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The faithful out in Eugene thought this was finally their fall — and winter. Dante Moore was back and Oregon was finally going to win that national championship it always teases but never delivers.
But it’s the middle of September and the only thing the 2026 Ducks are delivering their fans is more heartbreak, more disappointment, more doubt about if their time will ever come.
It’s taken just 2 regular-season games for Oregon to sink from No. 2 to No. 21 in the AP Poll. Even that season-opening home win over Boise State was a root canal, with the 34-27 escape job not being sealed until the 4th quarter.
At least it was a win, which was way more than could be said for the stunning 39-31 Week 2 loss at Oklahoma State, in which the Ducks allowed 554 total yards and were generally embarrassed by a team that lost to Tulsa in its opener. It was also a cruel lesson in recent history, as Oregon handled the Cowboys 69-3 almost exactly a year earlier in Eugene but couldn’t get out of Stillwater unscathed in its first road game of the year.
Late Friday night’s home matchup against Portland State won’t tell us anything about if this Oregon team is truly ready to respond to its awful start and contend for anything this fall. The Ducks will almost assuredly name the final score against the Vikings from the Big Sky, but the questions about this Oregon team will linger into a Week 4 primetime showdown at USC.
Can these Ducks get off the canvas, and why have the first 2 games been so terrible? Here are 5 reasons that jump off the page (among others) about why Oregon has struggled so much coming out of the gate in 2026:
1. Terrible starts have the Ducks playing from behind
Oregon teams of the past are used to blasting out of the gate, scoring a ton of points, cruising past foes they should handle. Right? But these Ducks have done the opposite so far against Boise State and Oklahoma State. They’ve come up small at the start of games, which no doubt has ratcheted up the pressure that this team already has on it to produce at the highest level.
Against Boise State, in front of a home crowd waiting to explode in the opener, Oregon trailed 7-0 at the end of the 1st quarter and 17-7 late in the 2nd quarter before a Dante Moore TD pass just 19 seconds before halftime pulled it within 17-14 at the break. It was a stunningly flat way for a team with such high expectations to start the season, and it set the Ducks and their fans up for a nerve-racking 2nd half at Autzen Stadium.
Yes, Oregon ultimately won in Week 1, but Boise State never went away, and suddenly a massive red flag was swaying in the Pacific Northwest. This wasn’t the Oregon team everyone expected to see in the opener, but maybe getting out of the Eugene pressure-cooker for a Week 2 matchup with Oklahoma State would bring out the best in the Ducks. Only the same slow-starting problems came to light, and this time there was no escaping.
Once again, Oregon didn’t score first, and once again the Ducks trailed by the same 17-7 score in the 2nd quarter. It was a similar scenario as the week before and, shockingly, Oregon once again trailed at halftime in a game where it wasn’t supposed to be trailing at halftime. The Ducks finally dug their way out early in the 4th, taking a 31-30 lead that turned out to be excruciatingly brief.
Oklahoma State scored the last 9 points of the game, punishing Oregon for its porous defense and, in the end, punishing the Ducks for another brutal start that this time they were forced to pay dearly for. It just seems that, at least so far in 2026, Oregon isn’t playing with that swagger at the start of games that tells opponents that it’s going to be a long day. Instead, it’s been a long first 2 games for the Ducks, and they’re making it so because they aren’t flying out of the gates in games like they were supposed to.
2. Oregon is getting owned in the time of possession battle
When you’re the better team, when you’re supposed to be one of the better teams in the country, you’re also supposed to possess the football with a vengeance. Instead, so far at least, Oregon is allowing its opponents to dominate the time of possession, and though it’s a small sample size being just 2 games in, it’s also another one of those massive red flags because it’s just not how a behemoth is supposed to behave.
Even in Oregon’s Week 1 victory, the Ducks didn’t have the ball more than Boise State, with the Broncos possessing it for 31 minutes, 54 seconds. So, you could’ve easily looked at this with a side-eye and brushed it aside, knowing that Oregon still won the game and believing that time of possession wouldn’t continue to be an issue in Week 2 in Stillwater.
But as it turned out, that would’ve been a careless thing to do, because Dan Lanning‘s team somehow allowed the Cowboys to hold onto the ball for a whopping 36 minutes, 54 seconds. If you round it down, that means Oregon somehow only had the ball for 23 minutes last Saturday in Stillwater, which is downright unacceptable. The only way that number would’ve been halfway acceptable would’ve been if it was one of those games Oregon has played a lot in the past where the Ducks score often and do it quickly, which distorts the time of possession in the opponent’s favor.
It wasn’t one of those Oregon games though. Far from it. Instead, Oklahoma State owned the time of possession because, really, it owned the game, piling up more than twice the number of first downs that Oregon did (25-12) and punishing the Ducks defense on the ground (237 yards rushing) and through the air (317 yards passing).
When Oregon trailed 17-7 in the 2nd quarter, the only reason the game was even that close was because the Ducks got a 96-yard pick-6 courtesy of Devon Jackson. Oregon didn’t score its first offensive points of the game until there was 5:26 left in the 1st half, and even that 1-yard touchdown run was set up by an interception that put the Ducks on the Cowboys’ 1-yard line.
In other words, Oregon was only staying in the game in the 1st half because of big plays from its defense, and it certainly wasn’t possessing the ball long enough on offense throughout the game to be deserving of a victory. The Ducks barely held the ball long enough to be deserving of victory in Week 1. In Week 2, the problem spiraled out of control, and it’s something that just can’t continue if Oregon wants to be taken seriously.
3. The Ducks are simply killing themselves with penalties
Seven penalties for 66 yards might not sound like a whole lot, but in a game like Week 2 at Oklahoma State where you’re getting dominated at the line of scrimmage and playing from behind, it is in fact a whole lot. Throw in that the Cowboys were only penalized 2 times for 30 yards all day in the 39-31 upset of the Ducks and you have the recipe for, well, an upset loss like the one Oregon suffered in Stillwater.
And while penalties can be a big problem in defeat, they can also smother a team even in victory. That’s what happened in the Week 1 win over Boise State, when Oregon prevailed despite itself. It prevailed despite an absurd 10 penalties for 90 yards, so just imagine how much easier the game could’ve been for the Ducks if they weren’t shooting themselves in the foot so much.
Boise State only had 3 penalties for 25 yards, which helped put the Broncos in position for the road upset. They didn’t get it, but Oregon didn’t get any separation either, partly because of those piles of penalties. That’s a total of 17 penalties in these first 2 games while the opposition has only committed a combined 5 penalties, going into late Friday night’s Week 3 matchup with Portland State.
It’s simply way too many flags for any team, let alone one that has any designs on competing for anything important.
4. Oregon isn’t getting it done enough on 3rd down (or 4th)
With the Ducks doing so many things wrong so far, at least being good on 3rd down would be one of those “little things” that could help them plug all the faulty holes. But Oregon hasn’t been good so far on 3rd down, going 4-for-12 in the season-opening escape act against Boise State and following it up with a 5-for-14 clip in the Week 2 upset loss at Oklahoma State.
That’s a combined 9-for-26 on 3rd down in the first 2 games. It’s not terrible but it’s nothing to hang your hat on either, and being better on 3rd down sure would help right now with Oregon having so much trouble staying on the field. Yes, 3rd down conversions and the aforementioned time of possession woes are tied together, and the Ducks aren’t doing either of them very good so far in 2026.
Guess what else smacks of desperation so far? Oregon going 0-for-3 on 4th down in each of its first 2 games. A team this talented shouldn’t have even had to go for it on 4th down a combined 6 times against opponents it’s way better than.
5. Dante Moore isn’t playing like a difference-maker
He certainly didn’t spurn the NFL Draft and return to Eugene for it to be like this. Moore’s numbers through 2 games don’t look so bad at first glance — 569 yards passing with 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. His 63.6% completion rate isn’t terrible either, but it is about 8 points below last year’s 71.8% clip.
His rushing yards are in the negative, but Moore has never really been a dual-threat guy, and that’s not the point anyway. What is the point is Moore’s overall 55.5 QBR, which ranks a dismal 56th, and a quarterback who had Heisman Trophy buzz coming into 2026 shouldn’t be ranked 56th in anything, even if it’s only been 2 games.
The eye-test tells you that Moore just isn’t playing well enough, not even close, especially for someone who’s supposed to be elite. His sub-standard play has helped Oregon fall behind, with the Ducks trailing at halftime in their first 2 games against unranked teams they were supposed to be handling at halftime. Oregon is capable of so much better in 2026 and, specifically, so is Moore, who was supposed to be The Star on a team full of them.
So far, all it’s been for Moore and the Ducks is one mighty struggle, complete with disappointment and doubt.
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