Oregon coach Dan Lanning on Ducks’ late 12-men penalty vs. Ohio State: ‘This is one that was something we had obviously worked on’

There appears to have been a method behind Oregon’s late 12-man madness against Ohio State.

The Ducks were called for a penalty for too many men on the field with 10 seconds to go in their 32-31 win over Ohio State in a play that ended up giving Ohio State five yards in exchange for four seconds running off the clock.

After Oregon called a timeout, DB Dontae Manning ran onto the field late and became the 12th man on the field as he joined the area where three Ohio State receivers had lined up. OSU QB Will Howard threw to the other side of the field, but the pass fell incomplete with six seconds to go.

On the next play, Howard appeared to lose track of how much time was actually remaining and scrambled up the middle. By the time he slid to the ground to call timeout, time had expired and Oregon got the win.

Monday, Oregon coach Dan Lanning was asked about the penalty. Though he didn’t explicitly confirm that Oregon purposely added a 12th player onto the field, it sure seems like the penalty was on purpose.

“There was a timeout before that — we spend an inordinate amount of time on situations,” Lanning said with a slight smile. “There’s some situations that don’t show up very often in college football but this is one that obviously was something we had worked on. So you can see the result.”

Oregon could afford to take the five-yard penalty as a potential worst-case scenario in that instance because Ohio State was facing a 3rd and 25 and was so far out of field goal range that five yards wouldn’t have gotten the Buckeyes close enough to try a long kick. Of course, adding an extra defender doesn’t ensure the offense won’t get a big play, but it’s a decent hedge.

Especially with the clock rules in college football. Unlike the NFL, the clock is not reset to where it was before the snap when a 12-men penalty is assessed. Oregon’s staff knew that the time would not be added to the clock and that Ohio State would likely only have enough time for one more play even if it got five free yards. Four seconds for five yards is a great trade.

The solution to prevent more teams from exploiting the loophole is for college football to change the way the penalty is enforced and add the time back to the clock. But that won’t happen until after the season at the earliest. And Oregon’s coaching staff deserves a bunch of credit for realizing how they could bleed seconds off the clock at Ohio State’s expense to get the win.