Three major takeaways from Oregon’s No. 4 spot in College Football Playoff ranking

Does Oregon control its own destiny? Is the Stanford loss deemed excusable? Those, and other takeaways from Ducks’ No. 4 ranking.

The Stanford Loss is Explainable

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said something on Tuesday night ahead of the release of the ranking that was tough to swallow for Duck fans. He noted that while Oregon may have the single best win of any team in the nation — Week 2 vs. Ohio State — they may also have one of the worst losses of any top-25 team — on the road vs. Stanford.

While it may be bad, the committee seemed to say on Tuesday night that it may not be as damaging as we may have believed. Stanford is unranked with a 3-5 record and a last-place standing in the Pac-12 North, but if you’re willing to give Oregon an excuse for that loss, there are a couple that are readily available.

For starters, we can now feel comfortable with the fact that missing offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead likely played a bigger factor than we believed at the time. Since that game, Oregon has had some offensive success at long last, and the game-plans and playcalling have been impressive. So you think that not having your OC or QB coach late in a close game doesn’t play a major factor? It definitely did.

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Outside of that, you never want to blame a game on the referees, but it’s impossible not to look at that outcome and say that the zebras played a part in the loss. A missed false start on the final drive kept Stanford alive, and a very questionable pass-interference call on Oregon gave Stanford an untimed down to send it into overtime. On top of that, Kayvon Thibodeaux was suspectly ejected from the game for a bogus targeting call.

If that wasn’t enough, take into account that Oregon was playing its first game without safety Bennett Williams, who suffered a freak injury in practice the day before, and also lost all-conference RB CJ Verdell in the second half of the game.

Yes, excuses are excuses, but sometimes they factor into the reason a team won or lost a game. It seems that the committee thinks Oregon at full strength would have beat Stanford and still be undefeated at this point in the season.

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