STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — No. 6 Oregon and Oklahoma State meet Saturday with something to prove following lackluster opening game performances.
The Ducks dropped four spots in the AP Top 25 after struggling to put away 24-point underdog Boise State 34-27 while the Cowboys never got on track in a dispiriting 24-10 loss at Tulsa.
Oregon committed 10 penalties for 90 yards while Oklahoma State turned the ball over four times — three by quarterback Drew Mestemaker — in Eric Morris' first game as head coach.
“I attribute that to lack of discipline,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I thought we had a lack of discipline at times that created some of those penalties.”
Poor execution plagued Morris' team, which failed to convert four times on fourth down and appeared to run out of gas in the second half.
“Looking at our team in the fourth quarter, we didn’t look like we were a team that was in shape and ready to go get it and go win a game,” he said.
The difference in both games turned out to be quarterback play. Dante Moore threw for 378 yards and three touchdowns, including a 62-yard score to Dakorien Moore to give the Ducks the lead for good with 7:51 left to play.
“He's good. This team is full of good players," Morris said. "He has a really smooth stroke, ball gets out fast, quick release, he’s accurate, he’s athletic, I think a full package guy and somebody that I think is going to play football for a really long time.”
Mestemaker, a North Texas transfer who threw for an FBS-best 4,379 yards last season, stumbled out of the gate for Oklahoma State. He finished with 241 yards, completing 29 of 49 attempts with a pair of fourth quarter interceptions.
“Drew’s an unbelievable player,” Lanning said. “You see his arm strength show up. He’s a guy that can stand flat-footed and throw a 60-yard bomb, so he’s got a really strong arm, you know they have a really strong passing attack. There’s a reason they were the No. 1 scoring offense in the nation last year at North Texas. That shows up and he’s obviously the guy that makes that tick for them.”
Lanning isn't taking anything for granted when it comes to Morris' up-tempo offense.
“I don’t necessarily put a ton of stock in the fact that they didn’t win the game,” he said. “You look at the scheme and it’s been effective everywhere that he’s been, whether it’s Incarnate Word, whether it’s Washington State, whether it’s North Texas and now at Oklahoma State."
Points were hard to come by for the Cowboys when the teams played last season in Eugene. Moore threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns, and the Ducks rolled up 631 yards of offense in a 69-3 rout. Oklahoma State fired Mike Gundy two weeks later.
The Cowboys, with a new coach and a roster full of new faces, is looking to extend a streak of 30 consecutive wins in home openers against an experienced team that's reached the College Football Playoff in each of the last two seasons.
Morris called it “a great opportunity."
“You want to play the best, like this is a team that is up there in the conversations (as) being one of the best in the nation this year and rightfully so,” he said. “It’s something we need, to go out there and get one game better, there needs to be a ton of growth from game one to game two for our program.”
Saturday's game won't be the first time Lanning and Morris have faced each other. Lanning was in his first year as as Oregon's coach in 2022 when the Ducks rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat Washington State 44-41. Morris was the Cougars' offensive coordinator.
“We were down 12 points in that game, Cam Ward was playing for them at that point, crazy environment, kind of similar to game we just played at Boise State,” Lanning said.
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