LAS VEGAS -- For the second time this season and third time in the last two years, Oregon came up just short by another three-point margin against rival Washington on Friday night in the Pac-12 championship game.

The No. 5-ranked Ducks fell into an early 17-point hole and rallied all the way back to take the lead at the end of the third quarter, but the No. 3 Huskies -- as they have all season -- found a way to close it out for a 34-31 win inside Allegiant Stadium.

With that, 13-0 Washington stamped its ticket to the College Football Playoff while the Ducks (11-2) will be on the outside looking in while reflecting on the one team and two games it couldn't solve this year.

"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," Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. "But I have to give credit to Washington and Coach DeBoer. They did a great job, they had a good plan, executed well, but I'm hurting for the guys in that locker room."

Watch Lanning's full postgame press conference here and scroll down for a complete transcript of his postgame comments.

Opening comments ...

"I thought our guys fought for the entire game, four quarters. You just can't start off slow against a really good team, and we obviously started off slow. 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."

What's going through your mind right now?

"Really nothing just about this game. 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 DeBoer. They did a great job, they had a good plan, executed well, but I'm hurting for the guys in that locker room."

What do you say about how your defense played tonight?

"Well, I mean, we were in the game, but we didn't play well enough. We didn't play well enough on either side of the ball to be able to win against a good team. We certainly had a chance all the way down to that very last minute and I appreciate our guys fight and effort for that, but starting off slow hurt us."

What happened to the run defense in the fourth quarter?

"I'll have to go watch the film and see exactly what happened, but we were putting an extra hat in the box there at the hand and they were breaking for extra yards. They had some successful runs. We didn't have their number -- they had ours."

How much of an impact did Jordan Burch getting hurt early impact that?

"Jordan Burch is a great player, he certainly makes us better, but that would be an excuse. Nobody's playing healthy at this point of the season. They're banged up too and we didn't finish."

What did you think of Bo Nix's performance?

"I think it just speaks to who Bo is. He obviously brought us back there to be within one score there at the end. His explosive run showed his legs. I thought the guy ran extremely tough tonight. The opportunities he had to run, he put his head down and did everything he could to get the first or get explosive plays. He made some elite throws -- that last throw in 2-minute was really special. So, Bo did what I've seen him do all season. He competed until the very end. He handled some adversity and when he set in he responded to that. Walking away, three touchdowns, a really long run, I'm impressed with our quarterback."

What are you going to miss the most about the Pac-12?

"Well, just the competition. This was a great year for this conference. I think you saw a lot of really good football in this conference this year, and that's the piece you'll miss."

What didn't work for your run game?

"I thought they had a good plan, they had hats in the box. There was some times I thought we could have been running he ball into some positive looks, and for whatever reason we weren't able to do that. They played well. I think you have to give credit to them. I'd have to dive into the film to be able to give you better answers."

Nix was at 62-percent passing, what made this a tougher night accuracy-wise for him?

"I mean, the guy threw for three touchdowns. I thought Bo had a good performance. Again, we started off slow early in this game. To have two three-and-outs to start the game off, that put us in a whole, we were playing catchup a lot of the game. We talked about it at halftime, hey, we're going to go score a touchdown here, defense is going to get a stop and we're going to get an opportunity to pull ahead. We did just that -- we just didn't maintain that lead. Our quarterback gave us a chance tonight."

What was working in the middle of the game when you guys scored 21 unanswered?

"I thought we found some positive runs there to where we could get a little bit more of a rhythm. We were off-schedule in the first half. When you're operating at second-and-10 and now it becomes third-and-long, you know, that drive out of half to be able to convert two fourth downs was huge. But once we got behind a little bit more we had to be a little bit more aggressive in the passing game. It wasn't going to be a game where we could necessarily run it. But you have to establish the run a little bit earlier to have that success."

What do you say to the committee as to why this Oregon team still deserves to be ranked in the top 6?

"At the end of the day, not really for me to decide. I think everybody saw our guys fight out there. Like I said, they never threw in the towel, they worked their tails off this entire game. In a game we probably faced some adversity we haven't seen. We'd been down in some games this year by two scores. To be able to come back and respond, again, I think this team's been playing really good ball throughout the season. Finishing off on that note, that's kind of a sour taste in our mouth, for sure, but I'm excited to see what bowl game we get. I know we'll get a great one and have a great team to go compete against."

What was the strategy on when to use Bucky Irving vs. Jordan James?

"Yeah, just trying to find a rhythm. Both those guys are really good players. Jordan certainly had some successful runs, and they were certainly clued in when Bucky was in the game that he was going to be touching the ball. I'll have to go back and look at the film to see what existed there, but you've got two talented players, you want to figure out how to use them both."

When you were leaving the field, you stopped and turned and looked back -- what was going through your head?

"Just thinking about our players. I just want to be around our players and let them know how proud I am of them, grab a couple guys to make sure ... there's disappointment in that locker room because of how hard these guys worked. I haven't been around a team that works this hard. Hurt for them because I wanted them to have this one. But again, credit to Washington -- they earned it, they deserved it, they played a four quarter game. We probably played the last three quarters. We didn't start off very well in the first quarter."

What makes their WRs so hard to defend?

"You can't take away one guy because they have other guys. I thought they did a good job in protection tonight. We tried to be aggressive at times with pressure and they probably made us pay for that. Didn't have the tight matches we needed on the back end and they finished -- we didn't, right? There was times we were hitting them, getting really close, but the ball's getting off just before. They made some big-time explosive plays. We didn't have as many explosive plays offensively for us in this game, so credit to those guys."

How do you want this team to define this season?

"We want the standard to be that expectation. 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."

The three games vs. Washington the last two years, what has been the difference between the teams in that they've pulled them out?

"I'd say critical moments. We were good on fourth down tonight, but we were 3 of 10 on third down and they were 10 of 15. 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."

How challenging was it to be missing Jahlil Florence in the secondary and have Khyree Jackson in and out?

"That's a cop out for us. We have guys that practice really hard and prepare all week. You're banged up, it's that point of the season and they have talented players. We were going to challenge ourselves to be able to handle those players. When they're running the ball with the success they are, you have to load the box and that's going to put guys outside on islands a little bit. But I thought our guys came in and they competed. They just outplayed us tonight."

On the third-and-9 late there, it looked like a designed run for Bo that got stopped -- what was the thinking on that?

"They were in dime, so they were in a light box. We didn't pick up the movement well. When you're playing dime in a light box, that's an opportunity to have an advantageous run. We emptied the box with a bolt motion, so they had less hats in there than we did -- we had enough to block them up, we just didn't get it blocked properly and they made a great play."