Ducks head coach Dan Lanning shoulders blame with illuminating comments on Rose Bowl blowout loss to Ohio State
A good leader leads from the front, and that's exactly what Oregon head coach Dan Lanning did after his Ducks suffered an embarrassing blowout loss in the Rose Bowl. Losing 41-21 actually makes this game sound closer than it was. Oregon got boat raced right out of the gate.But Lanning, a tremendous leader and motivator, […]
A good leader leads from the front, and that's exactly what Oregon head coach Dan Lanning did after his Ducks suffered an embarrassing blowout loss in the Rose Bowl. Losing 41-21 actually makes this game sound closer than it was. Oregon got boat raced right out of the gate.
But Lanning, a tremendous leader and motivator, tried to shoulder blame for the way his team performed on New Year's Day in the Rose Bowl.
"They clicked tonight, we didn't. I didn't get our team prepared, and that's a great team," Lanning said after the game. "When you play a great team like Ohio State, you can't not be clicking on all cylinders. And they were, they were clicking on all cylinders. We didn't really have the ability to stop them, and didn't have the ability to get something going for us on offense. We haven't faced a lot of moments like that this year."
"It's an unbelievable team. Coach Day and his staff have done an unbelievable job there. But I don't want to discredit what our players are able to accomplish. This year, we had a great team, you know? We just ran into a great team tonight. We didn't play our best. So credit to those guys."
With three weeks to prepare and scout Ohio State and come up with a game plan, to have his players healthy and geared up and ready to go, many, myself included, thought the preparation advantage would go to Lanning.
That's not what transpired. Ohio State's offense looked unstoppable, with the Oregon defense looking outmatched and out-planned. The defense wasn't able to get off blockers, and they allowed wide receiver Jeremiah Smith to go nuclear starting from the first drive.
On offense, which has been a strength of this Oregon team all year, it was like they didn't know what the Buckeyes defense was doing. Dillon Gabriel had nowhere to go with the ball, instead having to rely on off-script, gutsy plays just to move the ball down the field in any way. The game plan and the play designs rarely created the mismatches and open targets that we're so accustomed to seeing from Oregon.
"I just don't think we had a good plan as coaches tonight," Lanning continued. "We've got to find ways to prepare ourselves for these moments better as a coaching staff."
Lanning sounded like a man that let his team down. Whether it was on him or on execution, Oregon looked completely overmatched on the biggest stage. As Lanning pointed to, the coaching staff has to find ways to better prepare for these moments if this team wants to make the leap into the conversation of a national powerhouse.
Follow along all year for more Oregon Ducks coverage on A to Z Sports. You can find me on Bluesky @jonhelmkamp.bsky.social, as well as follow our main page @AtoZSports.bsky.social for all the latest news.
