I disagree about Adams. He threw for 17 first downs while the running game was largely stuffed. He was asked to do it all. He was sacked 4 times, and it would have been more if he didn't move extremely well in the pocket. Without him, Oregon would have lost by a wide margin. People will overlook how well he played because of that missed throw. If he makes that throw, the narrative of his performance changes. One of his picks was a fluke INT that kind of fell into the hands of a DB.
The defense played extremely well. Unfortunately 118 of Michigan State's rushing yards came on 3 carries. They had 79 yards on 34 carries otherwise (2.32 YPC). That was the difference between the two offenses. Michigan State broke big runs, and Oregon couldn't do that to take pressure off Adams and get the tempo moving faster. Michigan State generally wasn't busting through Oregon's line on runs, but they were selling out to stop Freeman. Holding Cook under 200 yards passing was about all you can ask.
This is the least disappointing of the regular season and postseason losses Oregon has had recently, so I'm not complaining. This was just a great footbaw game.