For the second year in a row, Oregon was blown out in the College Football Playoff when it fell to Indiana. Where do the Ducks go from here.
ATLANTA — Oregon will chew on this one for 239 days, reliving a 56-22 blowout loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl again and again until its 2026 season kicks off against Boise State on Sept 5.
If only these new Hoosiers were still the same-old Hoosiers. If only. The Indiana program’s evolution into a Power Four devourer of worlds was the one hurdle in the Ducks’ path during a season that can split into two camps: on one side, two losses in two games against Hoosiers; on the other, 13 wins in as many tries against everyone else.
Oregon bulldozed No. 12 seed James Madison in the opening round of the College Football Playoff and then did the same to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl. But Indiana presented a challenge Oregon couldn’t overcome. That no one else has conquered the Hoosiers doesn’t make this one any easier to swallow.
“I think it's probably too premature for me to speak on what happened tonight until I go back and really evaluate it,” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning. “I also think you can't discredit that we played well. We've played well at times even here in the postseason. Yeah, there will be an opportunity for reflection and evaluation, but I couldn't speak on that right now.”
On the heels of a second one-sided playoff loss to a Big Ten foe in as many years — the 2024 Ducks went unbeaten in the regular season and won the conference but suffered a 41-24 loss to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl that was over in the first half — Oregon can only wonder:
How did this happen? And what do we have to change to finally capture an elusive national title?
“Man, you hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight,” said Lanning. “They're not failures. These guys won a lot of damn ball games. They've had a lot of success. They've changed some peoples' lives, but right now, that moment is going to hurt.”
The first question is easy to answer. Indiana is unquestionably the better team, defying recruiting rankings that heavily favor Oregon. In every way and on nearly every play, the Hoosiers dictated the terms to the Ducks, just as they did earlier this month in a similar rout of No. 9 seed Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
But in addition to being more physical and more explosive on both sides of the ball, Indiana was unmoved by the high-pressure stakes that have come with each new achievement this team has unlocked during a breathtaking 2025 season.
The same can’t be said of Oregon. To suffer another meltdown on this stage raises significant concerns about the Ducks’ preparedness and mindset in neutral-site games against the best of the best.
“Man, I feel like the gameplan we had was awesome,” said Oregon guard Dave Iuli. “I just feel like, you know, we went out there and didn’t execute our jobs. Usually, when it comes to critical moments like this with three teams left or four teams left, the biggest thing is executing. Once people stopped executing, we stopped winning.”
Quarterback Dante Moore tossed a pick-six on the first play from scrimmage. He fumbled with 9:29 left in the second quarter to goose an Indiana touchdown drive that put the Hoosiers up 21-7. He fumbled again about seven minutes later to set up another touchdown, making it 35-7 at the half.
With lead running backs Noah Whittington and Jordon Davison unable to play due to injury, backups Dierre Hill Jr. and Jay Harris combined for 121 yards on 21 carries. But the Ducks ran for 93 yards on 3.6 yards per carry as a team, counting sacks, with 71 yards coming on a Hill run in the third quarter when they were down 35 points.
Offensively, Oregon was wobbled early and remained off-balance the rest of the way, unable to regain its footing as Indiana pinned its ears back and threw the kitchen sink at Moore.
“They have a great defense, great disguise and different looks, but you can't win football games if you're causing turnovers,” Moore said. “But overall, I mean, Indiana’s defense is great, defensive coordinator, but at the end of the day, we beat ourselves.”
Defensively, a group that engulfed the Duke and the Red Raiders was helpless against Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza and a brilliant, steady-handed receiver corps headed by Elijah Sarrat (75 yards and two touchdowns), Omar Cooper Jr. (one score) and Charlie Becker (48 yards and two scores).
While the Hoosiers had three sacks and 10 tackles for loss, Oregon’s defensive front barely sniffed Mendoza, who continued his Joe Burrow-like postseason run by hitting on 17 of 20 passes for 177 yards and five touchdowns. Through two playoff games, he has more touchdowns, eight, than incompletions, five.
And while the Ducks committed three game-changing giveaways in the first half, Indiana continued to play nearly perfect football. The Hoosiers turned the ball over with a fumble on their 18th play from scrimmage in the season opener against Old Dominion but have not lost a fumble since.
Adding insult to injury, an Oregon punt near its own goal line in the fourth quarter was blocked by Indiaan, which then scored on a short Mendoza pass to Sarratt for a third touchdown drive lasting fewer than 22 yards.
“Yeah, it sucks right now,” said linebacker Bryce Boettcher. “I'm not going to lie. Not how I envisioned it whatsoever. Obviously prepared to win, and Indiana was a better team tonight. Doesn't take away from our season. We had one heck of a season.”
It's possible to look at this loss with a slightly optimistic slant: Oregon was minus-three in turnover margin and doomed its own chances against the No. 1-ranked team in the country. The loss hurts, sure, but the Ducks have still gone 26-3 since joining the Big Ten last season. There is no question this is an elite program.
Yet regular-season success is just not translating to the postseason. As the Ducks head into a crucial offseason defined by their ability to rebuild a roster set to be picked apart by graduation and early NFL draft entries, Lanning’s biggest charge will be assessing and fixing the flaws that have led to two humbling playoff losses in as many years.
One common thread has been a flat and sluggish start. The Buckeyes buried the Ducks by taking a 34-0 lead in the second quarter of last January’s Rose Bowl. Indiana led by 28 at the break. While the Ducks flopped out of the gate and never recovered, the Hoosiers resembled an unstoppable, merciless, Terminator-like machine that craves to not just beat their opponent but bury them.
To say the Ducks were simply outmanned by one eventual champion in Ohio State and a potentially historic squad in Indiana is way too tidy an explanation. That excuse works for the have-nots in the Big Ten and elsewhere, teams that expect to be body-slammed by the best of the best in the Power Four.
That’s not Oregon. The Ducks have higher aspirations; in fact, the program rightfully believes it can beat anyone, anywhere, under any conditions, after spending most of this century knocking on the door of the national title.
But it was one thing to reach the title game against Auburn in the Bowl Championship Series era and against Ohio State in the first year of the four-team playoff format. Winning the 12-team reboot requires much more: Teams need to be almost perfectly constructed and mentally unflappable to thrive against this gauntlet.
Again, that’s not Oregon, which is built to reach this point but not to advance. For a program that believes a title is part of its destiny, this loss should trigger a long offseason of soul-searching, with plenty of questions but no obvious answers.
“I think every man can learn from adversity. I just told that whole locker room, right, this is going to be about how you respond in life,” said Lanning.
“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, right, and not just Dante. Every single person in the locker room, every coach, every person can learn, ‘Hey, how do you respond to that?’”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oregon after CFP blowout loss in Peach Bowl faces soul-searching
Category: General Sports
