LOS ANGELES — On its best days, with a big game on tap during prime time and a highly ranked opponent in town, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum is capable of roaring to life and turning into one of the more intimidating venues on the West Coast.
Everything was set up for that to be the case on Saturday evening, as No. 20 Oregon arrived for its Big Ten opener with its back against the wall—a team with all the hallmarks of a national title contender but staring at the prospect of a 2–2 start to the season. Many billed the contest as a referendum for Lincoln Riley’s tenure with the Trojans, adding further stakes to a conference game which was circled long ago.
With 10:05 in the second quarter, however, the Coliseum was virtually silent. An imposing fortress for football had all the atmosphere of a morgue after midnight.
Ducks quarterback Dante Moore scrambled toward the end zone on a promising third drive, the USC defense parting like the red sea seemingly unaware of the potential first-round NFL draft pick’s mobility. Seeing an oncoming defender, the signal-caller began to give himself up and slide at the 15-yard line. He did not make it much farther.
Trojans linebacker Desman Stephens II came flying above the slowly descending quarterback at full speed, launching his forearm directly against his opponent’s helmet to drive it brutally into the ground. Moore appeared to be immediately knocked out from the late hit, which was later flagged for targeting, and also went into a fencing position with his arms raised uncontrollably—possibly indicating a severe concussion.
Trainers immediately rushed to Moore’s side and so did most of the coaching staff in order to stop a fight which was on the verge of breaking out as several Oregon players started to shove, gesture and jaw at Stephens.
Moore remained virtually motionless on the ground and, at a place which brought an announced 75,500 out, you could pretty much hear a pin drop. After more than 10 minutes, long after opposite number Jayden Maiava came over to Moore, medical staff eventually loaded Moore onto a cart that took him to a nearby ambulance.
“It’s hard, right in the moment. I think you ask yourself, What’s the best thing I can do? and What’s the best way to honor Dante in that moment?” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who confirmed Moore had movement in all his extremities and was being treated at a local hospital. “It’s a shame that happened to a good player when, in my mind, that certainly could have been avoided. It’s disappointing that would happen, but I thought our players did a great job of resetting.”
“Dante went down and you’ve got anger running through you because it was a targeting penalty,” added receiver Dakorien Moore, who scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. “But we just came together and said we were going to do it for Dante.”
That they did, notching a massive 41–27 victory over No. 12 USC to firmly reenter the College Football Playoff discussion that those around the program felt they never left.
This was nothing like the Oregon which couldn’t run the football during the first two weeks of the season, including during an inexplicable loss to Oklahoma State the last time the Ducks went on the road. Against USC, the Ducks averaged a solid 4.2 yards per carry and scored three times on the ground. They largely moved the ball at will, posting 504 total yards and better than seven yards per play on Gary Patterson’s supposedly revamped defense (the most yards the Trojans have allowed since Oct. 12, 2024). Even better, they found a rare pass rush that notched two sacks on the first drive after just five total coming into Week 4.
“We felt like we weren’t performing to the expectations that we had,” remarked senior Evan Stewart, who scored two plays after Moore went down and immediately flashed five fingers in reference to his quarterback’s number. “We wanted to come out here and show everybody that we are who we are.”
It also showed how shrewd the program was this offseason in going after quarterback Dylan Raiola to be Moore’s backup.
The former Nebraska starter was once touted as a savior for the Cornhuskers but failed to live up to such expectations during his two years. The former five-star prospect often tried to do too much in pressure situations and forced far too many turnovers and errant throws. He entered the transfer portal, and many expected him to find a place where he could start right away. Even after Moore announced he was forgoing the NFL draft, Raiola still made his way to a team which was hoping to advance one round farther in the CFP after losing to Indiana in the semifinals last season.
The move looks like it has already paid dividends, not just for Oregon in snagging a massive Big Ten victory to remain in the playoff hunt, but for Raiola. After admitting the entire team was shaken by the events that brought him on the field, the junior instead looked calm and steady to finish 19 of 25 for 289 yards and two scores.
Once Jordon Davison scored a touchdown with 2:03 remaining to effectively ice the result, Raiola let out a scream in celebration and began flexing at the Oregon bench. He later did an unexpected postgame interview with NBC on the field and then took a full victory lap around the Coliseum, high-fiving fans for nearly 100 yards.
It was a cathartic experience for the quarterback who exacted a measure of revenge on the Trojans after he broke his ankle last November against them when he played for Nebraska.
“Knowing what we did this game and how we kept fighting, we talked about it all week long,” Raiola said. “A wolf came out and we made sure that our prey felt it.
“The game of football doesn’t say sorry to us. We’ve got to step up and keep fighting. To come on the road and do what we did is not normal.”
On the contrary, it was quite normal for their opponent under a head coach whose hot seat is firmly on fire with a fan base that streamed toward the exits long before the two-minute timeout. Saturday’s game was supposed to be the potential resurgence to one of the West Coast’s best rivalries of the last two decades, with the jockeying and offseason banter between the Ducks and Trojans finally paying off on the field in what should be a marquee fixture on the Big Ten slate.
Instead, it was much the same for the cardinal and gold under Riley. USC forced just two punts and of it four defensive penalties, every one became an Oregon first down. Most galling of all was Jide Abasiri’s roughing the passer penalty on Raiola with just over 10 minutes to play, turning what should have been a third-down stop, with a chance to take the lead on offense, into a drive-extending foul that later led to a go-ahead touchdown the other way.
In a must-win game, after proudly boasting about the school’s alignment and saying the time to win was now, it was an inexcusable sequence. What was remarkable was how unremarkable it was under Riley, who is just 5–15 against ranked opponents since arriving in Los Angeles and now suffered a devastating loss to a backup quarterback, at home, and a team which just two weeks ago lost to an Oklahoma State program which has 92 new players and a new coach.
In order for there to be a flagship rivalry in the Pacific time zone, USC has to start winning these types of games that matter. If it doesn’t, the only rivalry that exists will be online among fans given how much the Ducks have surpassed the traditional blueblood to become the premier program out West.
“Three wins against these guys. I guess if you’re interested in winning football games from this area, you should go to Oregon,” said Lanning, standing up from a table with a giant grin flashing ear to ear. “If you want to go to a Chris Brown concert, come here [to USC].”
There was no concert on Saturday night, no loudly pulsating Coliseum like there should have been.
Instead there were large stretches of silence, first for the devastating Moore injury and then later on to reflect a scoreboard the home team was on the wrong side of.
At least the latter was punctuated with 20 seconds left on the clock, not long before Raiola trotted out to take the sweetest kneeldown of his career and get serenaded to chants of, “Let’s go, Ducks!” by the thousands of green-, yellow- and white-covered fans.
If ever there was a time to proclaim that kind of belief, that was certainly it as Oregon overcame a potentially devastating blow on Saturday night to leave the Coliseum as the team still capable of getting to the playoff after all.
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