Indiana dispatched with one of the top passing games in the country in its dominant 38-3 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl. After holding Ty Simpson to a season-low 67 yards last week, Bryant Haines’ group will be tasked with defending another elite college quarterback to advance in the College Football Playoff.
The good news is that this will be Indiana’s second time seeing Oregon’s Dante Moore this season. The first time around, Indiana’s defensive line got to Moore six times
– still the only time he’s been sacked more than twice in a game this season – and forced two turnovers versus just one passing touchdown allowed.
The bad news is that Moore learned from the experience, seemingly improving every game since then and putting himself alongside Fernando Mendoza in conversations about the top quarterbacks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Based on QBR, the Indiana game is the second worst Moore’s played this season, the worst being in an 18-16 slug fest against an Iowa defense that handled Vanderbilt quarterback and Heisman runner-up Diego Pavia well enough to pull off a big upset in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Indiana is also one of two teams, the other being James Madison, who forced Moore to throw more than one interception per game. He’s had some underwhelming stat lines, like a modest 9 of 15 performance for 86 yards against Wisconsin, but avoided turnovers in those efforts, allowing Oregon to stay in games when he’s not his best.
So far in these playoffs, Moore has completed 45 of his 60 attempts for 547 yards, four touchdowns, and three interceptions. As mentioned above, two of those three picks came against JMU in a game where he was able to avoid being sacked at all. The following week, Texas Tech only got to him in the backfield twice.
With his ability to avoid sacks and limit turnovers, Moore is capable of being more of a game-manager style quarterback when the running game is hot, but his big play ability should not be overlooked.
He’s had completions of 30+ yards in nine of Oregon’s 14 games this year, including a 44-yarder for a touchdown against Indiana. Indiana’s secondary has improved since then, but the defense as a whole will be facing a harder task this week than it did against Alabama’s inability to run the ball. The Ducks can and will hand it off.
The other factor to consider in the rematch is that Indiana will be without two of its top defensive linemen as Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt recover from injuries. Wyatt had 1.5 sacks and three tackles in the first matchup, while Daley did not record a stat.
Replacing their production and pressure up front will be key to Indiana replicating what it did earlier this season, an effort that held the Ducks’ offense to 13 points in October. Against a quarterback that’s already faced this defense, Haines and his group will have to get creative with scheme and personnel.
