EUGENE – There is a phrase in popular use these days that, best I can tell, suggests a loss for words to describe something: It is what it is.

I always wondered what it meant. And now I think I know.

Oregon football is what it is.

After the Ducks’ confounding 34-26 loss to UCLA Saturday at Autzen Stadium, there’s just no other way to define this football team.

Good enough one week to come within a last-minute dropped pass of probably beating the No. 4-ranked team in the country. Flat enough the next to lose to a so-so Bruins team that had lost three of its last four, and to do it with a chance to clinch a bowl berth and in front of a home crowd announced at 58,344, the second-largest gathering ever at Autzen.

That’s the 2004 Oregon Ducks.

They’re also now 5-5, needing a victory next week in the Civil War game against Oregon State to avoid their first losing season since 1993.

”The first losing season in 11 years,” considered UO defensive end Chris Solomona. ”We definitely don’t want that to happen.”

Of course, with 19 seniors playing their final game for the Ducks at Autzen Stadium, they definitely didn’t want THIS to happen to them either.

”This was their last game in front of the Autzen fans, and that’s a special experience, unlike anywhere in the country,” said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, whose face and voice reflected the frustration and disappointment of not seeing the senior class leave its home stadium on a winning note.

”We wanted to send these seniors out of Autzen Stadium with a win,” said Kellen Clemens, Oregon’s junior quarterback from Burns. ”Fortunately, we have a chance to redeem ourselves a little bit next week.”

The Ducks have the chance. But do they have what it takes to do anything with it? The Ducks have had chances to do plenty with what is now fast becoming a lost season. Chances to beat Indiana. Chances to upend Arizona State. A chance last week, after winning four in a row, to stun No. 4 California on the road and think thoughts of a bowl as nice as the Holiday Bowl.

Ringing out the year in San Diego? After a season that started 1-3? Wow!

But it’s not going to happen. In fact, unless the Ducks can get this latest loss out of their system – and fast – their challenge next week in Corvallis may be insurmountable. Oregon State, which won Saturday at Stanford, is playing like a team with some hunger. The Beavers might have a team of sitting Ducks to sink their teeth into, which would give OSU, also now 5-5, the winning record – and a berth in a bowl game.

As much as anyone, the Ducks themselves are struggling to define themselves. Saturday’s performance had junior roverback Justin Phinisee tugging his dreadlocks in frustration.

”I don’t know,” he said, groping for an explanation. ”We haven’t looked like this all year.”

Fact is, the Ducks all too often HAVE looked like that. They started the season looking like that, flat as could be against an Indiana team they should have beaten easily. And then there are times, like when Phinisee electrified the fans Saturday with a 73-yard punt return midway through the fourth quarter that drew Oregon within 31-26, when the Ducks would have you thinking they’ve got back the mojo that helped put them in bowl games after each of the past seven seasons.

But instead, the defense lets UCLA off a couple of third-down hooks with some poor tackling, surrenders an 11-yard gain on third-and-20 that puts the Bruins in field-goal range, and watches Justin Medlock boot one through from 50 yards to make it an eight-point game.

Still time for a miracle, and Clemens marches the Ducks 38 yards on four plays to the UCLA 40-yard line with less than two minutes left. Then tight end Dan Kause has a pass ripped out of his hands by a Bruin defender, and on the next play Clemens and receiver Kyle Weatherspoon miscommunicate and a third-down pass falls incomplete. On fourth down, Clemens’ pass to Garren Strong slanting open over the middle sails high and falls harmlessly to the ground.

Yeah, the Ducks were without their top receivers – wideout Demetrius Williams sat the game out and tight end Tim Day played only one series, both because of injuries – but there is talent enough on this Oregon roster to fill those voids and overcome the adversity. Bellotti knows it. He doesn’t make excuses. Not with injuries, and not with several officiating calls that, shall we say, didn’t go Oregon’s way Saturday.

”I think we had opportunities, and I’m frustrated by it,” said the coach, whose first nine seasons at the Oregon helm have all been winners. ”I think our kids were focused, but we didn’t have the execution. We had opportunities to make some plays today … and didn’t.”

There was no masking the disappointment after Saturday’s loss. With perhaps only one game left, the disappointment of the entire season has started to sink in.

”This is not where we anticipated us being at the end of the year,” said Clemens. ”Five and five, that’s not this team. It’s not … but it is.”

And it is what it is.