Oregon’s defense was called for an illegal substitution penalty in the last seconds of the No. 2 Ducks’ 32-31 win against No. 4 Ohio State on Saturday. Normally, with a late lead and the opposing team driving, coaches will do everything they can to make sure that their team avoids any mistakes.
But there’s been speculation in the days since that Oregon coach Dan Lanning intentionally sent a 12th man onto the field to waste precious seconds on Ohio State’s final drive of the game. While Lanning didn’t outright say that the 4D chess move was intentional during his Monday press conference, he certainly hinted heavily at the fact that the Ducks have worked on such a scenario.
“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations,” Lanning said with a smirk. “There’s some situations that don’t show up very often in college football. But this is one that, obviously, was something we had worked on. So you could see the result.”
Now there’s a new wrinkle. NCAA secretary rules editor Steve Shaw told Yahoo Sports that the NCAA is examining the play for possible action. A likely outcome would direct officials to reset the game clock to its original time when an illegal substitution penalty is called, similar to how the NFL operates.
The action occurred after Oregon pulled ahead with 1:47 left thanks to a 19-yard field goal from kicker Atticus Sappington. That did leave the Buckeyes plenty of time and one timeout to drive down the field, needing just a field goal to retake the lead and potentially win the game.
Ohio State worked the ball all the way to Oregon’s 28-yard line, but an offensive pass interference call eventually set up third-and-25. Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard’s pass attempt fell incomplete before Oregon was flagged for illegal substitution.
Ohio State did get 5 free yards, but since the penalty was deemed a live-ball foul, 4 seconds ticked off the clock. On third-and-20, with six seconds left, Howard attempted to scramble to put Ohio State into field goal range. He did not slide in time, and the clock expired on Oregon’s huge win before the Buckeyes could get a timeout in.
The move helped secure Oregon’s first victory against a top-two ranked opponent in program history and vaulted the Ducks to their highest AP Top 25 ranking since 2014.
