told him to pick his head up and trust his teammate.

“The level of anxiety was high. But when Dante told me to watch, I just thought, ‘Why wouldn’t I watch?’” Whittington said. “I’ve seen Atticus make this kick 100 times in practice. What is there to be nervous or scared about?”

Oregon fans could have answered Whittington with “How much time do you have?” Instead, after Iowa tried to ice Sappington with a timeout, the Ducks lined up, Basso got the snap off cleanly and Whittington watched — with his arms linked with Moore and backup QB Ryder Hayes — as the ball split the uprights and Sappington jumped into the arms of holder James Ferguson-Reynolds.

After the squib, after the “F— yeah!” and after the Ducks rushed the northwest corner of the stadium to celebrate in front of Iowa fans who pelted them with cups and other debris, Sappington finally sat down in the press room to take his turn with the media and wondered what all the stress was about.

“Going through the week in practice, I hit that kick at least multiple times,” Sappington said. “It’s our job to go out there and that’s how the cards fell. I was super grateful to go out there and bang it through.”

Specifically, Sappington noted that he didn’t need nerves because “God” was out there with him. 

Mark that in your notebook: Nov. 8, 2025, at 5:58 p.m. in Iowa City — the moment the man upstairs finally carved out a bit of time, in November, to put on an Oregon special teams jersey.