What Dan Lanning Said After Oregon Beat Cal

The Ducks hold onto the number one spot in the Pac-12 after another win this weekend.

The Oregon Ducks continue to win on the road after defeating the Cal Bears 42-24 on Saturday. Head coach Dan Lanning met with reporters after the game to give his instant reactions and takeaways. 

Below is a transcript of the press conference.

Opening Statement

"Obviously always great to go on the road and get a win. It's never easy to do that. I think our team can play a lot more consistent at times. I thought we had some moments of inconsistency. I think our players are growing to where they want to own the standard regardless of the situation. At times we really had it and at times we didn't. Struggled a little bit at times in the red area, gave up some big pass plays that we don't want to see on defense. So I think all around, there's moments of improvement for our team. I think our guys are hungry to improve. We're going to build off of this one and keep going."

On Cal defense allowing most yards of offense under Justin Wilcox

"I think it's hard to stop our team right now when we're consistent and operating at high level regardless of really who the opponent is. When we did get stopped, it was really more so stopping ourselves."

On Ducks defense giving up a few late scores 

"Regardless of who's in our standard really doesn't change. We didn't finish the game we wanted to finish. I think in the first half they had eight yards rushing so that was nice to be able to choke out one side of the ball, we gave a big pass. I would love to see us carry that over into the second half. We did at times. Think we were much better on third down I don't know what the final count was. That's somewhere we've been looking to have some improvement and think we did a better job there. But we have to continue to keep playing better ball and be more consistent throughout an entire game."

On biggest takeaway from this weekend's win

"Just that we haven't seen our best yet. I was hoping that this would be a game that we could walk away seeing our best and we haven't seen it yet. I'm excited to see where we can go, but we have to tap into that and it's a choice that we have to make right and hopefully that'll carry over in the future."

On finding rhythm throughout the game with Bo

"I think Bo did a good job today, but I think if you ask Bo right now he'd say he can perform better. I think our entire team probably feels that way-- that there's some moments that we can play at a higher level. I have to go back and watch the film and see if there were any ball in jeopardy plays for us, what our decision making looked like. Bo's been really consistent, a really good player all year. I think that he'll come away from this performance saying he wants to do better than he did."

On offense rallying with injuries at the wide receiver position

"We feel good about the players that we have on this trip. We have some guys that can play ball and just because there's a good player in front of them doesn't mean the guy behind him can't. I think it's a positive to see that they're in a rhythm and sequence we got to continue to get in a better rhythm and sequence you know, probably a little bit faster with those guys."

On running backs in the passing game

"We felt like this is a game that we could get the ball to our backs out of the backfield and ultimately we were looking to take some shots and I thought that's where Bo made some good decisions in taking the check down."

On overcoming slow first half and finishing strong in second half

"Ultimately, what I say is that I know we can play better than we played today and that's what I walk away with is okay, let's go focus on what we can play better. I don't look at it as an overcome, not overcome. We have to prepare ourselves to play better ball down the stretch, and we did that at times. I don't want people to come away and think that I'm not excited about a win. Glad we won the game. I still think that we can play better than we did."

On growth as a head coach from week one to now

"I'm learning a ton every single week. I think there's still a lot more for me to learn and a lot more opportunities for growth. So, I don't know that I pick one thing that I've gotten better at, I think, coming around and a lot of areas but there's still a lot more room for growth."

On play of tight ends and what they mean to the offense

"I'd like to talk about how that group of men really love each other. They're unselfish and sometimes it's their turn, sometimes it's not. They know when a certain guy comes on the field or comes off that that play's designed for them. You never hear a complaint from that group. I know every one of them would love to touch the ball every snap. But you never ever hear anything otherwise. I think you could see how excited our tight ends were when Pat (Herbert) scored that touchdown. Last week when Cam (McCormick) scored his, that's a group that's really unselfish that likes to see other people have success and that's what I'm really proud of with that group." 

On team morale with Steven Jones being involved on sideline even without playing

"We're anxious for Steven to make an impact on this team in whatever way he can. Obviously, we'd love to have him back out there on the field. One of the things we talked about before this game started is how are you going to be able to impact this game when the ball is not in your hands? Or when you're not making that tackle? I think Steven was able to impact this game by being on the sideline and being a great coach."

On Chase Cota injury update

"I haven't heard yet no, I don't know. We'll have to wait to get feedback there."

On his preference of Bo Nix getting rid of the ball vs. running for more yards

"Just depends on the sequence of the game. I love that he has a winning attitude. He has to be smart, you know, at times."

On a couple of things needed to be worked on based on this game

"Pre-snap penalties, finishing in the red area, shot plays on defense, substitution patterns on defense, there's a lot of things that I walked away with that I think we can do a better job of, and we will get better at."

On his message to the team throughout the week and how they responded

"Humble and hungry. We wanted to come into this game focused on who's here at the beginning with us not who came in afterwards. The reality is, we talked about after game one that really all of our goals are in front of us and we want to continue to approach it that way and keep growing and getting better.  I think there's some things we got better today. But overall, there's still some things that we can definitely improve here on."

On Kris Hutson's growth as a player for the Ducks offense

"I trust Kris. I think he's done a really good job for us. He did a good job in the return game for us today as well, caught the ball well. Obviously that one he'd love to have back, but that's going to happen sometimes, and you gotta go back to the next play."

On third down defense improvements

"I think there's good and bad. Certainly, some positive, the takeaways were big positives for us. Think we had a third down takeaway there that was big. Want to go back and watch the film and evaluate it."

On fourth down success for the offense this season meeting a few hiccups this game

"It was probably good for that to happen to us. We probably got humbled a little bit and that's an opportunity for us to go work at it and see if we can move the pile on the next team."

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