Eric Morris Outsmarts Dan Lanning in High-Stakes Fourth-Down Battle

STILLWATER — In the first week, the only common thread between the Cowboys and the Ducks appeared to be their struggles on fourth down.

On Saturday, one coach seemed to learn from those, and it wasn’t the coach of the No. 6 team in the country.

“I know there will be a lot of questions about fourth-down situations,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “We need to be aggressive in those moments, especially when you’re not having success to keep it going. But if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, you create short fields. Ultimately it’s still an 8-point game there and the end. If you score, get a touchdown and get an extra point — or a 2-point conversion to have an opportunity to go to a tie.”

The Ducks lost their chance to tie following a lost fumble and a 7-yard run by OSU quarterback Drew Mestemaker on third-and-three to ice the game and secure the 39-31 upset that sent Lanning and his Ducks toppling down the rankings on Sunday morning.

Lanning and Oregon went 0-for-3 on fourth down in the opener against Boise State. The Ducks passed for a loss of 2 yards on fourth-and-2, then rushed for 0 yards on fourth-and-1 before throwing an incomplete deep pass on fourth-and-2.

That probably sounds a little familiar given Oklahoma State’s 2-of-6 success rate on fourth down at Tulsa when the Cowboys went 1-of-5 on fourth-and-1 situations, specifically.

“We’ve had fourth-and-inches in two games here than I’ve had maybe in my whole entire tenure as a head coach,” coach Eric Morris said. “I get so stressed out now because I mean, someone needs to do a stat on that for next week when we have the press conference. How many fourth-and-ones we’ve had in two games.”

On Saturday, Oklahoma State faced fourth-and-2 at the end of the opening drive, following quarterback Drew Mestemaker’s 75-yard run. Last week, Morris would have left the offense out without hesitation, but this time he broke his own tendencies.

“I just thought it was important today, even early in the game, for us to run off and like we scored points, and hey, we did something good, like against a really good team,” Morris said.

Oklahoma State settled for a field goal from the 2-yard line, which gave OSU the early lead. The Cowboys faced fourth-and-1 from their own 34-yard-line later in the first quarter. Morris left the offense out there, and they successfully lured the Ducks offside for a free play, which resulted in a pass interference call for the first down.

Morris settled for a field goal when the Cowboys faced fourth-and-goal from the 6-yard line early in the third quarter. That decision put OSU back up by 10 points.

Morris left the offense out once again on fourth-and-1 at the Oregon 43-yard line with the Cowboys clinging to a 3-point lead in the final minutes of the third quarter. Running back Caleb Hawkins rushed for six, and the drive resulted in a 44-yard field goal to put the team back up by six points.

OSU went for it on fourth-and-4 early in the fourth quarter. An Oregon facemask penalty gave the Cowboys a first down, and that drive went down in everyone’s memory as the moment OSU’s QB proved he could fly for the touchdown that put the Cowboys back up by five.

This score also seems to be the one that broke Lanning, who went for it on fourth-and-8 from his own 33-yard line with about seven minutes left in the game. At the time, the Ducks still trailed by five.

This decision followed two other failed fourth-down conversions by the Ducks, including an incompletion on fourth-and-1 at the Oregon 47-yard line in the first quarter and a 5-yard sack recorded by OSU defensive end Jaleel Johnson when the Ducks faced fourth-and-seven from the OSU 43 in the third quarter.

“There in the fourth, the idea is that you get more than half of it back on third down,” Lanning said. “But on the same note, when you’re looking at less than three or four minutes in a game, you have to be aggressive when you know you need a touchdown.

“Ultimately, had we stopped them consistently on defense? No. I think you have to be more aggressive. You go back and say, ‘Okay, on third down, can we find a play that gets us four yards or gets us half of it back?’ We didn’t do that.”

OSU safety Mose Phillips gets credit for the pass breakup on third downs there while Johnson and Isaiah Chisom share credit for hurrying Oregon quarterback Dante Moore’s fourth-down incompletion.

Five plays later, Morris found himself staring down fourth-and-1 from the Oregon 13-yard line with just under four to play. A touchdown would secure the win, but Morris decided to take the 31-yard field goal and go up by eight points.

Following the win, Morris explained that he threw the analytics “book” out for Saturday’s game. It was a big change for Morris, who said he used it every time he made a call to go or punt in 2025.

“I just didn’t go off the book today near as much, just all gut and feeling on where I thought we were,” Morris said. “That was a good team. And some of those points last week, we had some great drives last week, and I thought it deflated us a bit with where we’re at, and we’re growing as a team when we run off with no points. … I think it allowed us to get the fans into it and really gave us home-field advantage.”