Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
With three straight wins, a surging offense and a defense that won't stay down, Oregon isn't sneaking up on anyone anymore.
Dan Lanning’s cover was blown.
After Oregon’s win over Michigan, the coach had planned on driving north to Corvallis and slipping into Reser Stadium to take in his son’s football game. But on the last question about Oregon’s 31-7 win, he was asked if he was going.
“Titan’s got a Super Bowl tonight,” Lanning said. “I think it’s actually at Oregon State’s stadium. I was going to surprise him and be there.
“So, hopefully he doesn’t watch this press conference.”
Lanning made it — after some recruiting — for a game that began inside Reser, then switched to Oregon State’s practice fields when the lights went out in the Beavers’ home stadium.
The teams adjusted. The game went on, and Titan’s eighth-grade Sheldon Irish got the win.
It didn’t seem to matter if Lanning’s cover was blown.
Back in Eugene, it might not matter if the Big Ten knows these Ducks are coming, either.
They’d better know about these Ducks by now.
For the last few weeks, every success Oregon’s had has carried the added caveat that things haven’t been very good recently. That’s not the case anymore. It’s three wins in a row now. Three games with more than 30 points for the offense. Three games where the blue bloods of the Big Ten — I’m including Northwestern in here like that three-headed dragon meme — let the Ducks find their rhythm.
“I think he’s continued to get more and more comfortable and his confidence continues to rise,” Lanning said of quarterback Dylan Raiola after the win, but he really could have been speaking for most of his team.
Even after suffering another setback last week with the season-ending injury to outside linebacker Teitum Tuioti, the Ducks played their most complete game of the season against a Michigan team that at least brought a defense with it to Eugene.
They were one broken play away from pitching a shutout, with the usual suspects making big plays — Matayo Uiagalelei had two sacks, Bear Alexander forced a fumble — and fresh faces making names for themselves.
Nasir Wyatt had two tackles for loss, including a sack. Freshman Jett Washington broke up a fourth-down pass at the goal line. And Dylan Williams, stepping into the starting lineup in place of Jerry Mixon, led the Ducks with 11 tackles and forced a fumble of his own.
And against the nation’s fourth-ranked defense, the Ducks aired it out. There was Raiola’s lofted touchdown pass to Jeremiah McClellan on Oregon’s fourth play from scrimmage. There was the rollout heave to Dakorien Moore for a 59-yard touchdown to end the first half. Michigan hadn’t allowed more than 21 points in a game all season. Oregon matched that by halftime.
There were a couple of balls that hung in the air a little long, but Raiola’s four-touchdown performance showed just how far he’s come in balancing risk and reward.
“Coach Lanning, in our meeting on Thursday, talked about how, as good as our defense is, the only way we can allow teams to creep back into games is if we make bad decisions on offense, including me putting the ball in jeopardy,” Raiola said. “So for me, if there’s a rush, I’m covering the ball up. If not, I’m throwing it away. If we’ve got to punt, we’ve got to punt. That’s what we’ve got a really good defense for.”
The Ducks do have a really good defense. With Raiola getting comfortable, the offensive line solidifying and the receivers looking like a threat again with McClellan’s return from injury, somehow, someway, Oregon might have a really good offense, too.
Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham knew that. He saw it coming. And for everyone else on the College Football Playoff bubble, the hope now is that Michigan State or Washington can do something about it.
“They get hit,” Whittingham said. “They stay on their feet.”
This story is part of Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s new Sunday Duck Report. For the full report, subscribe to the free newsletter here.
