Oregon granted surprising, generous ranking after loss to new No. 3 Indiana

In Week 8's AP Poll released Sunday the Ducks rank No. 8 after their 30-20 home loss to Indiana, which climbed to No. 3 behind Ohio State and Miami.

Despite getting dominated in Autzen Stadium (outgained 104-15 in the fourth quarter) AP voters placed the defending Big Ten Champions ahead of Georgia and LSU.

After Saturday's loss Dan Lanning told reporters that every goal the Ducks had for this season is still in front of them. "Our players know that. They recognize what's in front of them. It's about improvement, it's about going on the attack. It's hard to go unscathed in college football, especially against a good team. They played a better game than us, they were better coached today. Our guys recognize that every one of our goals is still in front of us with an opportunity to attack."

Indeed, at 5-1 and ranked No. 8 the Ducks have the path to a playoff spot directly in front of them. In fact, if the playoffs were to begin today they'd host a home playoff game, much like Penn State and Ohio State did a year ago.

Right now, they can't look any further than Monday's practice and a road trip to Rutgers. Oregon's best win so far is a 34-14 road win at 4-2 Northwestern.

It could be worse. Penn State fired James Franklin today and the Beavers fired Trent Bray after an 0-6 start.

The analogy to OSU's run last year gets strained, however. That Buckeye team had a nucleus of veteran players and NFL prospects, and after their loss to Michigan late in the year they summoned a focused anger and sense of purpose.

Nothing like that was evident in the Ducks yesterday, but it's up to the players and coaches to create it. The mission is to come together and improve execution while making some honest assessments about the team's identity and strengths.