Oregon Ducks QB Dante Moore Continues to Progress Behind the Scenes

Oregon is doing its best to piece together wins in the absence of its quarterback, Dante Moore. 

This season has largely been a massive disappointment for Oregon, pretty much from start to finish. They were nearly upset by Boise State, they were upset by Oklahoma State, and then against USC, their chances came crashing down when quarterback Dante Moore was literally knocked out. 

With all that said, the Ducks are now 1-1 in his absence, with a terrible seven-turnover loss to UCLA. However, they are still alive, and the postseason is still attainable if they can continue to tread water.

As they head east for a matchup with the Illinois Fighting Illini, they will be riding the hot hand (maybe the warm hand) of Dylan Raiola, who completed the comeback against his old team last week against Nebraska. 

While that is the approach for this week, in the background, Dante Moore continues to progress.

On3's Pete Nakos reported this week that Moore is continuing to pick up his practice workload as he tries to work his way back from the concussion.

With that being a reality, head coach Dan Lanning continues to preach caution with Moore's return, and the truth is that there is a very realistic possibility that the Ducks never see him again on the field.

One more loss on the year, and Moore could very easily just turn his attention to the NFL and not risk any longer-term injuries that would further hurt his draft stock going into next season.

The flip side of that coin is also true. If the Ducks can win this weekend against Illinois, then it sets up a two-week stretch of two games that could get them back into the Playoff conversation. 

A Halloween game against the No. 24 Northwestern Wildcats before the potential game of the year against the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus for everything. 

Who knows if Moore will return for either game, but if the Ducks can beat both ranked opponents, they will be near the top-12 with a legitimate case for the College Football Playoff.

Those are all future state issues. The issue at hand right now is Illinois, with a struggling but maybe confident backup quarterback to get the win. If it goes well this weekend, maybe sooner rather than later we get to see No. 5 back on the field for the Ducks.