Oregon beat USC 41–27 on Saturday, and I’m still disgusted by what happened in that game. As someone who has loved the Ducks my entire life, I should be enjoying a win at the Coliseum. Instead, I keep coming back to Dante Moore needing medical attention and Desman Stephens II celebrating after the hit that put him there.
CBS Sports reports that Moore suffered a concussion, with no additional injury believed present. He will undergo concussion protocol, and there is no immediate timeline for his return.
There is some relief in that report after the frightening scene Saturday night. But I’m certainly not going to attach the word “only” to a concussion or start penciling Moore into a future starting lineup. Let him recover. The football schedule can wait.
USC, meanwhile, has announced exactly how long Stephens will sit. The school suspended him for one game, against Washington on October 3, and released apologies and statements Sunday.
One game feels woefully inadequate to me.
Stephens was ejected for targeting after hitting Moore as the Oregon quarterback slid in the second quarter. Moore stayed down, eventually leaving on a stretcher before an ambulance took him to the hospital. Stephens’ celebration afterward compounded an already awful scene.
I can accept that football produces collisions that look terrible even when nobody intended to hurt anybody. I can listen to an argument about the timing of a slide or how little time a defender has to react. I don’t have to agree with every argument to understand that these plays happen fast.
What I cannot stomach is the celebration.
When the other player stays down and medical personnel come onto the field, whatever adrenaline is running through you has to give way to an awareness of what is happening a few yards away. That expectation should be embarrassingly easy to meet.
My Oregon loyalty makes this personal. Of course it does. I care about Dante Moore, and seeing him leave the game that way made me angry and worried. I’m not going to dress that up as detached analysis. But I would be ashamed to see an Oregon player behave the same way toward a USC quarterback. Wearing my team’s colors would make the behavior harder to accept.
Stephens addressed his reaction in Sunday’s apology, saying, “there is no justification for smiling or celebrating while another player receives medical attention.” Lincoln Riley called his actions “unacceptable.”
Nobody needs to speculate about Stephens’ private thoughts to criticize conduct he has publicly acknowledged. I hope the apology is sincere and that he carries that lesson into every game he plays from here.
But USC’s announcement offers no explanation of why one game is an adequate consequence. If Riley wants fans to understand how seriously his program takes this, he should explain how USC arrived at that decision.
A suspension can’t undo an injury, and its length shouldn’t become a contest in which angry fans compete to demand the harshest punishment. Still, I think a single game falls short given the hit and the conduct that followed. Calling the behavior unacceptable invites scrutiny of what the program does about it.
I’m proud of how Oregon finished the game. The Ducks lost their starting quarterback under frightening circumstances, turned to Dylan Raiola and still beat a ranked opponent by two touchdowns on the road. They improved to 3–1.
On Sunday, Oregon climbed five spots, from No. 20 to No. 15 in the AP Top 25, while USC dropped six places to No. 18. The Ducks also moved from No. 16 to No. 15 in the US LBM Coaches Poll.
Those players had a game to finish while their teammate was being taken to a hospital, and they finished it. As a lifelong fan, I can appreciate what they accomplished and still feel sick about what happened to Moore. Moving up five spots doesn’t make that scene any easier to watch.
Oregon has a bye before hosting UCLA on October 10. That gives the team a break in its schedule, but it gives fans no basis for assuming Moore will be ready when the Ducks return to Autzen.
He doesn’t owe us a quick return because Oregon is climbing the polls. He doesn’t need strangers treating an encouraging report as permission to rush him back.
I want to enjoy watching Dante Moore play football again. Whenever that happens, I want it to be because he is ready and medically cleared.
