What went wrong for Oregon vs. Indiana? Dante Moore, Ducks failed to 'put the fire out' in familiar CFP loss

From the first play from scrimmage, Oregon was overmatched and outplayed in Friday night's College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Indiana in Atlanta. The Ducks turned it over on three of their first six possessions, each of those mistakes leading to touchdowns for the Hoosiers and a further increasing deficit that culminated in a 56-22 defeat. 

After recording an interception return for a score 11 seconds into the contest, Indiana pounced on a fumble at Oregon's 3-yard line with 9:29 to play in the second quarter. Near the end of the first half, a sack-and-strip of Ducks quarterback Dante Moore resulted in his third giveaway, a fumble at his own 21.

The Hoosiers scored on both short fields and by the time the smoke settled at halftime, Oregon trailed 35-7 with comeback hopes feeling insurmountable.

"We take pride in putting the fire out and we've done a pretty good job of that all year," Oregon linebacker Bryce Boettcher said. "Obviously it's hard to play when turnovers happen, but it is a standard that whenever the ball is placed, we don't let them score. And they scored too much tonight, so that's on the defense and credit to Indiana."

Lopsided CFP semifinal loss to Indiana continues troubling rematch trend for Oregon coach Dan Lanning

Tom Fornelli

Moore threw for 285 yards and two scores, but it was an ill-timed interception to Indiana's D'Angelo Ponds on Oregon's first snap and two fumbles in the first half that doomed the Ducks. 

Moore was only sacked 17 times all season, nine of those coming in two losses to Indiana.

"First things first, the quarterback has to protect the football," Moore said. "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. It comes with just reps. But overall, I mean, Indiana's defense is great, defensive coordinator, but at the end of the day, we beat ourselves."

Moore's second giveaway was a mental mistake after his arm hit Oregon's running back on a attempted pass to the outside, jarring the ball loose.

"On that play, it was running back was behind me in the pistol and tried to throw the smoke screen off the field," Moore said. "I gotta clear the midline better to make sure that when I am going to throw, I don't hit the running back in his elbow. So the ball hit his elbow, but at the end of the day, it's on me. I gotta take care of the ball and make sure they're out of the way and get the ball to the receivers."

Oregon coach Dan Lanning harped on adversity after the game following his team's second consecutive disappointing effort in a playoff scenario to end a season. Last fall, the Ducks were unbeaten and ranked No. 1 entering the postseason before losing to eventual champion Ohio State in blowout fashion in the Rose Bowl CFP quarterfinals.

This time around, Oregon had beaten James Madison and Texas Tech with precision on both sides of the football before the Ducks' ship capsized against the only opponent they had lost to during the regular season.

"Ultimately, there were moments where we had success offensively, but obviously when you have the takeaways, you start off with the pick six," Lanning said. "You get a little bit in the hole. You probably start to press a little bit. You get away from some of the success you have in the run game at times. There's moments that we had some plays, but that's a damn good team. And you gotta give credit to them, too. It's not just what we didn't do, it's what they did do."