It’s time Oregon Ducks fans dragged this into the light and addressed Dan Lanning’s coach speak. Throughout his tenure as a Ducks coach, Lanning has been more than willing to take risky gambles—going for it on fourth down deep in our own territory, dialing up fake punts, and executing onside kicks. You name it, he’s acted as the ultimate riverboat gambler, leaving us all scratching our heads and wondering what the hell he was thinking.

Yet, out of the other side of his mouth, Lanning preaches discipline with the ball, demanding that his quarterbacks limit turnovers. Most recently, following Dylan Raiola's struggles and two interceptions against UCLA, Lanning has been rattling on with talking points and an incessant mantra about protecting the football—even going so far in his post-game conference to mention he told both quarterbacks that he was watching them closely in practice and whichever one protected the ball best would get the start.

Looking at it plainly, it's a giant contradiction. Personally, I see it as a glaring sign of immaturity in coaching on Lanning's part. You can't gamble with reckless abandon in your own territory and then handcuff who is going to be your QB #1 under the guise of safety without being a hypocrite.

Lanning started a QB with less talent for ball protection, and he barely got Raiola into this game in the nick of time to lead us to the comeback to the win.

I don't remember his going for it on 4th Oregons side of the 50 over the past few games. He also kicked FG in the Neb game that kept us in striking distance.

7 turnovers in the UCLA game have me a crippling fear about ball security also.

With the way this D has been playing, I would definitely go for it on 4th and 2 from my own 40 more than I would punt.

Lanning punted the ball a lot v. Neb around mid field and pinned them deep in their own territory.

I could be wrong but it seems that Lanning has been much more conservative the past few games.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Log Haulin

While you certainly want to limit turnovers, you don’t want your QBs playing tight / not taking calculated risks, when the situation warrants it.

Lanning did gamble and fail in the first two games, with 0-6 4th down conversion record. Worst one by far was the 4th-and-8 at the our own 33-yard line in Q4 of the OSU game which arguably cost us the chance to win.

But I see that he cleaned things up in the Nebeska game, going for it only when it makes sense, with a 3 for 3 record on 4th downs. He clearly was a much more conservative coach in that game. Glad he listened to criticisms. The only coaching flaw in that game was changing QB late, but fortunately not too late for us to beat the sleepy cornhusks.