Dan Lanning responds to Oklahoma State claim of Oregon offensive tells

Football is a tough game, but it gets a lot easier when you know what the other team is planning to do.

When a defense can line up and predict with near certainty that a run is coming, your chances of stopping it go up. On the same note, if you feel sure that a pass is coming because of a tip or tendency from the other team, you’re probably going to have an easier time defending it.

That’s been a problem for the Oregon Ducks, not just this year, but going back to the 2025 season as well. On Saturday, after Oregon’s 39-31 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys, opposing linebacker Tate Romney revealed that through film study, the Cowboys were able to key in on the Ducks‘ tells, identifying a run or pass before it came.

“We were noticing earlier in the week that their offensive line had tendencies that helped us key into run (or) pass and a couple areas we could take advantage of,” Romney said. “Obviously, our defensive line was keyed into that. That was one big thing that gave us a big advantage.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this about an Oregon team. Last year, Indiana Hoosiers‘ linebacker Aiden Fisher talked about their ability to figure out the Ducks’ plays pre-snap based on alignment and stances.

Feels like something that needs to be fixed, no?

“In general, you have tendencies at times that’ll show up,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said on Monday night. “We have to do a better job policing that for sure. Something we have to search and make sure we do a good job of. You know, that’s something we have to be better at. Really simple. On the same note, there’s going to be times based on looks that you have more tells than others, and sometimes you can take advantage and use those. So you want to sell certain looks for certain things. But I’d say that’s something we can be better at. You know, one of the things we definitely addressed after the game.”

After the Oklahoma State game, fans online dove into the tape and found that quarterback Dante Moore has a tendency to change his pre-snap stance based on a run or a pass: both feet even towards the line typically leads to a run, while one foot dropped back was usually a pass.

Whether that “tip” had a perfect hit rate is unknown, but it was undoubtedly enough to give the Cowboys a leg up in their game-planning. Oregon totaled just 281 yards in the game, including just 90 on the ground.

While this is undoubtedly an issue that needs to get fixed, the bright side for the Ducks is that they have time to do so. The season is still young, and with a 1-1 record, Oregon has a tune-up game against Portland State this Friday before going down to Los Angeles for a pivotal showdown with the USC Trojans.

You can bet that a lot of attention is going to be paid to Moore’s feet early on in that one.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Dan Lanning responds to Oklahoma State claim of Oregon offensive tells