In a stadium filled with bright orange and "electric" yellow, the color that helped Auburn systemically bury the Ducks in what turned out to be quite a strange BCS title game was red.
Red, as in the red zone. Oregon had its chances. The team moved the ball 449 yards. Yet the Ducks couldn't manage more than 19 points. Oregon had two trips inside the Auburn 5 yard-line result in a combined three points.
Red, as in the color Auburn's Nick Fairley had Oregon seeing all night. Whether it was maddeningly unstoppable penetration or the occasional cheap shot that he's become known for, no player on the field proved more disruptive to the Ducks' usually unstoppable offense.
Red as in the color of a challenge flag. (Sure, college replay revolves around booth reviews and not coach challenges, but work with me here.) Two key questionable plays that were reviewed effectively book-ended Auburn's scoring and sawed off the Ducks at the knees.
Red (albeit in a darker shade) as in rust, as both offenses proved to be far short of midseason-form, much less championship-form after the usual long layoff since they last played Dec 4.
And last but not least, red, the color of roses, which, after watching a championship game in which neither team truly impressed, TCU probably doesn't think smell so sweet anymore.
(I won't harp on this past this paragraph as under the current system, these were the best two teams in the country. But with both teams making plenty of mistakes and TCU playing an absolutely great game to beat a tough Wisconsin team, it's hard to argue that the well-drilled Horned Frogs couldn't play with either team out there tonight. *cough* PLAYOFF. That is all.)
But in the end, the result was as clear cut as it could possibly be in a game decided by a last second field goal. There is no debating: Auburn earned a national championship Monday night. (In a sick world where we have to choose champions based on opinion, Auburn's resume is simply better than that of TCU, end of story.) The Tigers, were clearly talented, although by no means great. But Monday night, it was enough. And Oregon needs only a mirror to understand why.
Sure, two reviewed calls referred to could be argued either way. But they can hardly be blamed. Oregon's Cliff Harris had an apparent interception on a magnificent play on the sidelines that was initially ruled an incompletion. But while Harris defied physics and got his arm down in bounds, the replay couldn't convince officials that the ball didn't move in his hands when he finished rolling over. I'm not sure a called interception gets overturned, but the call was basically a toss-up. Auburn scored its first touchdown on the next play.
Later, Michael Dwyer, on a short gain, rolled over an Oregon tackler who thought he'd done his job, pulling the running back down. So did Dwyer, who stopped after rolling over. But the bench told him to run, and into easy field goal range he scampered to set up a game winner. The replay showed his wrist (or perhaps even his ankle) might have touched the ground while everyone focused on the knee. I'm not sure a call of down-by-contact gets overturned, but the call was basically a toss-up. Auburn won the game a few plays later, thanks to a play that was as odd as any decisive play in bowl history.
Surprisingly enough, it was both defenses that played well enough to win. If you would have told either team that the opposition would fall short of 23 points, they'd have been clearing shelf-space for a crystal football weeks ago. A dominating defensive line effort, headed by Fairley, kept the Oregon running game in check, the passing game hurried, and basically did everything possible to slow down the Ducks.
The Ducks defense also played well enough to win. When a defense is supposedly overmatched against a Heisman winner as big as many of your linemen, holding that Heisman winner to what, for him, was a pretty average stat-line and Auburn's second lowest point total of the season, you have to call it a win.
But Cam Newton can move on to the NFL and stop pretending he's not being paid to play football with a national title ring (pending future investigations) because he did enough to win. That stat-line still involved 265 passing yards. And although it came with a meager average, his 65 yards on the ground included some key conversions. At times, the Ducks seemed helpless to stop Auburn, like many teams before them this year.
And if you play devil's advocate and the "what if" game for Oregon's red-zone trips, you have to do the same on a couple of absurdly easy touchdown passes Newton missed. Short-arming an easy throw to a wide open receiver on fourth-and-goal at the one may have set up a safety, but it still took a touchdown off the board. And receivers don't come any more open than Darvin Adams was in the third quarter, finding himself well behind the defense. Newton overthrew him ... by a lot.
But despite Newton's hot-cold performance, it was the vaunted Ducks offense that truly disappointed, and for the second straight BCS Bowl. Chip Kelly made some great calls, faking a punt and an extra point to success, and showing guts on fourth down. But quarterback Derron Thomas' inconsistency and curious playcalling put the Ducks in an untenable position: Oregon wasn't going to win by scoring 11 points in the first 55 minutes of the game.
LaMichael James carried the ball a total of 13 times to go with 4 catches. That is not enough for a player like him. Even on this elite stage and with no true trademark runs to truly open the throttle, he was clearly the fastest, most electric player on the field.
Thomas, meanwhile, was less than sharp, throwing an early interceptions and making faulty reads, reads that Auburn made more difficult but not impossible, in the Ducks vaunted spread option attack.
Worse, the play-calling that lead to the goal-line failures were inexplicable. Repeated runs up the middle were stonewalled by a defensive line that had given them trouble all game, as a notoriously diverse playbook seemed to mysteriously slam shut. Finally, on the final drive, Oregon got into the end-zone from in close at the two. With something as mildly innovative as running off-tackle, James had plenty of room to score. Then, on the conversion, a Thomas throwback to Jeff Maehl against the grain (see also: first touchdown to James) created a dramatic tie and thrilling finish. See, two in a row by staying creative; that wasn't so hard now, was it?
But really, both teams were just a bit off offensively. The game we all expected (or at least wanted) had James playing a bigger role. It had Newton completing those two easy touchdown passes to cement a legacy. It had Oregon finishing drives with touchdowns, not failing to get the offense on track for a second straight bowl.
Each team had more than five weeks off since it last played. And it showed. The most feared two offensive teams in the country couldn't score a measly point in the first quarter, and combined for 14 in the entire second half. Do you think that a meeting during the regular season (or perhaps after a couple of *cough* PLAYOFF wins mixed into their 36 days off)? Really?
While certainly not a letdown from any kind of dramatic standpoint, the title game was, in a word, awkward.
But hey, Auburn fans: enjoy the hell out of it. Your awkward title counts just as much as any other.
For now.
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