Kryptonite. The make-believe substance in the DC comics makes Superman’s powers weak or useless. That's exactly what Washington has been to the Dan Lanning/Bo Nix Era of Oregon football.

The pair have now gone 0-3 against the rival Huskies. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and coach Kalen DeBoer have been a handful for the Ducks since they linked up in Seattle, and the Pac-12 championship game Friday night was no different.

Three points. That’s all it takes to win a football game. The Ducks have learned that the hard way. Each of the three meetings against the two programs since 2022 has resulted in a 3-point loss for the Ducks, with this 34-31 defeat in Las Vegas being the hardest to swallow.

“It was just a shocking end,” Nix said. “It’s tough when you’re so used to go, go, go, go. When it ends, it just happens very quickly. I got all the respect in the world for Michael [Penix Jr.]. He’s played his butt off this year. I respect him a lot because I know how it is to play through some adversity, to play when you’re not necessarily feeling your best. They battled in a lot of games down the stretch and they pulled them all out. So that’s a really good football team.”

Even after falling short against Washington in the regular season, many experts around the country believed that Oregon was the clear favorite on Friday (with the betting line setting the Ducks as 9.5-point favorites).

The Ducks and Huskies looked like very different teams since their mid-October meeting and that 36-33 Washington win in Seattle.

Oregon began annihilating teams while the Huskies often survived by the skin of their teeth. In this game, that’s the type of experience that was needed.

Another hard-fought, battle-to-the-end type game was expected for the Pac-12 championship. With all the implications on the line and the history between the two schools, everyone knew it would come down to the end.

And that’s exactly what happened. Washington (13-0) took an early command with a 20-3 lead in the second quarter. Oregon (11-2) found a way to regain momentum. But in the end, the Huskies again proved to be too much for the Ducks to handle.

“We were good on fourth down tonight, but we were 3 of 10 on third down,” Lanning said. “They were 10 of 15. You got to be better on third down. You have to be able to establish the run. Last time we played these guys, we were able to run the ball. We didn’t have that success tonight. They’ve been good in critical moments. We didn’t finish.”

The record doesn’t look good between Lanning and DeBoer. The coaches both joined their respective schools ahead of the 2022 season and have crossed paths now three separate times. With a two-season sample size, DeBoer is clearly ahead.

Back when the two first faced off in their inaugural season, the Huskies won by a late field goal to break the tie with less than a minute remaining for a 37-34 win.

This regular season game this year came down to a Rome Odunze touchdown with 1:38 remaining to go up by – yep, three points -- before kicker Camden Lewis missed a potential game-tying field goal in the final seconds.

And in taking another three-point loss Friday night, the Ducks were simply outworked this time.

Despite Oregon making a comeback attempt, and even taking its first lead of the game, 24-20 late in the third quarter, Washington had control and did not look phased whatsoever.

“We can’t bow our heads down," linebacker Jeffrey Bassa said. “We’ve got to keep going. We made so many improvements from the team last year. That was something we brought up in the locker room. We’ve made so many improvements from a defensive standpoint. Being a top-10 rated defense, a better-tackling defense, better at attacking the ball, little things like that. The sky’s the limit for us. I fully believe this program is going to be amazing in the coming years.”

Oregon came in with a game plan of trying to make Penix Jr. as uncomfortable as possible while simultaneously not letting the run game be a factor. Not only was he his normal self via the air (319 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT), but the Huskies' run game couldn’t be stopped. The Ducks gave up 157 yards on the ground, which is the most they’ve given up since allowing 174 to Texas Tech in Week 2.

“You can’t take away one guy because they have other guys,” Lanning said. “I thought they did a good job in protection tonight. We tried to be aggressive at times with pressure. They probably made us pay for that. Didn’t have the tight matches that we needed in the back end. They finished. We didn’t.”

Things weren’t clicking offensively either. Bo Nix finished with a season-low 61.8 completion percentage (previous season-low was 72%). Bucky Irving was stifled to just 20 yards on the ground. Even Troy Franklin didn’t look like himself, finishing with 4 catches for 34 yards despite being targeted 9 times.

“They had hats in the box. There were some times I thought we could have been running the ball into some positive looks,” Lanning said. “And for whatever reason, we weren’t able to do that. You know, they played well, I think you have to give credit to them.”

Nix had the chance to regain momentum after a rare Penix interception gave Oregon the ball with good field position in the third quarter. Instead, Nix too threw an uncharacteristic interception two plays later. Again, he would eventually push the Ducks briefly into the lead, but enough missed opportunities throughout the night proved too much to overcome in the end.

“You wish you could go back and do so many different things,” Nix said. “That’s what is the good and bad thing about any kind of competition, any kind of sports, is there has to be a loser. As bad as it feels, that’s why you play the game. That’s why you go out there and put it all out there, not be ashamed to do it. I think one of my critical errors was the turnover. We had a chance to go right back and score. They just gave us one. I gave it right back, so … it’s those kind of things that just leaves you scratching your head.”

The Ducks scored their first touchdown with just 9 seconds left in the first half and had two three-and-outs to begin the game. When needed the most, the offense failed to get off to a hot start.

“You just can’t start off slow against a really good team — we obviously started out slow,” Lanning said. “They won a lot of critical situations as far as third down. 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.”

On paper, Oregon had what it takes to win this game, last game, and even the game in 2022. But for whatever the reason may be, DeBoer has Lanning figured out so far.

The two coaches will get the opportunity to face off next season and years after within the new Big Ten. Lanning continues to have a clear advantage in recruiting and level of talent, but some sort of change needs to be made to get Oregon back on track against its most bitter rivals.