Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola was benched in the second half of the No. 13 Ducks’ 17-15 loss at home to No. 21 UCLA, and coach Dan Lanning said afterward that the team did not put Raiola in the best position to succeed Saturday.
“He wasn’t good enough today. I think he can acknowledge that. But we didn’t prepare him to be good enough today,” Lanning said. “We didn’t put him in positions to have the success he needs to have. We need the best version of Dylan moving forward. Two weeks ago, he was phenomenal.”
After coming into the game against USC when starter Dante Moore went down with a concussion and leading the Ducks to a victory, Raiola looked nothing like the player who threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns against the Trojans.
Against the Bruins (5-0, 3-0 Big Ten), the former Nebraska quarterback went 6-for-19 for 43 yards, threw two interceptions and lost one fumble. He was replaced by third-string quarterback Brock Thomas to start the fourth quarter. Thomas completed 11 passes and threw for a touchdown that nearly propelled a comeback for the Ducks (3-2, 1-1).
“In the moment, I think everyone on offense clicked and felt like this was the moment to do it. It didn’t necessarily feel like it was before that,” Lanning said of the change. “Certainly, after the last turnover, it was, ‘Hey, we’ve got to put somebody in there who’s going to have success.’ Brock went in and operated well. You can always go back and say, ‘We should have done that earlier.'”
Lanning said everything about the offense, not just the quarterback, has to be evaluated going forward. He did not rule out making any sort of change, including playcaller and first-year offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer.
“We weren’t successful on offense in any phase tonight,” Lanning said. “I definitely have to evaluate the game first and go back and look at it. We didn’t have success on offense, so you have to look at all things. Was it the calls? Was it the way we operated in practice? Certainly, we didn’t operate well in the game. Everything has to be up for evaluation.”
A timeline for Moore’s return, meanwhile, remains unclear. Moore was back at practice, throwing and in pads, according to Lanning, but the coach remained uncommitted about his status going forward.
“It’s an ongoing discussion. I don’t want to put words in my mouth or Dante’s on that. From the beginning, we’ve said we’re going to move with an abundance of caution and continue to get evaluations,” Lanning said. “It won’t be a sprint just to say, ‘OK, he’s back out there,’ no matter what. We’ll continue to have those conversations. He’s been practicing with his team. I anticipate there will be an opportunity for him to be back out there, but it would be unfair for me to say that right now.”
