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The Oregon football program has a new superstar and the new talk of college football only leaves the sidelines once per game. It's not a player per se but the idea of an extra player to help peel off crucial seconds from the clock. Much like Oregon's Dillon Gabriel singing Morgan Wallen, it is hard to find anyone outside of Ohio State not praising Dan Lanning's 12th-man tactic.
Lanning finally confirmed it was intentional, h/t Brett McMurphy of the Action Network.
“It was not a one-on-one so we had a safety on top,” Lanning explained. “He was in DOG coverage. It's not a tight coverage but he was in it. And there was a timeout right before that. We spend an inordinate amount of time on those (late-game) situations. A lot of situations do not show up often but this was one we had worked on and you see the result.”
The result was Ohio State moving from their 38 to the 43-yard line with only six seconds remaining. One snap later Autzen Stadium was celebrating a 32-31 win to take control of the Big Ten title race.
Oregon had 496 yards of total offense, but giving five yards away was the smartest play on Saturday's NCAA College Football slate. Ohio State had 10 seconds to move from their 38-yard line into field goal position. It never happened.
Instead, Lanning is getting all the credit for putting an extra defender on the field so Ohio State could inch closer to the endzone for a Hail Mary attempt.
Oregon football on Easy Street
Oregon football fan clubs can rest easy after a nailbiter against Ohio State. The Ducks might not face another Top 25 team until the Big Ten title game. Sure, (22) Illinois and (24) Michigan cannot be overlooked but, there is no reason for the Pacific Northwest-based alumni to put money on the underdogs. They play each other next Saturday while undefeated Oregon faces 1-5 Purdue.
Ohio State's Ryan Day is still replaying every down of the Oregon loss though, via Andy Anders of Eleven Warriors.
“In that situation, if you were to see 12 or 13 guys or whatever – I mean, I guess they could put 20 guys on the field if they wanted to – I guess you would spike it so that you save that time,” Day said. “And then you just get five more yards. But when you look back on the play, there were guys open. There was still an opportunity to make a play there. You think back on a lot of things, trust me I've gone through every play 1,000 times in my head.”
