The Oregon Ducks are broken. 

The Ducks didn't even need style points against Illinois to attempt to slowly crawl back into the College Football Playoff conversation after starting the season with a 4-2 record. They just needed to get a win, with contests against No. 24 Northwestern and No. 3 Ohio State coming up in their next two games.

The Buckeyes would have been a much more likely win with news coming out this week that quarterback Julian Sayin is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury. 

Instead, Oregon came out flat against Illinois before losing 21-10 on the road. The 10 points the Ducks scored were tied for the least points the Illini had given up this season. The other program? Southern Illinois.

The offensive effort was another embarrassing showing for the Ducks. AS Matt Fortuna of Sports Business Journal noted, the Ducks have scored a total of 83 points in their first four Big Ten contests. That trails the 84 points Oregon put up when it tried to make a statement against Portland State a week after losing to Oklahoma State.

It wasn't for a lack of yards that Oregon couldn't score. The Ducks had more total yards than Illinois (426-314). 

Oregon couldn't convert drives into points. Dylan Raiola threw for 246 yards but lost one of  his two fumbles. Kicker Gage Hurych went 1 of 4 on field goal attempts. His only make was a chip shot.

The loss to Illinois is a new low for Oregon this season. The Illini defense has not been stellar this fall and made a change at defensive coordinator earlier in the season after a blowout loss to Ohio State.

The Ducks fell to 4-3 with the loss on Saturday. Even if Oregon wins out, making the College Football Playoff seems a little out of reach. It's a stunning result after the Ducks entered the season ranked No. 2 with a roster that was expected to compete for a national championship.

Quarterback Dante Moore has not played since he was injured in Oregon's 41-27 win over USC. However, it's unclear how much of the Ducks' woes are due to the quarterback situation. Frankly, Raiola played the hero in the win over the Trojans.

The Ducks are playing for pride the rest of the way. They'll host NW next week in a bid to avoid going .500 before playing the Buckeyes.