Atlanta, GA — Dante Moore and the No. 5 Oregon Ducks’ (13-2) offense took the field trailing the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers (15-0) 14-7 with 9:35 left in the second quarter in the Peach Bowl. Oregon’s defense just forced Indiana into its first punt of the day as freshman outside linebacker Nasir Wyatt collected his first forced fumble and third sack of his career. The Ducks’ offense looked capable of hanging with the Hoosiers’ potent unit, responding to the opening-play pick-six with a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, and needing another scoring drive to hang with them.
On the first play of the drive, Moore wound up to whip a quick pass to Dakorien Moore on the left side, but the ball hit running back Dierre Hill Jr. in the shoulder, knocking it free to roll into the hands of Indiana defensive linemen Mario Landino at the Oregon 3-yard line. A catastrophic play that encapsulated what was to come.
The Hoosiers scored 35 unanswered points and steamrolled the Ducks 56-22, clinching their first-ever appearance in the College Football National Championship game. As Oregon has said about every game this season, win or loss, the silver lining continued to be about the opportunity to grow from these moments.
“I think every man can learn from adversity.” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said after the game. “This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get. We just got our butt kicked. Right? That's going to happen in life. And you know what, most people will never be in the position where they get to learn that lesson that we get to learn on. These guys were in that position.”
The stat sheet does not indicate that this one was as one-sided as it was. Oregon ended the game with more total yards, pass yards, first downs, and total plays than Indiana. However, the three turnovers committed by the Ducks in the first half gave the Hoosiers short fields and proved to be the deciding factor as Indiana turned those takeaways into 21 points.
“First things first, the quarterback has to protect the football,” Moore said after the game. “They have a great defense, great disguise and different looks, but you can't win football games if you're causing turnovers. Something, of course, I need to work at. But overall, Indiana's defense is great, but at the end of the day, we beat ourselves.”
Meanwhile, it was the polar opposite for Indiana’s offense. The Hoosiers continued to play their brand of mistake-free and uber-efficient football they have all year, converting 11-of-14 third downs and turning all five red zone drives into touchdowns. Heisman quarterback Fernando Mendoza was 17-of-20 for 177 yards and five touchdowns, his fifth game this season with more touchdown passes than incompletions.
“That's a lot of credit to him, the job he does,” Lanning said about Mendoza. “He understands what he's doing. He has great weapons to be able to take advantage of. The guy makes the right decisions. You consistently see if he sees the right coverage, you know, he takes the ball where it's supposed to go.”
Mendoza and Indiana did play with a major advantage as the crowd heavily leaned in their favor. As they have consistently throughout their undefeated run this season, Hoosier fans traveled extremely well, heavily outnumbering Duck fans, and turning a neutral-site bowl game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta into what felt like a home game in Bloomington.
As questions about next year circulate, Lanning discussed how much this stings to see players like Bryce Boettcher, who led Oregon’s defense with 11 total tackles in the game, that “don't get to be a Duck anymore” move on from the program, and how badly he wanted them to play one more time in the National Championship game. The Ducks also await Moore’s decision on whether to enter the NFL Draft this spring or stay at Oregon for another year.
As crushing of a loss as it was in the Peach Bowl, Lanning knows the criticism will come, but holds that this loss does not define the character of this year’s team.
You hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight. I'm going to judge those guys on the kind of fathers they become someday, the kind of husbands they become someday. But in this moment, you feel like a failure, right, for them, and they're not. They're not failures. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. They've had a lot of success.”