EUGENE, Ore. — Had the first College Football Playoff game ever held at the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium ended at halftime Saturday evening, it would have been a clinical performance by the No. 5 Ducks
Even with a lackluster second half, the home team breezed by 19th-ranked, 12th-seeded James Madison University for a 51-34 win on the heels of four touchdown passes by Dante Moore, who also ran for a score.
“The whole team understands this wasn’t our best game,” Moore said. “But at the end of the day, we won the football game.”
The Ducks (12-1), a Big Ten team, are moving on to face No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1), the Big 12 champion, in the Orange Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Day at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Red Raiders had a bye in the first round of the 12-team bracket as one of the top four seeds.
Oregon won a playoff game for the first time since the 2014 season, when the Ducks beat Florida State in the Rose Bowl semifinal before losing to Ohio State. That was the first year of the CFP, which was a four-team event from that season through 2023 before switching to its current format.
The loss for the Dukes (12-2), the Sun Belt Conference champions who made the long trip from Harrisonburg, Virginia, dropped Group of Five teams to 0-4 all-time in CFP games. This was the first year in which two teams from outside the power conference ranks were in the CFP, and American Conference champion Tulane, ranked 17th and seeded 11th, lost 41-10 at No. 6 Ole Miss of the Southeastern Conference earlier Saturday.
Moore completed a 41-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Johnson less than two minutes into the game to give Oregon a lead it would not relinquish. Johnson hauled in Moore’s pass with his right hand, then romped into the end zone while dragging a pair of defenders.
The Dukes responded with a 30-yard field goal from Morgan Suarez on their next drive, which took 15 plays and burned 8:03 of game clock. The Ducks took over from there, rattling off four straight touchdowns before the Dukes sneaked in another field goal from Suarez ahead of halftime, which brought the score to 34-6.
“The first couple of drives were great,” Moore said. “We executed, we knew a lot of their defensive schemes coming into this game. (Offensive coordinator Will Stein) and the offensive crew did a great job dissecting their defense. But overall, it was a great game.”
In falling behind by such a wide margin, the Dukes went away from their rushing attack, which ranked fifth nationally in the Football Bowl Subdivision in average yards per game entering the evening. Coach Bob Chesney lamented his team’s struggles on the ground outside of a 49-yard rush by running back Wayne Knight.
“There’s bigger runs that happen for us throughout the year where you get through the offensive line, you get into that second level and you’re gone,” Chesney said. “And here, you get to that second level, and just the strength of those guys, being able to put you back into the ground.”
With the Dukes chasing the lead most of the night, Sun Belt player of the year Alonza Barnett III completed 23 of 48 passes, including a 47-yard touchdown to Nick DeGennaro on the team’s first possession of the third quarter.
Oregon promptly responded with two touchdowns: wide receiver Malik Benson’s second scoring reception of the night and a blocked punt that Jayden Limar scooped and returned 15 yards to the end zone. The Dukes scored the last three touchdowns, which left a sour taste for Ducks head coach Dan Lanning and the defense.
“There’s a standard here,” said Lanning, who was Georgia’s defensive coordinator before taking over at Oregon ahead of the 2022 season. “There’s certainly a standard for performance. Our players know that. They know what championship football looks like, and the second half didn’t look like that.”
The victory was the Ducks’ seventh straight since losing 30-20 on Oct. 11 to eventual Big Ten champion Indiana, which is 13-0 and the CFP’s No. 1 seed entering its Rose Bowl quarterfinal against Alabama. The Dukes had won 11 in a row since a 28-14 loss at Atlantic Coast Conference member Louisville on Sept. 5.
Oregon’s pass defense entered the contest third in the nation in fewest yards allowed per game (144.3), but Barnett eclipsed that total with ease, nearly doubling it up. The Dukes put up the second-most passing yards that any team has against Oregon this season, second only to Southern California’s 330 yards on Nov. 22.
The stout secondary of the Ducks has shown its holes in recent weeks, and Texas Tech’s 10th-ranked passing offense could be primed to pounce in the Orange Bowl. The Red Raiders will enter on a six-game winning streak since a 26-22 loss at Arizona State on Oct. 18, when they were held to their season low in points — it’s one of just two games in which they’ve scored fewer than 30 this year — and their second-fewest passing yards (167).
While the Dukes outscored Oregon in the second half, it wasn’t enough to mount an improbable comeback. It was sufficient to provide Lanning ample bulletin board material ahead of the Ducks’ next game, though.
“Everyone knows how Coach Lanning is,” Moore said. “He’s a psycho. He’s going to push us at practice. He’s going to put that fire under us.”
Chesney wrapped up his last game as head coach of the Dukes before taking over at Big Ten program UCLA for the 2026 season. In two years with the Dukes — as the successor to Curt Cignetti, who headed to Indiana and has led the Hoosiers to their remarkable turnaround — Chesney went 21-6 with the lone Sun Belt title in program history.
Billy Napier, who was fired in October during his fourth season as SEC member Florida’s head coach, has already been hired to replace Chesney, who spoke glowingly of his time with the Dukes after his final game.
“I think that when we came in here two years ago, we knew that this was a program that was steeped in tradition and believed in itself and had a community to support it,” Chesney said. “And I think that it’s only gotten better.”