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The No. 16 Oregon Ducks kept their College Football Playoff hopes alive in Week 11 with a 31-7 victory over the Michigan Wolverines. As the Ducks improved their winning streak to three games, the offense continued to find a rhythm against a tough Michigan defensive front.
Leading the way behind center was quarterback Dylan Raiola, who finished with a career-best performance for yardage in the first half. Raiola finished the game with 20 for 28 passing for 341 yards and four touchdowns.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning didn’t mince his words postgame when it came to Raiola’s importance during the three-game stretch.
“I just think he's continuing to get more and more comfortable, and his confidence continues to rise,” Lanning said. “And I think he's recognizing that the preparation that he's putting in and the time is really leading to success out there on the field, and he'd be the first one to tell you, ‘I can't do that without my offensive line operating at a high level, wideouts, running backs operating at a high level.’ So, I think all those things have come together.”
Lanning went on to talk about Raiola’s preparation throughout the week leading into the matchup with the Wolverines at Autzen Stadium. The Ducks’ coach also discussed big performances from receiver Jeremiah McClellan and running back Dierre Hill Jr., as well as providing an injury update on linebacker Jerry Mixon.
“Fun, fun performance from our guys. I think right there in the middle of the first quarter, it's like, okay, yeah, our fans are the real deal. They showed up and made an impact again. It's always awesome to have a home field advantage like that. You know, proud over all of our team's performance.”
“Thought there was some things that we need to be able to clean up in the second half, but ultimately we played really good defensively the entire day, excluding that third quarter, they had a really long drive, and then you're able to get a big time red area stop outside of that big run they had in the first half, and then offensively, I thought we started really fast, executed a high level.”
“We're pretty efficient on first down, and then again, some penalties hurt us there in the second half. But that's the most points by two scores that's been scored against that defense. That's a really good defense. I thought our quarterback did a good job making good decisions and taking advantage of opportunities when they were there and getting the ball to playmakers, but overall complete play from our guys.”
“I think it's complementary football. When you're running the ball effectively, like I know Dierre was close. I don't know if he had it, but he's close to 100 yards rushing today. I thought we were able to stay again on pace.”
“We felt like some of the play-action game would be a weapon for us early, with the ability to set up some of the runs, and then to be able to keep your eyes downfield with pocket presence. I thought Dylan did a great job of that. That means you have to have clean pockets to do it. So overall, good performance there.”
“I sat down and asked him on Thursday. I'm like, ‘Okay, what do you think the keys to the game are going to be?’ And I think he said, ‘Hey, these are going to be two good defenses, and the opportunity for us to make sure that we take care of the ball is going to be imperative.’”
“And I thought he did a great, great job making decisions to not put the ball in jeopardy, like you said, and giving us a chance because we knew that it could be a defensive battle, and then for us to go out there and score 31, I think speaks volumes against a team like that.”
“Yeah, just every time you get an opportunity, he takes advantage of his opportunity. So excited you've seen his role grow with our team. It started with being an impact player on every special team for us. You see him big moments there in two-point play with a breakup, and then again on a fourth-down with a breakup. He's long, he's athletic, he's smart, he cares. I think all those things show up when he steps on the field.”
“Absolutely. I mean, we had a third-and-long there at the very end, and it's one of those ones where, like, hey, we want the clock to run. Let's see if we can have an opportunity for a shot. And the shot wasn't there. I thought it was a great job by Dylan checking it down.”
“Unbelievable effort by Jalen Lott on the backside to go in there and get a block, and then Dierre turned that into a first down, keep the clock running, and then finish that drive with points.”
“But I thought this was one of the air's most consistent games, with attacking where he needs to line up, execute his job, how he needs to do with the physicality that he ran with. He got a lot of yards after contact. I don't know what the volume of yards after contact, but he was falling forward and fighting for tough yards against a physical team today.
“I'm enjoying coaching this team a lot. It's been it's a group that that steps out on their field. Ready to work every single day. I think they've shown tremendous growth. But yeah, it's a fun process, man. I'm having a lot of fun coaching this group because of the way they work.”
“And you get excited about what they do on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, in their prep in the week, the conversations that you're having on the sideline with these guys, and what they want to be able to create, and how they want to be able to improve what they're seeing on the field. It's just, it's a great example of our guys, they've been hit in the mouth a couple times, and they've done a great job getting up and throwing punches back.”
“Yeah, I'm really proud of Jeremiah. And I told him after this game was over with, I was going to be as proud of how he blocked, but I know he got the flag on the holding call, and that's just, it's a great effort play.”
“The guy was outside his framework, but that's probably what I'm most impressed with is there's limited plays where you actually touch the wideout or touch the ball's wideout. Your impact that you can make is just as big with you in the running game. And I saw a lot of moments with him playing with great physicality, giving extra effort.”
“His energy was awesome on the sideline today. So really proud of him because it's been a journey to get back. He put in a lot of hard work to do it, and for him to have the game like he did today, I know there's going to be some growth moments, but it really speaks to his character and how hard he works.”
“Yeah, I mean, we have weapons out there, and it makes it really hard for people to make a decision how they're going to play coverage on us, right? And then obviously, you have to have the ability to distribute the ball to them.”
“So, I think once we cleaned up some things when it comes to protection and created some scheme that really fit our guys, when you have the plethora of wideouts and tight ends and backs that we have, I think it shows that we can be pretty dynamic. And those guys did a good job.”
“Yeah, just that we felt like there wasn't necessarily felt like okay, our play call is a big winner. It's going to involve beating a one-on-one. We wanted to look to see if they had the look that we liked. Probably could have took a delayed game there too, but the wind was blowing.”
“We've done a good job preserving timeouts, but ultimately felt like it could be a defensive game. And in that moment, it was worth flipping the field, and it really did become somewhat of a field position game. In this game, we got to stop, like I said, in the red area. Now you're at the minus-three on offense.”
“There was going to be some moments where it was going to be the team that was able to win field position and then take advantage of points opportunities. So, it wasn't worth the risk at that point unless we felt really great about the call. And based on the look that they were in. It was going to be an okay call, but not maybe not our best. And we just wanted to make sure we protected the field.”
“I mean, Matayo’s been an outstanding player for this year, and I thought Teitum and Matayo were both having career years and really special years. And I could go back and point to all Matayo’s success that he's having this season, and point back to how hard he worked in the off season to put himself in that position.”
“And he's got a great mind. He's a student of the game. He continues to push and learn. He's got great energy out there in the field, and you wouldn't think it's Week 10 or Week 11 with the way he's out there practicing with the juice that he has. So, to see it show up on the field, I'm proud of him, especially in a team that's not really throwing the ball that much to be able to take advantage of those opportunities.”
“Practiced throughout all week. If you guys remember, got dinged up last week in the game, and then really practiced all week, fine, and then just got tweaked in warmups there to the point where it wasn't really even on our injury report and expected to be able to have him.”
“But he's super tough. He wanted to be out there playing, but it was more of a precaution on our part. And I think he's going to be fine and available. It's just kind of a weird deal there in warmups.”
“I haven't looked yet. I'll look before the night's over, I'm sure.”
“Not drastic changes. We were preparing for both. They're both players that have proven that they can have success and had a plan for both, but it wasn't drastically different.”
“Yeah, I just think it's the capability of your team to go out there and make adjustments and grow, put it on your players, create opportunities for our players. I think our offensive staff has done an outstanding job of creating a plan each week, and Dylan's done an outstanding job going out there and executing it.”
“Football is a great team game. It takes 11 people doing the right thing at all times and putting themselves in position to have great success. So, he's made big strides. He's really grown for us, and our offensive staff has done a great job putting him in position as success.”
“Dylan's always been a guy that has a high level of passion and energy to go out there and execute at a high level. And I think he became the best version of himself when he said, ‘Okay, I'm going to make 100 percent of the plays I'm supposed to make. He plays with great physicality. He's worked really hard each offseason.”
“It's tough to play linebacker in our system. There's a lot that we ask you to do, and he's doing that at a high level right now. I thought that showed up today. Really proud of his performance.”
“In moments we knew that they play tough physical football, and they created some small gains, obviously, and that was a long drive. But like I said, that's probably one of my most proud moments is getting down there in the red area and still being able to get the stop, which was big.”
“Dutch, the minute he got here, he started operating like a guy that's been in the system for 10 years. Just with his knowledge, he doesn't operate as a freshman on the field. He takes his job very seriously.”
“There's probably not anybody in our program right now that prepares harder to know what their calls are, be assignment sound. Be responsible for what they're responsible for. And he's done an outstanding job, so I'm excited he was able to get his feet wet and create an impact today.”
“I don't know if Dylan's baking cookies or Scarlett's baking cookies. I think Scarlett's baking cookies?”
“Yeah, and I told him to stop telling me when they make cookies because I'm trying not to eat them. But they're good. It's really good. They make like all different types. I think last one I had was chocolate chip.”
“Today's really Sunday. Tomorrow's really Monday. It kind of speeds up, so we kind of lose a day in the week. I think it's important that our players recover, especially this late in the season.”
“But really, when we hit Monday, it'll be somewhat like a Tuesday practice, and then try to get right back into our routine. So, the travel is going to be a different piece of that. It'll play into it as well. We've kind of had a plan for that all season on what this week would look like.”
“Yeah, Titan's got a Super Bowl tonight. I think it's actually at Oregon State Stadium. So, I was going to surprise him and be there. So hopefully he doesn't watch this press conference, but I got some recruiting to do first, and then hopefully I can make it up there and see him go to town.”
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