Coaches and athletes are often more haunted by their failures than enraptured by their successes, so you can assume many associated with Oregon football will have nightmares over Vernon Adams' end zone overthrow of a wide-open Byron Marshall in the waning moments against Michigan State. While the accepted way to handle a postgame news conference is to insist a game never comes down to one play, if Adams was on target and Marshall made that grab, the college football firmament would be much different entering Week 3.

"What ifs?" are as much a part of how we digest sports as cheering and booing, and Spartans fans had a few from their trip to Eugene a year ago. Yet after the scab picking, you then look forward and put things into perspective. As Michigan State knows it needs to refocus and foment motivation for a soft schedule ahead until it visits No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 21, Oregon must move on with hopes of distinguishing itself and rising above this Week 2 setback.

Issue No. 1: Where do Oregon's College Football Playoff hopes presently stand?

The easy answer is the Ducks may need to win the rest of their games, and even that is no guarantee for inclusion. No two-loss team was even considered in the first iteration of the CFP, but then no Power 5 champion had two losses, so it's unexplored territory.

Still, set it up like this: If Michigan State only loses to Ohio State, and the Buckeyes go undefeated, how could the Ducks eclipse the Spartans and earn a spot after a head-to-head defeat? That could mean, if the Big Ten were to get two teams, Oregon would have to outshine the champions of two of the other four Power 5 conferences to secure a spot with the selection committee. That might be difficult with two defeats, and here's a guess SEC adherents would go bonkers if left out, and the Big 12 might revolt if it gets the short straw a second consecutive year.

Of course, such speculation is comically premature, even though it's an unavoidable exercise. There's a whole bunch of football left, and we are certain to have many, many more plot twists. At this point last year, most folks believed Ohio State was already out of things after losing at home to Virginia Tech by two touchdowns.

The Ducks' schedule ahead also has some questions. At present, it only includes two ranked teams: No. 21 Utah on Sept. 26 and No. 6 USC on Nov. 21. Arizona State and Stanford might climb back into the top 25 by the time the Ducks visit on Oct. 29 and Nov. 14, respectively. California also is a possibility. And the South Division champion figures to be ranked in or at least near the top 10 in a potential Pac-12 title game matchup.

So Oregon's remaining schedule is solid with the potential to upgrade itself, though perhaps not as rugged as it looked in the preseason. While the Pac-12 took some hits -- rightfully -- for its performance in Week 1, the previously smug SEC took some shots this past weekend. Projecting a wide distance between the best teams in the Power 5 conferences is probably just idle trolling, not something that figures to be too significantly weighted within the selection committee.

If the Ducks can get over the little problem of the scoreboard in East Lansing, there are more than a few positive takeaways from the ill-fated road trip.

While Adams' missed late connection will be most remembered, he played pretty well for a guy with an injured finger on his throwing hand with just under a month of service in the Ducks' offense while playing the nation's defense-minded No. 5 team in front of 76,526 hostile fans. The finger clearly bothered him, both hampering his passing and affecting his willingness to run, but he threw for 309 yards and a touchdown and nearly led a fourth-quarter comeback.

The Ducks outgained the Spartans 432 yards to 389, and the defense held up fairly well. The Spartans averaged 5.6 yards per play, while Oregon averaged 5.3 yards. While much has been made of the Spartans running the ball better -- 197 yards to 123 -- Michigan State got a 62-yard scamper from running back Madre London on its first play from scrimmage. London's other 17 runs averaged 2.4 yards per carry. Ducks running back Royce Freeman rushed for 92 yards on 24 carries, or 3.8 yards per rush, with a long of 17.

The biggest differences? Oregon was 2-of-6 on fourth down while Michigan State was 2-of-2, with both conversions leading to touchdowns, and the Ducks failed on fourth and goal from the 1-yard line in the second quarter. Also, Oregon had no sacks while Michigan State had four for minus-18 yards.

Michigan State made critical plays, Oregon didn't. The opposite of last year's game.

Yet there was nothing to suggest Oregon isn't again an elite team, one fully capable of climbing back into the national title hunt. The margin for error obviously is far smaller after a defeat, but this team, if it stays healthy, remains a favorite to push itself again to the top of the Pac-12 at 12-1 or even 11-2 on Dec. 6 with a pretty darn sparkling resume for the committee to consider.