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It’s hard to say exactly when the game turned in favor of the Oregon Ducks Saturday at No. 12 Ohio State.
The fake punt? The gutsy interception by the freshman? The fact that Oregon scored on three consecutive drives over 3 minutes, 9 seconds of game time?
Take your pick, and know this: Whichever you choose is also when the season turned in favor of the Ducks (6-3, 4-2 Big Ten).
Oregon scored 38 unanswered points, Dylan Raiola completed 25-of-40 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns; and suddenly, the Ducks are back in the thick of the Big Ten title race after embarrassing No. 12 Ohio State 41-28 on the road. It was the Ducks’ second consecutive win in The Horseshoe, long considered one of college football’s most intimidating and unfriendly stadiums.
Clearly, Dan Lanning & Co. haven’t gotten that memo.
After being upset by unranked Oklahoma State, losing their quarterback at USC, and looking flat-out bad in losses to UCLA and Illinois, 2026 seemed like a lost season at worst, a letdown at best. A popular preseason national title pick, the Ducks could barely get a first down for a few weeks.
But something’s shifted during the last couple of weeks, and Saturday at Ohio State, the Buckeyes paid for it.
Lanning’s take: “We’re like cockroaches, man. We won’t die.”
Maybe the turnaround started last Tuesday, when the College Football Playoff selection committee officially gave Oregon a chance to salvage its season by placing the Ducks at No. 23 in the initial CFP rankings.
Though the three touchdowns they recorded in just over three minutes of play Saturday certainly had something to do with the revival, too.
“I thought our guys got ahold of the momentum and then really didn’t give it back till the end there,” Lanning said.
Oregon scored two touchdowns in the final 1:25 of the first half, then again less than two minutes into the second half, a stunning stretch for an offense that spent a lot of September and October sputtering. That scoring burst — which gave UO a 24-14 lead with 13:11 to play in the third quarter — came from a combination of creativity and confidence.
On the Ducks’ drive that started late in the first half, Oregon found itself at fourth-and-9 on its own 31. But instead of giving Ohio State the ball, the Ducks called a fake punt, and suddenly linebacker Teitum Tuioti took the snap and lofted a pass to fellow linebacker Matayo Uiagalelei, who took it 30 yards to the Ohio State 39.
Raiola followed that with a 15-yard completion to Jamari Johnson and four plays later, running back Dierre Hill Jr. strolled into the end for a 9-yard touchdown. That brought Oregon within four, 14-10.
“The fake punt sparked a little bit of momentum,” Lanning said, in the understatement of the season. “That’s a punt we’ve been working since fall camp. It gave us a chance to settle in, even out the score and then get into a little bit of a rhythm.”
Three plays later, Oregon true freshman Devon Jackson picked off Ohio State true freshman Luke Fahey, managing to keep his foot in bounds so UO could take possession (originally ruled an incomplete pass, officials overturned the call after the replay clearly showed Jackson’s silver cleat in bounds). The Ducks took over at their own 41. Then a couple of Raiola completions, a couple of Ohio State penalties and a formation that started with just two (two!) offensive linemen led to a Jamari Johnson rushing touchdown that gave UO a 17-14 lead two seconds left.
After a dominant first quarter and a 14-0 lead, Ohio State found itself down 17-14 at the break.
The players are fans of Lanning’s aggressive approach.
“It does give us another level of juice,” said receiver Dakorien Moore. “It’s definitely giving us an edge to go out and play a little bit harder.”
Oregon got the ball back at the start of the third quarter and less than two minutes later, Hill took the ball 48 yards to score again to push the lead to 24-14.
Now the Ducks were rolling, and the Buckeyes were reeling. Oregon players were jumping around on the sideline, thumping each other on the back, smiling and shouting. Ohio State players … weren’t.
Oregon’s next possession ended with a missed 52-yard field goal attempt, but Ohio State couldn’t do anything when it got the ball back. It was the opposite for the Ducks, who needed just six plays to score again, this time on an 11-yard reception from Moore. Early in the fourth, Brandon Smith tacked on another score with a 15-yard touchdown catch.
As for Ohio Stadium and its much-ballyhooed reputation, Moore got a sly smile on this face talking about the Buckeyes’ initially raucous crowd.
“As you can see, it started off 103,000,” Moore said, in reference to the official listed attendance of 103,551, “and ended with less than half of that.”
Early in the fourth, Brandon Smith tacked on another score with a 15-yard touchdown catch.
The result likely knocks Ohio State (6-3, 4-3) out of the CFP, and probably cost Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith the Heisman. Oregon held Smith to just 76 receiving yards for most the day, though a late 57-yard completion when the game was out of reach gave Smith 133 yards. Still, the junior didn’t record a catch for almost two full quarters.
Other noteworthy stats: Oregon went 5-for-5 in the red zone (Ohio State was 2-of-2) and 1-of-1 on fourth downs (the Buckeyes were 0-of-4). Seven different Oregon receivers tallied at least 20 yards.
That includes Uiagalelei, the aspiring two-way superstar. He only caught one pass, but he also only had one sack and one pass breakup. But together, they helped Oregon turn everything around.
