MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The first thing Oregon quarterback Dante Moore did after his team won the Orange Bowl was salute the thousands of Ducks fans who made the cross-country trip to South Florida for a College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day.
If the Oregon defense keeps playing the way it did in the takedown of Texas Tech, those fans might be back in Hard Rock Stadium before long.
Matayo Uiagalelei forced a fumble to set up an Oregon touchdown, freshman Brandon Finney Jr. had three takeaways with two interceptions and a fumble recovery, and the fifth-ranked, fifth-seeded Ducks silenced No. 4 Texas Tech’s high-powered offense for a 23-0 win Thursday afternoon at the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
This is the third playoff appearance for the Ducks, who reached the title game in the 2014 season when the CFP debuted as a four-team event — which it remained until expanding to 12 teams in the 2024 season — and lost in the quarterfinals last year after receiving a first-round bye. This time, they followed up a 51-34 home win against 12th-seeded James Madison in the Pacific Northwest on Dec. 20 with a display of dominance on the opposite coast.
“They’ve earned this opportunity,” Oregon fourth-year head coach Dan Lanning said. “I told them go get their pound of flesh today. They did that today.”
Jordon Davison rushed for two scores, Moore threw for 234 yards, and Atticus Sappington kicked three field goals for Oregon (13-1), which moves on to the Peach Bowl semifinal on Jan. 9 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
The Ducks will be facing fellow Big Ten program Indiana (14-0), which won a regular-season matchup at Oregon 30-20 on Oct. 11. The top-ranked, top-seeded Hoosiers routed 11th-ranked, ninth-seeded Alabama of the Southeastern Conference 38-3 in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal later Thursday in Pasadena, California.
The Peach Bowl winner will be back in Miami Gardens for the national title game on Jan. 19, facing the winner of the Fiesta Bowl, this season’s other semifinal.
“I believe we have the best defense in the country,” Finney said.
Texas Tech probably wouldn’t argue with that.
The Red Raiders, the Big 12 champions who finish their season 12-2, entered the day ranked second nationally in points scored per game (42.5) and fifth nationally in offensive yards per game (480.3), but they got absolutely nothing going against Oregon. The Red Raiders turned the ball over four times, were stopped on fourth down three other times, and had four three-and-out possessions.
“Texas Tech fans, I’m sorry that we let you down,” fourth-year head coach Joey McGuire said. “I hope you’ve enjoyed every second of this year. Man, this was such a special team, and I’m so proud of them. Hats off to Dan Lanning. Hats off to the Oregon Ducks. Just an incredible football team … and I told Dan after the game, I hope he wins the whole damn thing.”
Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton — who completed 18 of 32 passes for just 137 yards — was stripped by Uiagalelei early in the third quarter in Red Raiders territory. Uiagalelei rumbled deep into the red zone, and Davison scored one play later to make it 13-0.
Morton threw a red-zone interception early in the fourth quarter, and the Oregon defense’s fourth-down stop at the Texas Tech 30-yard line midway through the fourth quarter doomed whatever comeback chances existed for the Red Raiders. Davison plunged in from the 1-yard line with 16 seconds left to cap the scoring.
“We had a great game plan,” Morton said. “We just didn’t execute base plays.”
And once again, a CFP bye meant a team went bye-bye.
It was the sixth quarterfinal since the switch to a 12-team format, and the sixth time that the team coming off an extended break lost to a team that played a first-round game.
In 2024, Boise State (against Penn State), Arizona State (against Texas), Georgia (against Notre Dame) and Oregon (against Ohio State) all went out in the quarterfinals after first-round byes. Miami added to that list Wednesday night, beating reigning national champion Ohio State 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl quarterfinal at AT&T Field in Arlington, Texas. In those six games, including Thursday, the team with the bye has held the lead for less than five minutes — combined — of regulation play.
Texas Tech thought it could avoid that fate. It could not, and Oregon finished off its first shutout of an AP-ranked opponent since 2012. Oregon was playing a top-10 team for the 113th time, and for the first time, the Ducks allowed zero points.
It was also the first shutout in any CFP game since 2016, and the Red Raiders were obviously disappointed to be on the wrong side of it.
“We knew what we were able to accomplish,” said Texas Tech linebacker David Bailey, the national sacks leader with 14.5 this season, including one against Oregon. “The Big 12 championship wasn’t really the goal. We knew we could go further. We’ve got a lot of talent on this team. We’ve got a lot of pieces on this team. We expected a different outcome.”
After the first-round win against Sun Belt champion James Madison, Oregon players and coaches were generally unhappy in their comments about the defensive performance of the Ducks. There wasn’t anything to not like from that side of the ball Thursday.
“Last week a lot of people talked about our defense,” Lanning said. “They showed up today.”
It simply was an uncharacteristic offensive showing from the Red Raiders, who had scored at least 10 points before halftime in 26 of their past 27 games going back to 2023. Credit was given to the Ducks for that.
“That was the best defense we have faced this year,” McGuire said.
McGuire’s graciousness even extended to the ACC officiating crew that worked the game and called nine penalties (six on Texas Tech, three on Oregon) as no flags that came out during the game seemed to have any pronounced effect on the outcome.
“A lot of people don’t say it, and I don’t know if I’ve ever said it in a press conference, but I thought the officiating was as good as I’ve been a part of in college football,” McGuire said. “So hats off to that ACC crew today. They did a good job.”