Flashback to one season ago, almost a year to the day of Ohio State’s first Big Ten Conference meeting with the program. Oregon was in Seattle to face arch-rival Washington, which blew a two-touchdown lead over the Ducks in the second half.
Touchdowns from Bo Nix passes to Troy Franklin and Jordan James Carey gave Oregon the lead immediately, only for Michael Penix Jr. to lead a drive that culminated with the Huskies scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 98 seconds remaining.
The Pac-12 Championship Game rematch less than two months later was much the same: Oregon erased a three-point deficit, took the lead in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t do enough to keep it.
Similar scenarios played out in losses to Utah in 2021 and a serious season-ending blowout at Arizona State in 2019. This time was different, thanks in part to the Ducks, who had experienced previous heartbreak.
One such player is running back Jordan James, whose touchdown carry in the Pac-12 championship game last December gave Oregon a momentary lead over Washington. They set the tone against Ohio State.
“Jordan, man, he runs like he’s angry all the time,” Ducks coach Dan Lanning said in his postgame press conference.
If James is indeed running a little angry, he deserves it after last season’s near misses. Lanning said that in a game that would be determined by physicality and establishing the ground game, James’ intensity was important.
His 115 yards helped Oregon took a quick lead, 155-141. On Saturday. And it wasn’t just a holdover from last season that contributed to the win over Ohio State; Transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s 32 yards were also important. Twenty-seven of those yards came on a fourth-quarter touchdown, the last time either team reached the end zone.
That’s remarkable, considering two programs long synonymous with explosive offense went the next 13:20 without scoring a touchdown. Oregon has long been adept at beating its opponents through innovative offense, a recognition derived from the same coaching tree at the University of New Hampshire that gave Ohio State its head coach, Ryan Day.
Chip Kelly, calling the plays for the Buckeyes on Saturday, was the same former UNH coach whose approach to rushing and spread offense propelled Oregon to national prominence in the 2010s.
Guaranteed or not, the knock on previous Ducks teams under Kelly and his successor Mark Helfrich—who coached Oregon to that inaugural playoff championship—was that they lacked the physical ability to beat teams like Alabama and Ohio State. There was shortage. Thus, by winning with physicality and clutch defense against a Kelly-coordinated offense, Oregon’s win took on even more significance as a full-circle moment.
In that context there could have been no bigger play than Mataio Uiagalelei sacking Ohio State’s Will Howard with 1:46 remaining, as the Buckeyes needed only to reach field-goal range to cause the Ducks more grief. . Pushing Ohio State back nine yards and taking up nearly 30 seconds changed the entire complexion of the Buckeyes’ final possession.
With that last defensive stand, Oregon pulled off a win that did not clinch a national championship. The Ducks are only halfway through their regular season slate. This did not guarantee them a Big Ten title or even a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game – a loss to Washington 364 days earlier proved as much.
But by winning the type of game that has often eluded Oregon over the past decade, the Ducks took a symbolic and meaningful step toward their next best chance to win a national championship since January 2015.