Dylan Raiola engineered a fourth-quarter comeback for Oregon against his former team Nebraska on Saturday, throwing the go-ahead touchdown with 28 seconds left to secure a 17-14 win, just one week after the Ducks benched him. Raiola entered in relief of starter Brock Thomas with Oregon trailing 14-6 and finished 11 of 18 for 59 yards and a touchdown, according to The Associated Press.
The Main Development
Oregon coach Dan Lanning started Thomas over Raiola against Nebraska with regular starter Dante Moore still sidelined by a concussion. Thomas struggled through three quarters, completing 9 of 20 passes for 54 yards with an interception while fans chanted “We want Dylan!” from the stands, per the AP.
Lanning turned to Raiola to start the fourth quarter. Raiola directed a 17-play, 65-yard drive that ended with Gage Hurych’s 37-yard field goal, then capped the comeback with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Johnson with 28 seconds remaining for the Dylan Raiola comeback Nebraska fans will remember from this stretch of the season.
What It Means
The result arrives exactly one week after Oregon benched Raiola following a 17-15 loss to UCLA in which he completed just 6 of 19 passes for 43 yards with two interceptions. Thomas replaced him in that game and went 11 of 15 for 146 yards and a touchdown, prompting Lanning’s decision to hand Thomas the next start.
Raiola said he accepted the move without complaint. “I came into this week knowing I had to compete and ultimately, coach Lanning made the decision and I wasn’t going to pout. I wasn’t going to be miserable to be around.
I wanted to make sure Brock knew what he was doing, which he did, and all these guys, we just rallied. We rallied around each other,” Raiola said, according to the AP.
A teammate praised how Raiola handled sitting behind Thomas before getting his chance. “He was really unbelievable about it. I think everybody will have self-doubts or thoughts in that moment of, ‘No, it needs to be like this.’ And a lot of people don’t necessarily get second chances. Dylan got a second chance to go out there and execute for us when he was ready, and I’m proud he was able to do that,” the teammate said, per the AP.
Context: A Homecoming Against His Former Team
Raiola started two seasons at Nebraska before transferring to Oregon in the offseason. He threw for more than 2,000 yards in each of those seasons with 31 total touchdowns against 17 interceptions, according to the AP. Saturday’s win marked his first outing against the Cornhuskers since leaving the program.
Oregon’s quarterback situation has been in flux for weeks. Moore’s concussion opened the door for Raiola to make his first career start against UCLA, detailed in Total Apex Sports’ coverage of the Dante Moore injury and Raiola’s first start. That outing ended in the benching that set up Saturday’s sequence, which followed Oregon’s decision to rule Moore out again against Nebraska and open the quarterback competition to Thomas.
What’s Next
Oregon has not announced a starting quarterback for its next game, and Moore’s status remains tied to the concussion protocol that has kept him out since the injury. The Ducks’ turnover issues at the position were a focus of Total Apex Sports’ recent look at Oregon’s turnover problems and playoff outlook, a storyline that will carry into Lanning’s next decision at quarterback.
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