LAS VEGAS -- Oregon quarterback Bo Nix was in an introspective state of mind after what might have been his final college football game Friday night.

When it ended, as Washington running back Dillon Johnson took a pitch for 18 yards on third-and-9 with less than a minute remaining, Nix sat motionless on the end of the Ducks bench with a towel over his head. He remained like that as the final seconds ticked off to seal the Huskies' 34-31 win in the Pac-12 championship game and as the other sideline erupted in celebration and streamed onto the field.

Nix had plenty on his mind as the No. 5-ranked Ducks (11-2) came up just short yet again to this Washington time -- the second loss this season and third in the last two seasons, all by 3 points -- and came up just short of what would have likely been a College Football Playoff berth.

"Football's a tough game, and sometimes you put it all out there and you come up short," Nix said afterward. "There at the end it was just one of those things where you want the moment to last longer than what it can, and even though we lost it was one of those type of games it was really fun to play in. It was just a shocking end. It's tough when you're so used to go, go, go, go, go to when it ends, it's like, it just happens very quickly. ...

"What sometimes hurts is when you put it all out there and it's still not good enough."

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Nix again did just that for the Ducks, as he has for two years now.

The Heisman Trophy candidate passed for 239 yards, 3 touchdowns and an interception and rushed for 69 yards in leading Oregon back from an early 20-3 deficit all the way to taking a 24-20 lead at the end of the third quarter.

When the No. 3-ranked Huskies pulled ahead again on a pair of long fourth quarter touchdown drives, leaving Oregon less than 3 minutes for a second rally, Nix at least gave the Ducks a shot. He got them in the end zone just two plays and 30 seconds later on a 63-yard catch-and-run touchdown over the middle to Traeshon Holden, to cut the deficit to 34-31 with 2:14 remaining.

Oregon just needed a stop to give its star quarterback one more chance ...

But it never came. A Ducks rushing defense that had been one of the best in the country all season had trouble all night Friday containing Johnson, who rushed for 152 yards and 2 touchdowns on 28 carries -- the last one providing the dagger as he took the pitch right, quickly cut up field while eluding a tackle and piercing through the seam of the defense for that final 18-yard scamper to seal it.

Nix wouldn't get a shot to script a more dramatic ending to his storybook season.

"I think that's why I'm in shock because I'm expecting a game next week and expecting to go prepare for another opponent. ... I'm going to miss college football. I know it was my goal my whole entire life to be a college quarterback and to play and to win a national championship. Even though that may be off the table -- it's not necessarily something that can be obtained anymore," Nix said, working through the moment and finding perspective in real time.

"... It's disappointing to lose in a game like this, obviously for many reasons, but I just think going into the game you don't prepare for losing because that would be a loser's mentality. So when it does happen it's just kind of puts you in shock and you just have to think about it and battle your feelings, battle those negative thoughts."

Nix said he has not made a decision yet on whether he will play in Oregon's bowl game and that this wasn't the moment to ponder that.

"Right now, I'm just going to enjoy the moments that I have with my teammates, and as crazy as it sounds, I'm going to enjoy this plane ride home with the guys because I've had many of them before but I'm not sure how many of them I'm going to have in front of me," he continued. "Just a lot of emotions, a lot going on that, man, you wish you could change, you wish you go could go back and do so many different things."

What Ducks coach Dan Lanning wished he could go back and change was how his team started the game.

Oregon started with three-and-outs on three of its first four possessions and just like that was down 20-3.

"You just can't start off slow against a really good team, and we obviously started off slow," Lanning said. "They won a lot of critical situations as far as third down. We thought third down was a place we had to be good. They were effective running the ball. We didn't do a good job stopping the run, and then we weren't able to run the ball. You've got to be able to run the ball in games like this."

It was an uncharacteristic game for the Ducks in that regard.

Bucky Iriving managed just 20 rushing yards on 9 carries while Jordan James added 35 yards and a touchdown on 5 carries. Oregon's rushing stats were buffered by Nix, who finished with 69 yards on the ground (most coming on a late 44-yard scamper).

And on the flip side, Washington's 157 rushing yards was its third-best total all season and the most the Ducks' normally stifling defense had given up since Week 2.

"Overall, it just comes down to execution. We didn't execute, we weren't in the right fits from what it seems like on the field," linebacker Jeffrey Bassa said. "I still have to look at the film, see what particularly went wrong, but it just came down to execution. That was really it."

Lanning also lamented the disparity in third down success. Much was made of Oregon going 0 for 3 on fourth downs in the 36-33 loss to Washington back in October -- this time the Ducks converted both of their fourth down tries but were just 3 of 10 on third down, while the Huskies converted 10 of 15 third downs.

"I'd say critical moments [were the difference]," Lanning said. "... You've got to be better on third down, you've got to be able to establish the run. The last time we played these guys we were able to run the ball. We didn't have that success tonight. But again, credit to them. They played good in critical moments and we didn't finish."

And yet, the Ducks still had every chance to win this one ...

Nix got Oregon moving on its final drive of the first half, starting with a 39-yard completion to Tez Johnson and ultimately a 2-yard touchdown toss to tight end Terrance Ferguson on third-and-goal with 9 seconds left.

Oregon got the ball to start the second half and went 75 yards in 10 plays for another touchdown, though it required both of those aforementioned fourth-down conversions. First, on fourth-and-5 from the Ducks' own 47, Nix found Troy Franklin for a 6-yard completion, and later on fourth-and-goal from the 2 he connected once more with Ferguson in the end zone to cut the deficit to 20-17, on a quick missile into a tight window while under immediate pressure in the backfield.

Surprisingly, both star quarterbacks then took turns throwing bad interceptions -- first Washington's Michael Penix (who passed for 319 yards and a touchdown overall) threw the ball to Oregon's Khyree Jackson while under pressure in the pocket, and then two plays later Nix was picked off on the sideline by Mishael Powell, either not seeing the defender or attempting to lob it out of bounds.

"They just gave us one and I gave it right back. It's those kind of things, it just leaves you scratching your head and just hurts," Nix said.

But the Ducks actually recovered well in that situation as the defense then forced Washington into a turnover on downs, first stuffing Johnson on third-and-1 and then Nikko Reed sacking Penix for a loss of 10 yards to the Oregon 38 on fourth down.

That's when the Ducks pounced for their only lead of the game, as Nix's 44-yard scamper down the left sideline set up an eventual 6-yard James touchdown run for a 24-20 advantage late in the third quarter.

Washington was ready for its own response, though.

First came a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that included a 31-yard completion from Penix to Jalen McMillan and ultimately a 1-yard Johnson touchdown run to retake the lead. And then after a quick Oregon punt, the Huskies reeled off a 12-play, 82-yard drive capped by a 2-yard Penix touchdown pass to Quentin Moore to make it a 34-24 game with 2:44 remaining.

Facing their most daunting adversity yet, with the season goals on the line, the Ducks needed to strike quickly to have a chance at coming up with the two scores needed.

Nix complied, connecting with Traeshon Holden over the middle for a 63-yard catch-and-run touchdown on the second play of the drive, making it 34-31. The Ducks just needed a stop to give Nix one more chance ...

But after Oregon burned two timeouts, Washington converted on third-and-4 as Penix hit McMillan on a quick strike before safety Evan Williams could to the spot to even try to contest. Then, on third-and-9 after the Ducks used their final timeout, Johnson finished them off with that 18-yard run.

"When Traeshon scored that touchdown it obviously gave the whole team a lot of confidence. The sideline was going up and down like that, so it's up to us on the defense to go out and get a stop and we failed to execute," Bassa said. "I think that's what the moral of the game was -- really just execution."

Said Lanning, "I know how hard our players worked, and I hate to see them finish on that note. I know we're going to get an opportunity for a great bowl game and I want to see those guys go out there and compete for that, but I have to give credit to Washington and coach [Kalen] DeBoer. They did a great job, they had a good plan, executed well, but I'm hurting for the guys in that locker room."

With back-to-back double-digit-win seasons for Lanning to start his Ducks tenure, the program has reestablished a solid foundation to build upon, even if it will have to replace keystones such as Nix, potentially Irving and wideouts Johnson and Troy Franklin, among others.

"We want the standard to be that expectation," Lanning said. "We have a high expectation for ourself. There's nobody outside of this room that wants us to do better than those guys in that locker room and these coaches. They know what we had this year -- we have a special group this year -- but it's a building block. We're in Year 2, it's an opportunity to build onto this and set the expectation for what it should look like in the future. And we've got an opportunity to go play in a really good bowl game and cap this thing off the right way."