Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola did not have a good day against UCLA, and coach Dan Lanning may have left him in the game too long.
Raiola's first start at Oregon was a stark contrast from the win over Southern California, with the former resulting in a 17-15 UCLA win over the Ducks. The Nebraska transfer did complete his first three passes, but it went downhill from there: He completed just three of his next 16 attempts, finishing 6-for-19 with 43 yards and two interceptions.
He also fumbled.
The Oregon offense had just six points when Raiola was in, until Lanning took him out for backup Brock Thomas. While the Ducks did lose the game, Thomas nearly led
a comeback by going 11-for-15 with 156 yards and one touchdown.
Given how Thomas clearly was the best quarterback of the day, it begged the question of if Raiola should have been pulled earlier.
"That's probably a fair question," Lanning said.
It was surprising to see Raiola struggle considering how clutch he was for the Ducks when he came in for the injured Dante Moore against the Trojans.
Lanning said Raiola "wasn't good enough today" but shared the blame of the performance, adding that he and the coaching staff didn't put him in the best position to succeed.
"We need the best version of Dylan moving forward," Lanning said. "Two weeks ago, he was phenomenal, right? Earlier in this year, I think he's received a lot of praise. I think what you always got to recognize is there's going to be a lot of praise in moments, and there's going to be some negative moments, and probably neither one of them are true, right?
"We didn't get some of those things fixed, and that showed up today."
Lanning said he and the team will support Raiola, and he planned to have a conversation with him. There's uncertainty for when Moore will be able to return from the concussion he suffered, as it could still be up in the air who's behind center in Oregon's next game on Saturday, Oct. 17 against Nebraska — Raiola's former team.
"We have coaching staff that's here to support him, and just wants to see him continue to improve and get better, and give him some of his confidence back, because certainly he's lost some of that today," Lanning said. "If he pays too much attention to the news, he's going to lose some more of that, right? If he just goes out there and works and focuses on improvement, then he's got a chance that he can continue to become a good player."
Oregon fell to 3-2 with the loss — the first time it has lost two games before November under Lanning — as the team's playoff hopes become slimmer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Dan Lanning keep Dylan Raiola in too long? 'Probably a fair question'
