The No. 1 Oregon football team loses Rose Bowl in a rout to Ohio State: How it happened

Posted by Admin January 2, 2025 Football

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An Oregon football season that delivered nothing but promise and hope for a deep postseason run ended in a stunning rout at the hands of Big Ten rival Ohio State.

The No. 1 and previously undefeated Ducks, who spent the first half on Wednesday getting torched by big plays on defense and stymied by their ineffective offense, were beaten by the No. 8 Buckeyes, 41-21, in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., in what was a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game.

With the win, Ohio State advances to face Texas in the CFP semifinals Jan. 10 in the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas.

Celebrate Oregon’s first Big Ten season with our new book

For the Ducks, who came into the game with a 13-0 record, including a win against Penn State in the conference championship game on Dec. 7, the offseason has come earlier than many anticipated.

“Sometimes it’s not your day,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I think that was us today. It wasn’t our day today.”

Quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw for 299 yards and two TDs for Oregon, and wide receiver Traeshon Holden had seven catches for 116 yards and two scores.

The Ducks were outgained on offense 500-276.

Here’s a closer look at how it went down in the Rose Bowl.

Oregon couldn’t overcome a disastrous first half

The Ducks were simply dominated for most of the first two quarters.

Ohio State scored three plays into the game and just kept piling on the points until it was 34-0 with 2:59 to go in the first half.

The Buckeyes had nine plays of 15 yards or more, five plays of 30 yards or more, and scoring plays of 45, 42, 43, 66 yards. Their four drives that ended in touchdowns took a total of nine plays.

The Ducks finally scored on their final drive of the first half to make it 34-8, but they were outgained 390-139 in the first half, including 121-13 rushing yards. Ohio State averaged 11.8 yards per play in the first half to 3.9 for Oregon.

“They clicked tonight and we didn’t,” Lanning said. “I didn’t get our team prepared. And that’s a great team. When you play a great team like Ohio State, you can’t not be clicking on all cylinders. And they were. They were clicking on all cylinders. We really didn’t have the ability to stop them, and we didn’t have the ability to get something going for us on offense. And we haven’t faced a lot of moments like this all year.”

The Ducks were dominated in the trenches

Oregon was outplayed on both sides of the ball, especially at the line of scrimmage.

Gabriel, the Heisman Trophy finalist making his FBS record 63rd start, was sacked eight times and the Buckeyes also had 13 total tackles for loss.

Oregon’s ground game was also stuffed, as the Ducks were credited with negative-23 yards rushing, a total that only increased to 33 yards when adjusted for the lost yards on sacks.

It didn’t help that starting running back Jordan James left the game early in the second quarter with an undisclosed injury after seven carries for 14 yards and two catches for 7 yards. He still finished as the team’s leading rusher.

In the Ducks’ 32-31 win against Ohio State in October, Oregon rushed for 155 and two TDs. James had 115 on 23 carries that day as well.

On the flip side, Oregon’s pass rush, which had been so ferocious in the later half of the season, did have a sack on Wednesday. Collectively, the Ducks only had three TFLs.

Ohio State was able to rush for 181 yards on 31 carries, including a 66-yard touchdown run by TreVeyon Henderson.

Oregon secondary had no answer for Jeremiah Smith

Ohio State’s freshman wide receiver finished with seven catches for 187 yards and two scores.

Fifty-one seconds into the game, Smith scored on a 45-yard catch and run.

He then had grabs of 29, 12 and 32 yards in the first quarter before hauling in a 43-yard touchdown in the second quarter to finish the first half with five catches for 161 yards.

“He’s strong, attacks the ball in the air as well as any receiver I’ve seen,” Lanning said. “The guy is NFL-ready. He’s that talented and that special.”

Thanks in no small part to Smith’s pass catching ability, quarterback Will Howard finished with 319 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-26 passing.

Chris Hansen covers University of Oregon football, men’s basketball, track and field, cross country and softball for The Register-Guard. You can reach him at chansen@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @chansen_RG