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Dan Lanning comments on Oregon’s 2nd-quarter surge vs. Ohio State
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Dan Lanning knows his Oregon squad squandered some early points while facing off against Ohio State. Fortunately, the Ducks came alive in the 2nd quarter to grab a 22-21 lead heading into halftime.
The first quarter of the big game was not much for the Ducks to hang their hat on. Oregon managed just 84 yards of offense and was 1-for-3 on 3rd downs against the Buckeyes.
However, the 2nd quarter was a completely different story with the Ducks racking up 201 yards and Dillon Gabriel going 7-for-9 through the air. In spite of that surge, Lanning says the most important plays for the Ducks are still ahead of them.
“The next one. It’s about the next one,” said Lanning about which play from the 2nd quarter was most important. “We’ve talked about throwing jabs in this game. We’ve got to keep throwing jabs and make them connect, it doesn’t have to be a haymaker. Some explosive plays for our offense really showed up, we got some stops from our defense. We’ve got to eliminate the explosive runs.”
As for maintaining the momentum in the 2nd half, Lanning is looking for a hot start. It comes back to maintaining the physical edge.
“Start off hot. We’ve got to come out in the 2nd half, establish our physicality and play ball,” Lanning said as the keys to the game.
Considering the self-inflicted wounds for the Ducks (including Traeshon Holden’s ejection for spitting on a Buckeye defender), Oregon is lucky to grab the lead at the break. We’ll see if they can hold onto it down the stretch.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.