The Sunday Huddle: What Oregon Found in Los Angeles

Oregon went to Los Angeles needing a response. What the Ducks came home with was something more useful: a clearer understanding of who they are when the game stops following the plan.

There are games that tell you more about a football team than others, and I think Saturday night belongs in that category for Oregon. Not because the Ducks beat USC by 14 points, not because Dylan Raiola came off the bench and played exceptionally well and not even because Oregon left the Coliseum with one of the more important wins of Dan Lanning’s tenure. Those things all matter, but they are still outcomes. What interested me more after sitting with the game for a night was how many assumptions about this team were tested at once and how often Oregon was forced to rely on something other than talent.