Fifth Quarter: Analysis of the dominant win over Minnesota

 

Today in the Fifth Quarter, this felt less like a routine 42–13 win and more like Oregon finally snapping back into full offensive identity at exactly the right time. On a short week, down multiple top receivers, and staring at the start of a brutal closing stretch, the Ducks used a dry November night at Autzen to reassert balance, toughness and depth across all three phases.

It wasn’t perfect — the second quarter trick-play turnover, some third-down wobble and a few red-zone leaks will give the staff plenty to coach — but the underlying story is clear: Oregon’s ceiling still looks like a CFP outfit, and that ceiling showed up against a Minnesota team that usually drags opponents into the mud.

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Offense — Grade: A

This was the clean, ruthless version of the offense Oregon has been chasing since the rain rolled in against Wisconsin.

Dan Lanning made an aggressive statement before the ball was even kicked, taking the ball after winning the toss. The opening series backed that up: a nine-play, 75-yard march where Dante Moore calmly dissected coverages, hit Jamari Johnson and Malik Benson, and then turned a coverage tell into a 22-yard strike to Kenyon Sadiq down to the two. Jordon Davison’s second-effort score set the tone for the night — fall forward, finish plays.

From there, the advanced numbers tell you just how lopsided this was:

• Offensive success rate: 56% (to Minnesota’s 23%)

• Sack-adjusted yards per pass attempt: 9.4

• First-down yardage: 9.2 yards per play on 1st down

That’s domination layered over efficiency.

Moore’s night will live in the record book: 27-of-30 for 306 yards and two touchdowns, breaking Marcus Mariota’s single-game completion percentage mark at 90.0 percent. He immediately turned it into a “we, not me” moment.

“I just got to give the shout out to the 10 other players with me on the field,” Moore said. “The front five giving me time in the pocket. The running backs… opening the run game. Without my teammates, I wouldn’t have gotten it done.”

The rhythm was obvious. Moore stacked multiple stretches of five-plus completions, operated confidently in the quick game, then leveraged that into deeper shots like the 38-yard busted-coverage strike to Benson. On the move, he was lethal — something the broadcast hammered and Lanning echoed afterward.

“He’s accurate. He’s got great arm strength. He can make all the throws,” Lanning said. “Some people, when they scramble, they scramble to run. Some people, when they move, they have the ability to pass. He’s a guy that can do both.”

What made this performance more impressive was how it happened. This was not a spread-it-out, 11-personnel showcase. Short-handed at wide receiver again, Oregon leaned heavily into 12, 21 and even 14 personnel, using tight ends and backs as matchup weapons in the pass game. Moore has been lobbying for that style.

“We have great running backs. We have great tight ends. We can go 14 personnel, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re always going to find a way to move the ball… it’s just a scheme thing and we’re doing a great job every week just tweaking a couple things.”

You could see that in the distribution:

• Kenyon Sadiq (8–96–1) looked exactly like the “game changer” Lanning called him. His PFF receiving grade reflected that — one of the top marks on the offense — and the tape backed it up: full-extension layouts, body control on seam balls, and the red-zone corner route that felt inevitable the way he’d been winning leverage all night.

• Jamari Johnson (4–57) and Jeremiah McClellan (3–36–1) both graded as high-impact pieces in the passing game. McClellan’s toe-tap touchdown was the highlight — the same back-shoulder rep he’d been repping all week in practice.

“I had confidence it was a touchdown,” McClellan said. “Catch the ball first, and then worry about just having my legs go numb, just trying to drag my legs.”

Moore knew that exact look was coming.

“I was telling the receivers this is going to be a scoring play of this game,” Moore said. “Seeing the DB turn, I knew I had J-Mack on the back shoulder… I still can’t explain how he got his foot down.”

The run game wasn’t as volume-heavy as Wisconsin or Iowa, but it was brutally efficient against a Minnesota defense that came in allowing ~108 rush yards per game. Oregon finished with 179 on just 30 carries (6.0 per) and 53 percent rushing success:

• Noah Whittington: 8 for 72 and one of the runs of the season — a 40-yard score where he broke what felt like half the Gophers’ defense.

“Kept his feet running and kept on running hard,” McClellan said. “That play was really explosive and another spark.”

Lanning loved the finish but pointed out the standard remains high.

“I think it’s a culture play up until that moment where we didn’t have good ball security that finished,” he said. “We can coach that moment… but obviously the run itself was unbelievable.”

• Jordon Davison: 7 for 57 and two first-quarter touchdowns, again falling forward and showing the patience and vision that have made him a quick leader in the room.

“He falls forward consistently… he’s also been the guy that’s out there blocking his tail off,” Lanning said. “He’s a great teammate.”

• Jay Harris and Dierre Hill Jr. closed things out, with Harris’ 12-yard touchdown run effectively ending the night.

Up front, the PFF grading mirrors what you saw live: Poncho at center graded like an All-America level anchor, with Iapani Laloulu and Emmanuel Pregnon both charting strong in run and pass blocking. Oregon averaged 7.7 yards per rush on 1st down and allowed zero sacks — Minnesota’s havoc up front was reduced to a single early TFL sack when Anthony Smith got home.

Lanning didn’t hesitate when asked about Poncho.

“We’re blessed to have the best center in the nation in my mind,” he said. “His leadership is just as important as the way he plays.”

The only real offensive demerit is the ill-fated hook-and-lateral with two true freshmen on 3rd-and-long up 14-0. Perry’s short-armed toss turned into a turnover and gave Minnesota life. But when the worst thing you can say about a 42-point, 56-percent-success performance is “they got too cute once,” you’re nitpicking.

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Defense — Grade: A-

Minnesota is built to shorten games, lean on the run and make you bleed out over 60 minutes. Oregon essentially erased that identity.

The Gophers finished with:

• 58 rushing yards on 23 carries (2.5 per)

• 196 total yards

• 23 percent offensive success rate

Even when Minnesota pieced together drives, Oregon’s front and red-zone mentality eventually won out — exactly the emphasis Teitum Tuioti talked about afterward.

“I think that’s something that we harp on a lot in our defense unit meeting,” Tuioti said. “We need to do more in the red area… you can talk about it all you want, you actually got to do it. I think we did a better job this week of stopping them and putting out the fire.”

You saw that in the first half: two red-zone trips, two field goals. Minnesota’s 13-play, 67-yard march late in the second quarter looked like it might re-open the door; instead, Oregon clamped in tight space, forced a 22-yard field goal and then turned around and ripped off a 75-yard two-minute touchdown drive of its own.

Tuioti’s own night matched his words. The PFF grades have him as one of the top front-seven performers, and the game notes tell you why: relentless pursuit, a red-zone sack in the third quarter that helped flip a Minnesota drive into 3rd-and-31, and consistent run-fit discipline against the Wildcat packages.

“We knew coming into this game they were going to do a little bit of everything, not necessarily knowing exactly what we’re going to get,” he said. “Just following our technique, trusting our eye, trusting the keys, and then at the end of the day, just having relentless effort chasing the man down, getting them on the ground.”

That preparation showed when Minnesota leaned harder into Wildcat than any opponent Oregon has seen all year.

“That’s a new look that we got. We didn’t expect, obviously,” Tuioti admitted. “But we get so much practice in it through fall camp and through our own offense that… not much is going to phase us. We’re just going to line up and do what we do.”

The back seven quietly turned in another workmanlike performance:

• Brandon Finney was targeted more than usual in the first half and still held up, allowing one perfectly-thrown 26-yard completion but contesting almost everything else. His PFF coverage numbers remain among the best on the team.

• Dillon Thieneman and Bryce Boettcher again showed up as sure tacklers and communicators in space, grading in the low-70s defensively — exactly the “steady floor” you want from your spine.

• Jerry Mixon continues to flash as a rotational linebacker, with both his charted coverage snaps and PFF coverage grade reinforcing what his limited counting stats don’t fully capture.

Structurally, Oregon forced a lot of “behind the chains” snaps: Minnesota’s average third-down distance was 8.1 yards, and they were 0-for-5 on 3rd-and-9-plus. The one true defensive blemish is that when the Ducks did heat up, they sometimes lost contain or leverage just enough to let Minnesota extend drives — the third-quarter 10-play, 80-yard touchdown march came after multiple blitzes that almost got home but didn’t.

Still, holding any Big Ten offense to 13 points, 196 yards and zero explosive runs while playing your reserves heavily in the fourth quarter is A-level work. The PFF data agrees: across the front seven, names like Nasir Wyatt, Jadon Canady, Jericho Johnson, Brayden Platt and Tuioti all graded as plus defenders, and the overall unit avoided the busts that have occasionally cropped up in zone coverage.

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Special Teams — Grade: B

This was a “do your job” night for the third phase — and they did.

There were no back-breaking errors: no shanked punts, no missed field goals, no coverage busts. The Gophers’ only kick return went for 16 yards. Oregon’s punt coverage kept the ball in front, and Brandon Finney added two punt returns for 18 yards, stealing a modest bit of field position without taking unnecessary risks.

On the punting side, James Ferguson-Reynolds quietly put together another strong tape: two punts, 50.0 yards per with a long of 58, one inside the 20 and one 50-plus. His PFF special-teams grade sat in the low-60s — typical for a punter who does exactly what he’s asked with no drama — but the eye test says Oregon continues to have a legitimate field-position weapon.

Minnesota’s edge in the kicking game came from Brady Denaburg, who nailed both his attempts (46 and 26 yards). With Oregon never attempting a field goal, there’s no direct counter, but you’d rather have that be because you’re finishing drives with touchdowns — which the Ducks did six times.

Kickoff return and coverage were largely neutral; the ball rarely came out of the end zone, and when it did, there were no missed fits or panic flags.

This wasn’t a game where special teams had to win anything. Their job was to protect a massive advantage on offense and defense by staying mistake-free, and outside of a couple of minor penalties and one fair-catch decision you’d probably like back, they delivered exactly that.

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Coaching — Grade: A-

If you were looking for proof that this staff can adapt week-to-week and drive-to-drive, this game is Exhibit A.

Start with the macro decisions:

• Take the ball after winning the toss. Lanning admitted starting fast was a clear emphasis after some sluggish beginnings.

“We knew we wanted to take the ball. They have a history of deferring,” he said. “We thought we were going to have a chance to be on offense first and we wanted to start fast. And ultimately we did that.”

• Leaning heavily into 12, 21 and 14 personnel on a short week, against a physical defense, with a shuffled offensive line. That’s not easy to rep in four practices, yet Will Stein and the offensive staff made it look like the default setting.

“I think it’s an unbelievable job by our offensive staff, great job by Will, and great job by our players,” Lanning said. “The ability to switch and change personnel make it really tough for a defense when you can be in empty and open or you can be in three-back sets.”

The PFF offensive grades reinforce that this wasn’t smoke and mirrors. Sadiq and Johnson graded out as two of the best players on the entire offense. Davison, Whittington and Hill all posted solid marks. Up front, Poncho, Laloulu and Pregnon graded as plus starters. That doesn’t happen without a coherent plan that plays to strengths and stresses tendencies.

Stein’s sequencing was especially sharp:

• Early, he used quick game and motions to diagnose Minnesota’s coverages, then hit Benson on the busted coverage and Sadiq down the seam.

• When the Gophers began selling out to the run in the third quarter, he leaned into Moore’s movement throws, calling a series of boots and rollouts that produced a 6-of-7, 64-yard touchdown drive capped by McClellan’s toe-tap.

On defense, Tosh Lupoi and the defensive staff clearly emphasized red-zone urgency and run fits all week. Tuioti described it bluntly:

“We can talk about it all we want, we actually got to do it.”

They did — twice forcing field goals when a touchdown would have materially changed the conversation, and then dialing up the intentional grounding pressure + Tuioti sack sequence that essentially shut the door on Minnesota’s last real hope.

There were also small, subtle coaching wins — like the late-half substitution where Nasir Wyatt sprinted off and Bear Alexander came on after a tush-push, preventing Minnesota from stealing a tempo snap with mismatched personnel. That’s not by accident; that’s situational football being drilled over and over.

If there’s a clear demerit, it’s the early-second quarter trick play: the hook-and-lateral involving two true freshmen on 3rd-and-long, up 14-0, in plus territory, in total control of the game.

From a pure scheme standpoint, Stein wasn’t wrong — if Cooper Perry completes a clean pitch to Dierre Hill, it likely goes for a first down and possibly a touchdown. But game state matters. On a night where your quarterback is nearly flawless, your line is winning and your defense is suffocating the run, handing Minnesota its only short field of the night feels like an unforced risk.

That moment, combined with the third-down conversion issues on the 80-yard touchdown drive (11-of-16 allowed overall) is why this isn’t a straight-up A+.

But big picture? The staff:

• Managed a short week physically and mentally

• Built a plan tailored to personnel realities

• Continued to lean into “strength in numbers,” with nine different players finishing with double-digit receiving yards

• Reinforced identity — physical, multiple, connected — instead of drifting from it

Lanning summed it up in a way that fits the night and the broader arc of the season.

“We’ve said strength in numbers all season,” he said. “In these last couple games, it’s really starting to show up where we need other guys to step up and create opportunities, and they’ve done a great job of that.”

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In the Fifth Quarter, that’s the takeaway more than the scoreline: on a clear Friday night, with USC looming and bodies still in the training room, Oregon didn’t just handle business. They sharpened who they want to be — balanced on offense, connected on defense, quietly steady on special teams, and adaptable on the headset — heading into the stretch where everything counts.