Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola takes responsibility after poor performance against UCLA
Dylan Raiola acknowledged his mistakes following a low-output game versus UCLA, while backup Brock Thomas nearly led a comeback, prompting questions about the Ducks' quarterback situation.
Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola accepted full responsibility for a difficult outing in Saturday's loss to UCLA, in which he completed six of 19 passes for 43 yards and threw two interceptions. After the game, Raiola addressed the media, saying, "I’ve got a younger brother, and he looks up to me. This isn’t just football. This is life. Tough situations happen, and you gotta own them. There’s no running around, and there’s no dodging them. Product we put out there, the product I put out there is ... I gotta live with that."
He added that he needed to improve his decision-making, noting, "I was reckless with the ball today. You can’t win football games like that."
Backup quarterback Brock Thomas, a former three-star prospect from Sheldon High School, entered the game and completed 11 of 15 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown, bringing the Ducks close to a potential comeback. Raiola commented on the competition at the position, stating, "Brock’s my boy, and I’m not gonna ... if we’re trying to spark something to get us going, I just wanna win. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the plans to lead us down the stretch. But I don’t know, I can’t speak on that right now. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like. I want to think it was just that, we’re gonna try it and spark something. But we’ll see. The game of football is all about competition, and that’s what it is. We’ve gotta be ready to go next week."