EUGENE — Oregon having 12 men on the field defensively for the second to last play of its win over Ohio State was indeed by design.

Many commentators and fans attributed Oregon coach Dan Lanning for a brilliant strategic decision following the game and in the days since. Lanning did not deny the trade of time for what ended up being a meaningless five yards.

“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations,” Lanning said. “There’s some situations that don’t show up very often in college football, but this is one that obviously was something that we had worked on. You could see the result.”

The Ducks called timeout with 10 seconds remaining in Saturday’s game, with the Buckeyes facing third and 25 from UO’s 43 yard line. Moments before Ohio State snapped the ball, Oregon cornerback Dontae Manning walked onto the field to the left side of the defense, giving UO too many men on the field and a numbers advantage against OSU’s three receivers to the right side of its formation and running back.

That helped to induce Will Howard to throw for Jeremiah Smith, who was covered by Jabbar Muhammad, Oregon’s top cornerback, with safety Kobe Savage over the top to the field side of the defense. Muhammad broke up the pass, Oregon was penalized five yards, and most importantly for UO, four seconds came off the clock.

On the ensuing play, Howard scrambled and slid as time ran out.

No. 2 Oregon (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) at Purdue (1-5, 0-3)

• When: Friday, Oct. 18
• Time: 5 p.m. PT
• Where: Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, Indiana
• TV channel: Fox
• Stream: You can watch this game live for FREE with Fubo (free trial) or with DirecTV Stream (free trial). If you already have a provider, you can also watch this game live on Fox Sports Live with your cable or satellite provider login information.
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— James Crepea covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.