Oregon fights again, survives against Boise State with late field goal

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon’s record may still be perfect two weeks into the college football season, but you don’t have to look closely to see that the team that began the year ranked No. 3 in the country has some weaknesses.

After struggling to beat an unranked opponent for the second week in a row, the Ducks finally managed to pick up another win on Saturday, defeating a tough Boise State team 37-34 thanks to a last-second field goal from Atticus Sappington that clinched the win.

The result left head coach Dan Lanning in an emotional turmoil.

“We really like to sweat it out here,” Lanning said. “I’m relieved with the result, but there’s certainly a lot of room for improvement.”

While Sappington’s 25-yard field goal sent the Autzen Stadium crowd into a frenzy as the clock hit zero, their euphoria was not far removed from the boos they heaped on the Ducks’ offense in the second half when it made three straight runs – the last on 3rd-and-13 – to prompt its sixth of seven punts of the night.

“I hate to say this, but we’re FEBU (fuck everybody but us), we were only focused on ourselves in that moment,” Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel said of the boos. “We got ourselves into trouble. We had to get ourselves out of there.”

For the second week in a row, Oregon’s offense looked confused at times. That didn’t mean they couldn’t show their potential, as Gabriel threw two touchdown passes of 59 and 34 yards, but the offense never seemed to find a rhythm that matched the talent they have and the talent they acquired in the offseason.

“It’s a team that’s finding its identity together,” Gabriel said. “I think you see a lot of guys grow stronger together throughout the week through practice and games, and then you experience adversity like that and find a way to win. … I think you look at the things you can fix and see how good you can be.”

Big plays kept Oregon from pulling off an upset on Saturday, especially those that came from special teams. In the second half, with the game going back and forth, Tez Johnson returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown, while Noah Whittington ran a kickoff 84 yards into the end zone before dropping the ball just before the pass. To Lanning’s relief, running back Jayden Lima instinctively picked up the loose ball in the end zone, preventing disaster.

Other than Gabriel’s two long touchdown throws, the Ducks offense only scored one other touchdown, a 1-yard run by Gabriel. As a unit, the Oregon offense had only two drives with more than five plays and finished with just 109 yards rushing, over 100 fewer than the Broncos.

“I don’t think there’s anything that’s preventing (the offense) from being successful,” Johnson said. “We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot: offsides, false starts, illegal lineup, illegal movement — those little things we can’t afford.”

With an offensive line that has rotated a lot over the last two games, Oregon committed nine penalties – most of them at the position – and allowed four sacks. The Ducks also had three fumbles and lost two of them.

Lanning, however, remained steadfast in his belief that the strategy is to rotate the offensive line frequently, but said Oregon will look at film to see which “five, six or seven guys can play winning football for us.”

Saturday’s last-second win came a week after Oregon struggled offensively in a 24-14 win over Idaho – a victory that dropped the Ducks four spots to No. 7 in the AP Top 25 list.

Oregon escaped unscathed for the second straight Saturday, but they were well aware of their proximity to disaster. After the game, they tried to remain positive and tout their resilience, but they couldn’t ignore the reality of their problems.

Lanning says this football has produced victories, but not winning football, especially considering it has expectations for a team not only to make the College Football Playoffs, but potentially to compete for the title.

“We won, nothing more than a win. Now I’m thinking about what we can change,” Lanning said. “We put ourselves in some tough situations and were able to get out of them.”