Dan Lanning Reacts to Win Over Oregon State: "Ultimately a dominant performance"

The No. 6 Oregon Ducks (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) defeated the Oregon State Beavers 41-7 in Eugene on Saturday as they shook off a slow start to dominate the rest of the way. Head coach Dan Lanning met with reporters to give his thoughts on the win.

Below are some of his top quotes and full video.

Opening statement: “Awesome crowd today. Always want to be thankful to our fans. I think they’re they’re a huge piece of what we do and how we do it. Thought we started off a little bit slow, and then obviously really came together in the second, third, fourth quarter there to finish it out and have a dominant performance. We talked about winning the trenches before this game started, and to be able to rush for almost 300 yards and hold them to 100 rushing after we started so poorly was a big win for us. And overall, operated well. We’ve got to be cleaner in some of our issues there, from a penalty standpoint, just our operation overall. But ultimately a dominant performance and a really good challenge for us to go head into this next week as we go to Penn State.“

On message to team after slow start

Lanning: “Do your job. Right? Really simple. Do your job. Right? And know what we came in saying that we were going to do. We can’t allow teams to be able to move the ball like that to start, and we gotta stay in rhythm offensively. We lost a little bit of that, but we got it back.”

On run defense on first down

Lanning: “Like I said better in the second, third, fourth quarter. I think there were some errors by us early that we can clean up, and we gave them some things. And credit to them, they did some stuff that was good, but we gave them some opportunities that we shouldn’t give them. So I think we shored that up later on in the game.”

On Oregon State rivalry

Lanning: “It certainly means a ton to us. I think everyone feels like this resonates a little bit more when it’s on that Thanksgiving weekend. It’s a little bit different when it’s not, but it’s still a game that means a ton. What was this? 129th meeting, one that we have a lot of pride in. So, yeah, it means a ton to our players, and I think they really vocalized that throughout the week, and then today.”

On Dakorien Moore‘s ball skills

Lanning: “What makes him good as he catches it right? And he’s been a guy that can win in those one-on-one. I think there’s some opportunities that he wishes he had back today, but ultimately, it’s he’s a tough guy to guard, and if he can beat you over the top, he’ll win over the top. If you’re even, he’s gonna be able beat you on the back shoulder.”

On message to take momentum back in after first quarter

Lanning: “We didn’t really talk about momentum, but we talked about making plays. Talked about creating opportunities for yourself, and momentum can go one way or the other but ultimately, it’s about stacking multiple plays. It’s about how many plays in a row can you win? You gotta win each play individually. And I thought our guys did that obviously overall today.”

On where team is at heading into Penn State

Lanning: “I think we’ll get a really good gauge of that as we play Penn State. I think this is a team that’s obviously extremely talented. I feel good about our team. I really like our team. This will be good environment for us to go play in. We’re gonna be playing people that have a lot of talent as well, and good scheme on both sides of the ball. It’ll be a real challenge for us.”

On Dante Moore, two-minute drill before halftime

Lanning: “I think Dante’s done what we’ve seen him do a lot this year is take what’s there. There’s some moments they had good coverage down the field. He was able to win with his legs. We scored last week in a two minute drive right before half. Doing it again, especially it’s really important when you know coming out at half you’re not going to have the ball. So to be able to score right there with less than a minute left is huge. Doesn’t really give the opponent an opportunity to go score before half, and then for us to come out, then get a three-and-out, and then turn around and give it back to our offense again. I think that creates real separation.”

On how long until switch flips to Penn State

Lanning: “Yeah the switch is already flipped.”