Dante Moore and the No. 5-seed Oregon football will soon be playing in the College Football Playoff, as they are set to face the No. 12-seed James Madison Dukes at Autzen Stadium in Eugene this coming Saturday. But the Ducks could have earned a higher seed and been rewarded with a first-round bye had Oregon avoided a loss to the then-No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers at home on Oct. 11.
That 30-20 defeat at the hands of Fernando Mendoza and the Hoosiers turned out to be the only defeat that Oregon football suffered in the regular season.
Looking back, Oregon star quarterback Dante Moore believed things would have gone much more favorably for his team in that encounter with Indiana if he had played a little looser.
“Dante Moore said in reflecting back to the loss at home to Indiana, he said he was probably too locked in. Made the game way bigger than it really was. He said after that game, his approach shifted, and he's played way better,” Matt Prehm of 247Sports shared via a social media post on X, formerly Twitter.
In that contest, Moore threw two back-breaking interceptions in the fourth quarter, as he finished with 186 passing yards and a touchdown with two interceptions on 21-of-34 pass completions. Oregon football's offense also went just 3-for-14 on third downs and racked up 267 total yards against Indiana's stout stop unit.
In any case, that's all in the rearview mirror now for Dan Lanning's Oregon football squad, which enters the CFP with an overall 11-1 record.
