Great win, but can some of you explain why the Ducks began to play soft or off in the secondary in the 4th quarter after such success in the previous three quarters?

Some things changed.

Exhaustion is probably one factor. It's the first time the starters had to play all the way through the 4th.

I did see that PSU started making some adjustments on offense, on one play I saw 7 guys lined up on the OL to give Allar more time to throw.

8 minutes ago, kirklandduck said:

Exhaustion is probably one factor. It's the first time the starters had to play all the way through the 4th.

Oregon's defense was looking quite tired.

I think it was a couple things.

1. They were tired it was a brutal slugfest of a game.

2. Oregon has a two score lead and complacency set in too much. The players probably subconsciously just took the foot off the gas and lost momentum.

It's a rather young team still and it was a learning experience. But once OT hit they did get an adrenaline hit and pulled it together.

In future games it will be interesting to see if they can close it out better. Keep in mind that the previous four games many of these players weren't even on the field for the fourth quarter.

And Never discount a teams desire/obsession of winning at home, especially on a nationally televised top 10 matchup. I can't even count the times that OBD made furious comebacks in the fourth quarter at home, some to still lose by three points or less, some we pull off the incredible comeback win/upset. Those teams up big on OBD didn't "suck" in the fourth quarter, just the desire to defend your home turf and persistence to that goal, brought the Ducks back.

Penn State was trying, desperately, to comeback and win the biggest game of the year for them at home. That they almost did, but our team was just a lil bit better thus winning an absolute "classic" in the D. Lanning era.

A "thousand cuts" for sure.

🦆🏈🪨's

For the majority of the game the defense was in Allar’s face. After taking the 17 - 3 lead, the defense seemed content to allow short passes, but got burned on the long TD pass that gave them hope.

Momentum is everything, and a personal foul helped to further stoke that fire.

I hope that a lesson was learned.