Merciless football fans piled in on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore after his nightmare first half against Indiana Hoosiers in the college football playoff semifinal.
Moore is widely expected to be picked by the struggling New York Jets when the NFL Draft comes around in late April, with Aaron Glenn’s team holdind the second pick in the first round and in urgent need of a quarterback to lead the franchise.
But the millions of fans watching Oregon on Friday night felt that Moore proved that the Jets are destined for more misery with him at signal caller, as the 20-year-old fluffed his lines on the big stage in Atlanta.
The Hoosiers went ahead with a pick-six just 11 seconds into the game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with defensive back D’Angelo Ponds intercepting the pass from Moore and racing 25 yards into the endzone.
It was the worst possible start for Oregon and for Moore, whose nerves seemed to blow up from the error.
In the second quarter, with his team trailing 14-7, Moore feigned the handoff to his running back before fumbling the throw, less than 10 yards out from his own endzone.
Oregon quarterback Dante Moore had a nightmare first half against Indiana Hoosiers
The Hoosiers claimed the loose ball and rival quarterback Fernando Mendoza duly walked out onto the field and picked out Elijah Sarratt in the end zone with a dart.
It meant that Moore was going viral for all the wrong reasons by the time the game hit halftime, with his links to the Jets only encouraging fans.
‘Dante Moore is ready to be a New York Jet,’ wrote the popular ‘NFL Memes’ account.
Fox Sports radio host Jon Weiner posted: ‘If you want to know what Dante Moore’s rookie season will look like on the Jets. It’s this.’
A different fan joked that Moore might be trying to scare the Jets off with his performance, saying: ‘Dante Moore doing everything he can to avoid being drafted by the Jets and I can’t really blame him.’
Fifth seed Oregon were 35-7 down at halftime, with widely anticiapated No. 1 Draft pick Fernando Mendoza not needing to do too much to lead his side against Moore’s error-strewn rivals.Â
Mendoza is set to be taken by the Las Vegas Raiders, who inherited the first pick for 2026 after going 3-14 in the AFC West.
The team, where Tom Brady is a minority owner, fired head coach Pete Carroll a day after their last game of the season, where they beat the Kansas City Chiefs.Â
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Ruthless NFL fans crown Dante Moore ‘next New York Jets quarterback’ after nightmare in college football semifinal