Camden Lewis’ kick is up and it’s… wide right.
Oregon’s dreams of a perfect season and redemption against rival Washington were smothered by a sea of purple storming the field as the miss sealed the Huskies’ 36-33 win.
A 42-yard field goal attempt felt automatic for Lewis. He had been so good all season. It would be all too easy to point the finger at Lewis and blame the loss on him. But, he never should have been in the position where he had to make a crucial kick to begin with.
The truth is, No. 9 Oregon (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) left six points off the board in a game it lost by three.
An unlikely interception thrown by No. 5 Washington’s (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12) Michael Penix Jr. to Jahlil Florence gifted the Ducks a last-minute drive before the end of the first half.
Oregon quickly drove the ball down deep into Washington territory, but the drive stalled with seconds left on the clock. Four straight plays from inside the Huskies’ 10-yard line failed to result in a score. It was all too reminiscent of last season’s goal line blunder against Oregon State.
But, after three straight failed plays, Lewis should have gotten the call for a chip-shot field goal to bring the Ducks within a point at the end of the half. Instead, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning called up a pass play, and it fell incomplete. Oregon came away empty handed, and the drive was all for naught.
“We felt that was an opportunity for us to get a touchdown,” Lanning said. “A touchdown changes the game and obviously we’re probably not talking about it if we get a touchdown. That being said, the one before half was one you could go back and say, ‘let’s take the field goal.’”
Oregon trailed by four and would have gotten the ball to start the second half. Back-to-back scoring drives would have not only erased the Ducks’ deficit and given them the lead, but it also could have served as a huge momentum swing and a potential silencer to an explosive Husky Stadium.
Just two drives later, Oregon found itself in a similar situation. The offense had marched down the field, but faced a 4th-and-short within Washington’s 10-yard line. This time, the Ducks trailed by 11. A field goal would have made the contest a one-score game. Instead, another incompletion gave the ball back to the Huskies with a chance to deliver the knockout blow.
They didn’t, and Oregon was able to rally and even regain the lead. A drive late in the game to milk the clock sputtered around the 50-yard line and the Ducks, once again, faced a 4th-and-short situation.
Instead of a punt to pin Washington deep in its own territory, the offense attempted another conversion, one that would have iced the game for Oregon. Again, Bo Nix’s pass fell incomplete.
“We checked to see if we liked the look [of the Washington defense],” Lanning said. “We liked the look before we ran the play. We had a timeout if we didn’t like the look. We liked the look, we just didn’t execute.”
That might be even more concerning. If Oregon liked how it stacked up to the Huskies’ defense on each of the conversion attempts, then the Ducks aren’t reading the looks right. They were 0-3 on 4th down on Saturday.
Even if one was to fully trust the analytics and the looks and back the three conversion attempts, the play call is still questionable.
Oregon running backs Bucky Irving and Jordan James averaged 5.8 and 5.7 yards per carry respectively in the loss. The Ducks needed far less than that in each of these must-have situations.
A pass attempt, in hindsight, seemed far too risky. Washington’s ability to stop the run had waived all game. Irving was making highlight-reel broken tackles left and right all game long. With a mobile quarterback in Nix, and two rushers that were able to advance at will, the wrong play call — even in arguably the right moment — sunk Oregon on Saturday.
Even still, great teams capitalize. Had the offense converted even one of those attempts, there would likely be more positive pieces being written about the rivalry game.
Instead, blame for one of the more crushing losses in recent Oregon history is falling unfairly on the shoulders of Lewis. But he, the offense and the coaching staff failed to capitalize on their opportunities in the top-10 ranked clash.
