EUGENE, Ore. — Brock Thomas was told he was coming out of the game, and what he said back, according to Oregon coach Dan Lanning, was “I completely understand, coach.” Dylan Raiola took the snaps instead, and Oregon beat Nebraska 17-14 on Saturday night.
Raiola, who spent two seasons as Nebraska’s starting quarterback before transferring to the Oregon Ducks, came in to open the fourth quarter with his new team down 14-6. Yahoo Sports reported that Thomas had thrown an interception on Oregon’s final drive of the third quarter, and that Nebraska scored six plays later.
The switch reversed the order of a week earlier. Thomas had replaced Raiola in Oregon’s 17-15 loss to UCLA, a game in which the Ducks turned the ball over seven times and fell out of the AP Top 25, according to Yahoo Sports. Sports Illustrated reported that Oregon entered this one in desperate need of a win to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Raiola’s first drive went 69 yards in 17 plays and ended in a field goal. After a Nebraska punt, Oregon covered 82 yards, a drive Yahoo Sports counted as 20 plays, and Raiola found tight end Jamari Johnson from four yards out in the final minute. CBS Sports’ play-by-play shows that a four-yard touchdown pass to D. Moore had been overturned on replay review moments earlier.
The offense behind that finish was thin. Thomas went 9-of-20 for 54 yards with the interception, and Raiola went 11-of-18 for 59 yards. Yahoo Sports calculated that the two combined to average three yards an attempt on 38 throws.
Lanning said he told Raiola at a Thursday meeting that “this is where I’m laying out with my decision because at that point he’s competing,” Sports Illustrated reported. To Thomas, he said, “we’re going to try to create a spark for our guys,” and he called Thomas’s reply “remarkable courage.”
The two-point conversion went to Hudson Lewis, who, Lanning said, “didn’t have that ball thrown to him a single time in practice.” Lanning called the result “a gritty, ugly win in a lot of ways.” He also said a fumble call and a Nebraska touchdown might have gone the other way, adding, “I didn’t hear what was said in replay.”
In the same news conference he recognized “the families in Bend that were affected by the recent school shooting.”
Oregon is 4-2 and 2-1 in the Big Ten Conference, with a trip to Illinois next. Yahoo Sports reported that starter Dante Moore, who suffered a concussion against USC, has missed the last two games. “We’ll reassess and compete again this week to see where things are at as we move forward,” Lanning said.
