EUGENE, Ore. —was matter-of-fact.brought fire.tried to keep his message positive.The three Oregon seniors who addressed the Ducks in their locker room following Saturday's loss to Colorado took different tones. But each delivered a similar message — it's time to step up, and get this season back on track following the first consecutive UO defeats in nearly a decade.Players were quietly taking off their uniforms just after the 41-38 loss, waiting for UO coachto reach the locker room and address the team, when Brown stepped to the front of the room. He wasn't able to play Saturday, but he still tried to make an impact."Right now, we've got to decide if we're going to crumble, or push through this," Brown said. "And we've got to do it as a team."Coming off an encouraging week of practice, the Ducks were blitzed by the Buffaloes out of the gate Saturday. Oregon went three-and-out before punting on each of its first two drives; Colorado didn't punt until the second half, after building a 33-17 lead.Helfrich described the start as a "malaise," which didn't reflect the solid week of practice leading up to Saturday. Stanford used more choice words when addressing his teammates after the game."I've been trying to lead by example," Stanford said in an interview a few minutes later. "I guess I've got to be more vocal now."Stanford was frustrated by the execution of the offense, which only really got rolling during the third quarter. Oregon scored 21 straight points to take a 38-33 lead into the final period; the fourth quarter saw more frustration, with two punts and then an interception of's potential game-winning touchdown pass to"I think we're right there," said Stanford, whose diving, 16-yard reception got the Ducks into the red zone on their final possession. "With Nebraska (a week earlier), we had a chance to win and shot ourselves in the foot. This week we had a chance to win, and shot ourselves in the foot. We've just got to eliminate shooting ourselves in the foot."Ragin also described the Ducks as "close" to playing to their potential."It's just, something's not clicking right now," Ragin said. "We need to keep working, keep digging at it and eventually we'll get there."The fact we're not playing to our potential, that's pretty frustrating. It would be easy to give up and quit, but we still have a lot to play for. We have a lot of season left. We can come back, have a great week of practice and keep working."Ragin finished Saturday's game despite limping off the field twice and being attended to by athletic trainers. He and fellow inside linebackerteamed to stop two run plays for little to no gain late in the fourth quarter, contributing to a three-and-out by Colorado that gave the Ducks possession for their final, futile attempt at scoring.The late stops by the UO defense illustrated some encouraging adjustments made against a Buffaloes offense that, starting a backup quarterback, scored on six of its first seven possessions.It didn't seem lost on Ragin that Saturday's defeat occurred with a couple hundred alumni of the UO football program on hand for their reunion weekend, in conjunction with the athletic department's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Ragin said his message in the locker room Saturday, and going forward, will be a reminder of the groundwork laid by Ducks in the past to get Oregon football into the national elite — a designation the current team will need to fight frantically to retain."It's definitely time for the older guys to step up and show the way," Ragin said. "It's not just some magical jersey, that you put on and it's going to come out and get wins. It's built on years of hard work. It's built on years of struggle and sacrifice and people putting their lives into it. And we need to do this for all the people that came before us, and all the guys that are here right now."