One week after benching, Raiola rebounds to rally Ducks past former team

EUGENE, Ore. -- Just a week ago, Dylan Raiola had turned the ball over three times when he was benched before the fourth quarter of Oregon's game against UCLA. His replacement, Brock Thomas, and the Ducks fell short in their comeback attempt against the Bruins, but Raiola still faced the music after the game. Raiola owned his performance, and one week later, he could only watch as Thomas, who started over him against Nebraska led Oregon's offense for three quarters. The results were suboptimal -- seven punts and a fumble to start the game, and only two field goals in the third quarter for the Ducks. "I went over to Brock and told him we need a spark," Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. "Dylan throughout the game was completely engaged. He was ready for his moment." This time, when the fourth quarter began and the Ducks trailed by eight points with any semblance of hope for their season hanging on by a thread, it was Raiola who was called on to play hero. Against his former team, Raiola delivered in the form of a hard-fought 17-14 victory over the Cornhuskers. "I knew beforehand there was gonna be emotions," Raiola said of the matchup. "This game was never about them. It was always about us getting back on track." From the moment he stepped on the field, Raiola revived Oregon's anemic offense. The run game was resuscitated, and Raiola himself finally moved the ball up the field with his arm and his legs. He completed 11 of 18 passes for 59 yards and led a field-goal drive that narrowed Oregon's deficit to 14-9 with 7:18 remaining. With just over five minutes left in the game, Raiola plotted the offense forward again and finished things off with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Johnson with 28 seconds left, giving Oregon a 17-14 lead. Autzen Stadium, which had showered the field with boos in the first half -- boos that Lanning later said were deserved -- and saw many leave at halftime, exploded into cheers. "None of it was necessarily pretty," Lanning said. "It was a gritty, ugly win." During the week, Lanning had vowed a different approach and hinted at changes with how the Ducks would attempt to execute their offensive vision. Aside from starting Thomas, the Ducks deployed different formations, even flirting with a Wildcat formation at some points, albeit to little success. While Lanning said that the decision to go with Thomas was due to him being better at taking care of the ball during practice, Thomas fumbled the ball in the first half. Once Raiola came in under center, the Ducks were able to find some semblance of the rhythm they had during the second half of the win over USC when Raiola had come into the game cold once Dante Moore went out with a concussion. It's been a whirlwind few weeks for Raiola since -- from being the reason behind an emotional win to finding himself at the center of a loss, he was able to bounce back in emphatic fashion. "I came into this week knowing I had to compete," Raiola said. "I wasn't gonna pout. I wasn't gonna be miserable to be around. ... We rallied around each other." Raiola called his performance against UCLA "uncharacteristic" and said that he felt horrible and that he had let his teammates down, especially those who opted to return to Eugene in search of a title instead of heading to the NFL. "I owe it to these guys, I owe it to our fans, we're gonna keep doing whatever it takes to win," he said. For an Oregon (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) team that came into the season ranked second in the nation and had championship aspirations, this season has gone haywire. While the defense seems to be rounding into form with every week, at no point has the Ducks' offense consistently looked the part of a contender. And yet, during a day that saw five top-10 teams lose, Raiola's late-game heroics Saturday were enough to keep Oregon's season just on the brink, not off it. "I'll never make excuses. We have enough talent and enough players to be better than we've been. That being said, it does look like a different group than the one we started the season with," Lanning said. "We thought we were going to have Jeremiah McClellan, Evan Stewart and Dante Moore [three players who missed the game vs. Nebraska]. "There are some different pieces to the puzzle out there, and we're working really, really hard to shuffle things around and figure it out."