Everything Dan Lanning said after Oregon's comeback win vs. Northwestern

Nothing came easy on a chilly afternoon at Autzen Stadium on Halloween. The Oregon Ducks started slow once again and appeared destined for a familiar defeat, trailing 20-6 in the first half. But the Ducks didn't quit and battled back for a 34-26 victory over No. 20 Northwestern.

Dylan Raiola, Dakorien Moore and freshman Brandon Smith turned in big performances on offense to help the Ducks rally in the second half. After parting ways with Drew Mehringer at the start of the week, the Oregon offense became more aggressive and took some chances, and those chances paid off. Raiola had perfect passes to Moore and Jamari Johnson for touchdowns, including a 75-yard strike to Moore in the fourth quarter.

Dan Lanning had his Ducks ready to compete against a Chip Kelly-led offense that had been rolling. Northwestern found plenty of success early on with quarterback Aidan Chiles, who carved the Ducks' defense like a pumpkin in the first half. However, Oregon's pass rush came through late to bottle Chiles up and steal some momentum heading into the final month of the regular season.

While the win was impressive and showed plenty of signs of growth, Lanning knows what is coming next: Ohio State. Here is everything Lanning had to say after Oregon's explosion on offense and comeback win to upset Northwestern.

Opening Statement

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning yells to his team as the Oregon Ducks host the Northwestern Wildcats on Oct. 31, 2026, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.

"I thought our quarterback played with a lot of confidence and was able to execute. In big moments, a lot of guys had to step up that maybe didn't get as many reps in practice. That had to show up with Jordon going down and Dierre being a little bit banged up. You saw Brandon Smith, you saw Dink be able to show up and make some big plays for us in moments. So it's tough to win games like that. I said earlier in the week that you ask our players to do a lot of things that men can't do, and we're down by two scores a lot of that game. There are a lot of people that fold up in that moment. There was zero quit from our guys. They just kept feeling like it was one more play they had to go make, and we knew like it was every possession really mattered. The first half, they started with the ball. We knew in the second half we were going to start with the ball. It didn't start off the way we wanted to in the second half, but our defense went out there and put out the fire. Their field goal kicker was outstanding today, which made it a real challenge. He kicked the ball extremely well, but I thought our defense did a good job of not folding down in the red area and making sure we were able to keep them out of touchdown situations and force field goals.

"It's all about one more play. I thought we played the third downs much better in the second half. Their quarterback is hard; when you designate a hat to go spy him and take him away, then you lose a little bit of the edge pressure that you can generate. You can't really do both. Zach actually asked that question earlier in the week, and we had to have kind of multiple game plans for both. I thought we executed that much better in the second half, where we were able to take away some of their success on third down, but it's a little bit robbing Peter to pay Paul when you when you're playing that game. It was about kind of who guessed right, and they guessed right a little bit more in the first half. I thought we guessed right a little bit more in the second half. So overall, great performance. Our fans were awesome. Certainly feels great to be able to walk away with a victory, and it was tight the entire game. But I thought our guys just did a little bit more at the end."