Oregon shuts out Texas Tech 23–0 in Orange Bowl, advances to CFP semifinal vs. Indiana

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — On a sunlit New Year’s Day built for a track meet, Oregon turned the Capital One Orange Bowl into a grind.

The fifth-seeded Ducks, long associated with tempo and neon offenses, shut out No. 4 Texas Tech 23–0 on Thursday in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal at Hard Rock Stadium, silencing one of the nation’s most explosive attacks and advancing to a semifinal against No. 1 Indiana.

It was Oregon’s first shutout of an Associated Press top-10 opponent in program history and its first shutout of any ranked team since 2012. Texas Tech, which entered averaging 42.5 points per game, finished with none.

“They’ve earned this opportunity,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I told them go get their pound of flesh today. They did that today.”

Oregon improved to 13–1, matching the school record for wins in a season, and will face Indiana in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Jan. 9 in Atlanta. The Hoosiers handed Oregon its only loss of the season, 30–20 in Eugene in October.

Texas Tech ended its best season in school history at 12–2, with its first Big 12 championship since 1994 overshadowed by a long afternoon of stalled drives and missed chances on the sport’s biggest stage.

Ducks flip the script

All week, the matchup was billed as a clash of high-powered offenses. Instead, Oregon’s defense dictated nearly every snap.

Texas Tech managed 215 total yards and 10 first downs, going 4 for 19 on third down and committing four turnovers. The Red Raiders, who came in averaging 480.3 yards per game, never reached the end zone and crossed the Oregon 30-yard line only a handful of times.

“I believe we have the best defense in the country,” Oregon freshman cornerback Brandon Finney Jr. said.

Finney helped make that case. The true freshman finished with two interceptions and a fumble recovery, personally accounting for three of Texas Tech’s four giveaways. His red-zone interception early in the fourth quarter preserved a 16–0 lead and effectively ended any hope of a late Texas Tech rally.

Up front, edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei delivered the game’s pivotal sequence early in the third quarter. With Oregon clinging to a 6–0 lead, Uiagalelei beat his blocker around the edge, stripped quarterback Behren Morton from behind and scooped the ball on the run, returning it deep into Tech territory. On the next play, freshman running back Jordon Davison powered in from 6 yards out for the game’s first touchdown and a 13–0 advantage.

“Last week a lot of people talked about our defense,” Lanning said, a reference to Oregon’s 51–34 first-round win over James Madison. “They showed up today.”

Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire, who signed a contract extension through 2032 earlier this season, did not dispute it.

“Hats off to Dan Lanning. Hats off to the Oregon Ducks,” McGuire said. “Just an incredible football team. Texas Tech fans, I’m sorry that we let you down. I hope you’ve enjoyed every second of this year. Man, this was such a special team and I’m so proud of them. … I told Dan after the game I hope he wins the whole damn thing.”

Method over fireworks

Oregon’s offense was efficient rather than explosive, avoiding mistakes and leaning on field position created by its defense.

Quarterback Dante Moore, a projected high NFL draft pick, finished with 234 passing yards and no turnovers. The Ducks ran 81 plays to Texas Tech’s 62 and controlled the ball for roughly 38 minutes.

Davison provided the finishing touch twice. After his third-quarter score, he added a 1-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds remaining, capping an eight-play, 28-yard drive set up by another short field. He finished with 42 rushing yards on 15 carries.

Kicker Atticus Sappington did much of the scoring early. He connected from 50 yards in the first quarter and 39 yards late in the second as Oregon built a 6–0 halftime lead, then added a 43-yarder midway through the fourth quarter to make it 16–0.

The Ducks’ ability to steadily accumulate points while their defense smothered Texas Tech’s tempo attack shifted pressure steadily onto the Red Raiders’ offense, which never responded.

“We had a great game plan,” Morton said. “We just didn’t execute base plays.”

Morton completed 18 of 32 passes for 137 yards and was sacked multiple times. Running back J’Koby Williams led Texas Tech with 81 rushing yards, and tight end Terrance Carter Jr. had 72 receiving yards, but the Red Raiders failed to generate their usual explosive gains downfield.

Bye-week trend continues

The game also extended an emerging trend in the second year of the 12-team College Football Playoff: top-four seeds with first-round byes keep losing.

Texas Tech, the No. 4 seed and Big 12 champion, was one of four teams to skip the opening weekend under the format that grants byes to the highest-ranked conference champions. Fifth-seeded Oregon beat James Madison at home in the first round and carried that momentum into Miami.

Through two seasons of the expanded format, teams coming off byes are 0–6 in quarterfinal games, a combined record that has fueled questions about whether the layoff leaves them more rusty than rested against opponents already in playoff rhythm.

Lanning did not directly address the trend but said the Ducks felt sharper for having played two weeks earlier.

“Our guys thrive in big games. They thrive in those moments,” he said. “We got a chance to correct some things after James Madison, and you saw a better version of us today.”

Realignment, identity and what comes next

The result carried implications beyond the bracket.

For Oregon, the win underscored its role as a newly entrenched power in the Big Ten after leaving the Pac-12. The Ducks reached the inaugural CFP title game in the 2014 season as a representative of the now-dissolved Pac-12. Under Lanning, a former Georgia defensive coordinator, they have paired a familiar high-powered offense with a defense that ranked among the top units nationally in scoring and total yards allowed this season.

On Thursday, that defense traveled. It turned a neutral-site bowl in South Florida into a showcase for Big Ten-style depth and speed.

On the other sideline, Texas Tech’s loss did not erase what had been a breakthrough season for the Big 12 program. The Red Raiders won a conference title for the first time in more than three decades, reached the playoff for the first time and set a school record for victories. But the shutout provided a stark measure of the gap that still exists between rising contenders and the sport’s most complete rosters.

Thousands of Oregon fans in green and yellow made the cross-country trip to Miami, filling one side of Hard Rock Stadium. After the final whistle, Moore’s first move was to walk toward them and raise his helmet in acknowledgment.

The Ducks’ reward is a trip to Atlanta and a chance to avenge their only loss, this time with a national championship berth on the line. Indiana, which routed Alabama 38–3 in its quarterfinal, brings its own top-tier defense and an unbeaten record into the Peach Bowl.

Oregon left South Florida with the kind of result that resonates beyond one afternoon: a shutout of a top-four seed, a fresh layer of credibility for a defense that spent the season climbing the rankings, and the clearest possible path into the center of the national title race.