I have never in my life seen a running back who didn't think his knee hit the ground stop running.....until tonight. Replay confirmed that Auburn running back Michael Dyer never was down after rolling over an Oregon defender, and the 37-yard run he broke off afterward was instrumental in setting up the game-winning field goal that gave Auburn the national championship over the Oregon Ducks. Dyer rolled over that defender, then got up and just stopped running, causing everyone in a road uniform to stop running as well. Maybe he was playing possum, but regardless, as the old cliche goes you have to play til the whistle. Oregon didn't on just one play, and it cost them a national championship.
This game had all the makings of being a great one: 2 fantastic undefeated teams with powerful offenses, 2 defenses that came up huge throughout the game to keep this one low scoring, several huge momentum swings and gutsy plays to keep it entertaining despite the low score, and a storybook series of events started by a Cam Newton fumble that resulted in Oregon going in for a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie the game in the final minutes. Unfortunately, this game had a finish that was all too predictable. I think it is safe to say that most of the country that is neither an Oregon or Auburn fan was pulling for the Ducks in this one, and most of them ended up disappointed. Auburn has done a great job all year of gaining the ire of college football fans and gaining people who wanted to see them fall. For many of them, it started with seeing Nick Fairley make dirty plays like the one he was flagged for in the title game when he shoved LaMichael James's face into the ground after a play. For others, it is a result of the off the field troubles of Cameron Newton, whose history has now been well documented from cheating at Florida to his father asking for money from Mississippi State for Cam to go there. While no one ever could prove that Auburn paid for Cam to come to school or that Cam himself asked for money, Newton was allowed to continue playing, and the aura of impropriety around him has certainly irked some fans. For the rest of the country, it is simply about being tired of watching the SEC win the title year in and year out. This is the fifth straight national championship for the unquestioned strongest league in college football. With all of those people rooting against Newton and the Tigers, they just did what they've done all year. Auburn has been in so many close games this season, and so many they've had to come back from a deep deficit, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion once they got the ball back with the game tied how it would end. Newton would lead them down the field for a winning score and add to his legacy. It's old hat for him at this point. It took all the suspense out of the final drive at least for me, and I believe that the Tigers would have won with or without the incredibly lucky break for Dyer. There was so much hype around this game, and it almost lived up to it, but the final drive kept it from being one of the great championships like USC-Texas in 2006 and Ohio State-Miami in 2003. With that said, this game certainly had some things to talk about.
The biggest key to the game throughout was the inability of Oregon's offensive line to control the defensive line of the Tigers. They had almost no success running the ball up the middle against Nick Fairley, Michael Goggins, and Mike Blanc, and Darron Thomas was constantly pressured in the passing game as well. They failed to get good enough drives going to wear the big men in the middle out and get them off the field at any time. Things wouldn't have been so bad if the Ducks hadn't insisted on running right at the teeth of that defensive front whenever the team got in the red zone. It's easy to second guess the decision making after the game, especially the decision to go for a fourth and goal from the one when a field goal could have made a huge difference in this one. It's normally a little tougher to make the right call before you see the wrong one fail, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the Ducks were struggling to run up the gut against Auburn. The safety by Mike Blanc should have been enough to show that. Oregon finally got creative and got the ball to the perimiter on the tying touchdown, but it turned out to be too little, too late. The play calling on the safety and the failed red zone opportunity are easy to point to as reasons the Ducks didn't pull this one out. They did make some good calls in this game as well, particularly on an 81-yard pass to Jeff Maehl that set up the Ducks first touchdown and a tremendous fake punt in which the punter threw a pass for the first down, but those plays were not enough.
When Auburn had the ball, the Ducks seemed to constantly be on their heels. They did manage to hold the Tigers to just 22 points, but they struggled all night to get them off the field. Cam Newton and the Tigers managed to convert on 9 third downs, most of which were 3rd and short situations where Cam Newton just lowered his shoulder and plowed ahead for the first. Even when the Tigers were stopped, they often stopped themselves with dropped passes or inaccurate throws by Newton like on the failed 4th and goal pass that he threw into the ground. While the defensive struggles still might not have cost them the game if not for the Dyer play, it certainly didn't help the offense any to not have as many opportunities with the ball as Auburn had. All in all, the Oregon defense actually played a pretty good game considering they held the Tigers well below their season average for points, but they needed to do a little more to win the national title.
At the end of the day, the Auburn Tigers have won the title, and they were really in control for most of the game despite the close final score. Most people are disappointed that the Ducks couldn't pull this game out, but few are surprised. Gene Chizik is now 8-0 in bowl games as a head coach or assistant, and the 2010-11 college football season is officially in the books. These two teams won't look anywhere near the same next year, especially with Newton and Fairley likely to be first round NFL draft picks, but they have this game to look back on with fond memories of victory or the anguish of defeat depending on which jersey they were wearing. There are plenty of what-ifs and second guessing for the Ducks, but they'll have to wait til next year to do anything about it. Congrats to the Tigers, who really were the best team in the country this season.
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