Dan Lanning Talks About Oregon's Slow Start and Decision to Play Brock Thomas

Late Saturday night Dan Lanning met with media in his post-game interview. Of course a number of questions were asked about the game and the weather was a hot topic.

Oregon starting QB Dante Moore left the game early and was replaced by Brock Thomas. He led Oregon to its 21-7 win over Wisconsin but fans continue to wonder why Thomas is the first quarterback in.

Lanning answered those questions and more in his interview.

Opening Comments:

“All right. Everybody dry? A little bit of a fun environment. Different game tonight. I thought our fans were unbelievable. You know, Ty Burrell kicking us off with a shout there in the third quarter was pretty awesome, something you couldn’t ignore. And it became really apparent early in this game what kind of game it was going to be, and we had to figure out a way that we could run the ball effectively.
I think after that 99-yard drive, we really saw that, you know, our guys take that by the horns and find a way to be able to attack. That’s a good defense when it comes to trying to rush the ball against them. It’s really difficult, and this became that kind of game.

We had some really unselfish play from our players. I thought they were engaged the entire game, and it was really clear that it’s going to be hard to be able to throw in some of those conditions. Saw some guys step up when their number was called.

“You know, Dante got dinged, think he’s going to be in great shape, was probably in a position that he could have gone in. But like for Brock to come in and perform the way he did, really excited, you know, for him to be able to do that. I know the players were really proud of him to start so poorly on third down offensively and then turn around and finish so strong in the second half, taking advantage of third down opportunities was big.

And then defense, you know, played lights out today. They did a really good job of controlling, you know, Wisconsin excluding that last score by them. I thought we had some dynamic plays in special teams and certainly some stuff we got to clean up. So the nine penalties is troublesome. We got to be better there.
And there were some penalties on some big plays that could have been difference makers for us.

But outside of that, I’m proud of how our players played in a tough environment, in a tough situation, and able to just take advantage of every opportunity in front of them.”

On Brock Thomas:

Yeah, the way he performed. I guess he went, what, four for four? He handled some tough snaps. You know, it’s tough in a game like that. The ball’s, you know, obviously wet. It’s raining. But to be able to get us in some of those checks, he made some tough runs. I thought Brock, you know, did everything that we asked him to do in those moments.”

On Dante’s Injury:

“I think we could have pushed to get him back in, but he’s going to be good. He had a bloody nose. He got hit pretty good, and he looks like he’s in great shape now.

“How many times did we run it in the second half? A lot. I mean, we felt like it was going to be that kind of game. And, you know, there it was so critical with us being able to start off with the ball. Obviously, we didn’t take advantage of, you know, the onside kick there to start the game. But to come out in the second half knowing we’re going to get the ball, that was really a big sequence to flip the middle eight and get 14 points. They’re relatively quick, you know, at the end of half and then the seven at the beginning of the second half and when the defense is playing well you just realize you know points are critical but it’s okay to use the clock and we use use the clock well today played the brand of football that was necessary to win this game.

On Jordon Davison:

“I think the most impressive thing about Jordan is how much he’s able to handle. He’s a really, really smart player. We do a lot formationally. We have a lot of different plays. For him to be able to execute those plays at a really high level, you know, when the call comes in, he’s doing his job. He’s doing what he’s asked to do. And that’s difficult when you have as much volume as we have. And then to play it the way he plays it. He’s a very unselfish player. You never ever heard him ask for the ball once. He’s just as excited to go block for his teammates.”

On Starting Fast vs Slow:

“I guess it wasn’t that crucial to start off fast since we still won. But, I mean, I love to start off fast when we can, right? Again, we were probably feeling each other out a little bit at the beginning of the game.
They were playing good D. We were playing good D. It was going to be who made the first mistake. You know, you’re not always going to have a game where you go score 21 points in the first quarter it just doesn’t always work work like that. Especially you look at the defense they’ve played this season they’ve played pretty good defense um and we knew we were going to be aggressive like there were opportunities obviously to start off the game there with the onside kick felt like you know we we tried to fake punt there at the end of the game felt like that was something where we’re going to get a lot of pressure.

I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to take advantage of either one of those opportunities, but we’re going to continue to try to find edges like that in games like this.”

On the Backup QB Rotation:

“Our backup quarterback went four for four tonight. We won the game. You don’t have to tell me. Well, then tell them. They should go to our locker room and see them carry Brock Thomas up in the locker room after the game. Our players see it every day in practice. When has Brock come in and not performed well for us this season? He’s done what we’ve asked him to do every time he’s come in. People should stop worrying about it. They should also know that those other quarterbacks are doing a really good job in practice too. Brock’s playing well, guys.”