Skying into the Los Angeles night, Oregon receiver Dakorien Moore slipped on his best red cape and silenced the Tinseltown faithful as he snatched a deep-ball away from defensive back Elbert Hill IV, crashed into the end zone and scored the Ducks’ go-ahead fourth-quarter score on Saturday.
On an evening where the Ducks lost starting quarterback Dante Moore minutes into the contest, it was the other Moore whose score pushed Oregon to a 41-27 victory in a Pac-12 After Dark-esque prime-time affair under the lights at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Two weeks after a debilitating loss to Oklahoma State, it was the Ducks who suddenly thrust themselves back into the College Football Playoff conversation. The hometown Trojans, meanwhile, looked up to the task — until fourth quarter misfires saw Lincoln Riley drop his seventh game in eight tries against Associated Press Top 25 teams.
Here are my takeaways from the heavyweight West Coast clash between Oregon and USC.
1. Can Dylan Raiola Anchor Oregon At Quarterback?
Oregon’s nightmare start to the season seemingly took an even more stark turn when Moore exited Saturday’s contest on a stretcher following an egregious hit from USC linebacker Desman Stephens II.
Enter Raiola, the ex-five-star recruit and perceived Nebraska savior.
Two plays after Moore left the game, Raiola fired a touchdown pass to Evan Stewart to put the Ducks ahead early.
He finished completing more than 75% of his passes for 289 yards and a pair of scores, while flashing the arm strength and mobility that made him one of the more sought-after quarterback recruits in recent memory.
Raiola’s career has been well documented. He played at three high schools in four years, before flipping his commitment three different times during the recruiting process.
He eventually landed at Nebraska, where he flashed massive arm talent, but lacked the consistency to really elevate the Cornhuskers beyond average. He finished his time in Lincoln suffering a broken fibula, coincidentally against USC, that ended his 2025 campaign before he entered the transfer portal.
The plan, at least in theory, was for Raiola to spend the year backing up Moore in the Dan Lanning school of quarterbacking. Now he’s squarely in the mix — depending on when Moore could return — for a team that had national championship-or-bust aspirations.
Can he be good enough to meet those preseason expectations? We’ll find out — the Ducks still have Ohio State, Michigan, Washington and an upstart UCLA on the schedule.
Oh, and the Ducks’ trip to Lincoln on Oct. 17 just got a hell of a lot more interesting.
2. Dierre Hill Jr. And Oregon’s Run Game Steadies The Ducks
(Photo by John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
While Oregon’s offense has shouldered the load in recent years, the Ducks struggled to run the ball effectively the first few weeks of the season.
Lanning’s squad only netted 119 yards on 25 touches in the season-opening win over Boise State — albeit a result that continues to look better by the week — and mustered just three yards per carry on 30 attempts in the loss to Oklahoma State.
That wasn’t the case on Saturday.
The Ducks looked far more efficient on the ground against a disruptive USC front-four that created its share of issues in the pass game early. Jordon Davison managed 61 of his 66 yards on 11 carries in the opening 30 minutes, while the team averaged 5.2 yards per touch in the first half.
Oregon picked up where it left off in the second half behind the legs of Dierre Hill, who scampered for 63 yards on 15 touches and added another 105 yards on four receptions out of the backfield.
It’s not clear how long Dante Moore might be out for the Ducks — more on that in a second — but Lanning’s squad will need the run game to remain steady if Dylan Raiola needs any time to ease into starting again.
3. Dan Lanning Is Maturing As A Coach — And Saturday Was Proof
(Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)
It was there for the taking. A Pac-12 title. A CFP berth. A national championship? Maybe down the line.
Again and again, Lanning and his Ducks were stopped on fourth down in a 2023 loss at Washington. They finished the night 0-for-3. Lanning was skewered for the decision-making in the immediate aftermath.
Perhaps he’s learned something.
Tied at 10 with seconds remaining in the first half, Oregon was thrice stopped inside the 10-yard line as it tried to put a touchdown on the board before the break. If history tells us anything, Lanning in seemingly any other moment would’ve tried a fourth down attempt.
He didn’t, the Ducks kicked a field goal and marched into halftime up 13-10.
By night’s end, those three points weren’t necessarily crucial, but offered a glimpse into the psyche of the nostril’s flared, youthfully exuberant head coach who suddenly has his Oregon squad pushing in the right direction.
Lanning, for all intents and purposes, is among the faces of the sport. His tutelage under Kirby Smart and Nick Saban made him a fast-riser. His efforts in Eugene have seen him push into the upper echelons of the profession. But it’s decision-making like that in the waning seconds of the first half that has doomed him in big spots.
It didn’t on Saturday — and that should scare the rest of the Big Ten.
4. Lincoln Riley And USC Lose Another Against Big Ten’s Elite
(Photo by Bill Streicher/Getty Images)
Should we really be surprised?
USC has been a perpetual underperformer under Lincoln Riley, and Saturday’s loss to Oregon was another prime example on a growing laundry list of efforts where the Trojans haven’t gotten over the line.
In fairness, the Trojans went score for score with the Ducks for 52 of 60 minutes on Saturday. But even with Oregon onto its backup quarterback — experienced as he might be — it was another evening that surely left those around the USC program asking, “What now?”
Losing a game to a talented Oregon team that plenty picked to win the national title in the preseason isn’t disqualifying or a complete indictment of a coaching tenure. It’s more a matter of what’s to come — and that it feels like it’s only going to get worse for Riley and the Trojans, no matter how much more competent this squad seems.
USC still has Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Washington and UCLA to come this season. It almost certainly won’t lose all those games. It also almost certainly won’t win all of them.
Riley isn’t going to be fired for losing to a good Oregon team, but it’s a luxury he surely would’ve loved to have.
It’s been an open secret within the college football world that Lincoln’s relationship with athletics director Jen Cohen is, shall we say, frosty. The hiring of general manager Chad Bowden was another move in recent years aimed at rectifying the issues Riley had faced in the early going of his tenure in Los Angeles. This was to be the year the Trojans put it all together.
Saturday was another speed bump — a productive one, but a speed bump nonetheless — in Riley’s rocky USC tenure.
Hit a few more down the stretch and the pitchforks will be out in full force.
