PASADENA, Calif. -- As the time on the clock dripped away and the winner's podium full of red roses was being wheeled onto the field, Oregon was experiencing something it hadn't faced all season: a loss.
After going 13-0 in the regular season, beating Ohio State in October and winning the Big Ten championship nearly a month ago, the Ducks could only watch as the Buckeyes lined up in victory formation and sealed the result: a dominating, 41-21 win in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential that ended Oregon's season in a flash and prompted questions about how the top team in the nation could be beaten in such fashion.
"They clicked tonight and we didn't," coach Dan Lanning said. "I didn't get our team prepared. When you play a great team like Ohio State, you can't not be clicking on all cylinders and they were clicking on all cylinders."
Over the course of 60 minutes, Oregon was outgained 500-276 in total yards, outscored 34-8 in the first half, and never appeared to have a chance at keeping the score close. From the opening kickoff, Ohio State appeared to be playing at a different speed, one that Oregon could not handle.
Despite the result, Lanning was uninterested in making excuses. As he explained postgame, his team couldn't get going on offense (the Ducks had four three-and-outs in the first half) and couldn't stop Ohio State's explosive plays (the Buckeyes had four touchdowns of 40 yards or more) on defense.
"We haven't faced a lot of moments like that this year," Lanning said. "Obviously [Ohio State] is a team that has the ability to win it all."
When asked if Oregon's layoff of 25 days between its last game in the Big Ten championship and Wednesday contributed to Ohio State jumping out to a 34-0 lead, Lanning balked at the notion.
"I think that's an excuse. I thought our guys prepared well going in," Lanning said. "[The layoff was] an opportunity that we had to recharge. I thought our guys did practice well. I'd tell you if that wasn't the case, I thought they had a great focus. I just don't think our plan was good enough and I think they had a great plan to attack us, so credit to those guys."
Lanning also wasn't interested in using the current format and seeding of the College Football Playoff bracket, which awards first-round byes to the highest-ranked conference champions, as an excuse.
In its debut, the 12-team playoff rewarded undefeated conference champion Oregon with a path to the title game that began with Ohio State in the quarterfinals. The Ducks were 2.5-point underdogs against the No. 6 in the country while Penn State, which lost to Oregon in the conference title game, was favored against No. 10 SMU and No. 9 Boise State on its path to the semifinals.
"We had an opportunity. We didn't take advantage of our opportunity. I'm not going to make excuses for our opportunity," Lanning said. "Ultimately, you got to beat great teams to be in position at the end of the year and we didn't do that. This is the road that we had to travel and they did it better than us tonight. So no complaints for us for having that opportunity. They just took advantage of it and we didn't."
Unlike Ohio State and every other highly ranked team this year, Oregon did not have a chance to bounce back from a loss. The Ducks' spotless record afforded them the title of best team in the country week after week, but it also exposed them to the possibility of their first loss ending their season. Compiling 13 victories loses some of its luster if you fail to win the title.
Though Lanning repeatedly said Wednesday that he didn't want to take anything from his program's achievements this year, he pointed out that the current playoff format emphasizes playing your best late in the season, which Ohio State has done after its shocking loss to Michigan. When asked to explain how the Buckeyes, who lost to the unranked Wolverines, had just dominated Oregon, Lanning shrugged.
"Sometimes, it's not your day," Lanning said. "It wasn't our day today."