Now if you read my story prior to the championship game, then you probably know along with the listing what I believed to be the two teams' pros and cons and that I predicted that Ohio State would beat Oregon 49-42 in overtime. After the game, I got the part of Ohio State winning it correct but just not the score. One of the negatives I saw for the Oregon Ducks was that they would go into the game without their two top wide receivers Devon Allen and Darren Carrington. Allen was unable to play because of an injury he suffered in the Rose Bowl against Florida State while Carrington was suspended with another teammate after testing positive for marijuana just days before the game. Although I did not mention him in the previous article, the Ducks were without their top tight end Pharaoh Brown after sustaining an injury with just three games left in the season.
During the game, the Ducks seem to use some sort of rotating system for their wide receivers in order to make up for the loss of Allen, Carrington, and Brown. For me, I saw this as a chance for Ducks' quarterback Marcus Mariota to prove that he really has an ability to be a quarterback that can make the players around him play better or at least seem better which would tell me that he may have a good career in the NFL. During the first drive of the game, Mariota did what he has down all year in leading Oregon's fast tempo offense down the field to score the first touchdown of the game. I wasn't really surprised as Oregon's offense has been in the Top 5 in points per game. But during the drive, they ran the ball 7 times while only throwing just 4 passes including the touchdown pass.
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| Wide receiver #85 Dwayne Stanford is wide open for the catch, but ultimately could not hold onto the ball |
The rest of the game had me thinking that most of Oregon's wide receivers must have had little to almost no game experience. It's not to say that they don't, but from the way they were playing, I found it too hard to believe that they could not catch some of the passes they were thrown. One play I will not forget from that game came in the first quarter when on 3rd and 12, Marcus Mariota threw a deep ball to a wide open receiver, #85 Dwayne Stanford, that could have possibly been about a 50 yard gain to lead to a touchdown to tie the game and instead was dropped because he tried to catch it on the run. When I think about it now, that may have been the defining moment for me that said that the Oregon Ducks would not be able to work their magic. However, Mariota did find success in wide receiver #9 Byron Marshall who finished with 8 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown.
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| Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa is seen here putting a good lick on Ducks' QB Marcus Mariota |
Out of the 37 passes Marcus Mariota threw, only 24 of them were completed. Now that is still about a 64% completion percentage, but Ohio State's defense knew how to shut down his passing targets while also keeping pressure on him. It's still worth mentioning though that Mariota finished the game with 333 passing yards and two touchdowns and an interception. But the Buckeyes' defense outworked the Oregon Ducks' offense, especially in the red zone after Oregon was unable denied time and time again at the goal line. Buckeye defensive end Joey Bosa was a machine and constant threat on defense in stopping the Oregon offense from advancing while also bringing that swagger and attitude to the team that said, "Give it everything you have and do whatever it takes to make it happen." which was just what they were able to do.
Thanks to their efforts, Ohio State took the momentum set by Bosa and the defense and used it to power themselves passed the Ducks' defense. Certainly, no one has to be happier to win the national title than Buckeyes' quarterback Cardale Jones. Despite some incomplete passes, an interception, and 3 fumbles (one which seemed quite familiar), Jones was able to finished 16 of 23 for 242 yards and a touchdown while also running for 38 yards and another score.
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| During the game, OSU QB Cardale Jones pulls a "Jameis Winston" as he fumbles the ball in the same way. Luckily, it did not affect them one bit |
What makes Jones such a big story in this is that he was the third string quarterback when star senior quarterback Braxton Miller was the team's starter while freshman QB J.T. Barrett was named as the his backup. During preseason practice though, Braxton Miller injured his shoulder enough that it took him out for the season. This gave Jones a chance to compete with Barrett for the starting job. Eventually, head coach Urban Meyer gave the nod to J.T. Barrett to be the the starting QB. He has an incredible freshman year in which he passed for just over 2,800 yards and scoring 34 TDs with 10 INTs while also rushing for over 900 yards and scoring 11 TDs. With these stats, it's no wonder that he was in the hunt for the Heisman Trophy. Then came the Michigan/Ohio State game where Barrett was suddenly injured while running the ball. The rest of the game was left to Cardale Jones and was a win for the Buckeyes. Jones then proved his worth as a QB when he helped the Buckeyes roll past the Wisconsin Badgers and then stepped up even more again against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl.
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| OSU running back Ezekiel Elliott may just be one of the best RBs and players in the country |
Of course, no one was more impressive in this game than than Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott, who ran 36 times for 246 yards and 4 touchdowns. This is why I said at the beginning that Ohio State "literally" ran over Oregon's defense. The Oregon defense, while fast and swarming, seemed unable to grab hold of and bring down Elliott as he ran for the endzone three times and plowed inside on the goal line during the final minutes. On top of winning the national championship and offensive MVP honors, Elliott set a records for most rushing yards in the national championship game (originally held by Texas QB Vince Young: 200 yards) and most rushing yards in a bowl game by an Ohio State player (originally held by Ohio State RB Raymont Harris: 235 yards). Including this game, Elliott finishes his season with three straight 200+ rushing yard games (Wisconsin, Alabama, Oregon) which puts him over 1,800 rushing yards and 18 TDs while averaging 6.9 yards per carry. Since it looks like Ezekiel Elliott will be coming back and assuming that he stays healthy and out of trouble, I think it is fair to say that he may have a couple accolades coming his way. I think of him as the reincarnation of former OSU running back Maurice Clarett, who was similar in size (6 ft. 220 lbs.), skill (1,237 rush yds/18 TDs/5.6 AVG), and helped the Buckeyes to a national championship in 2002 over the Miami Hurricanes. The only difference is: Elliott is coming back.
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| OSU head coach Urban Meyer waves to the fans while running back Ezekiel Elliott hold up the first ever National Championship Trophy |
So with that, I want to finish this by saying congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning the university their 8th national championship and the first ever CFP National Championship. As a fan who loves watching the Big Ten Conference games and has grown up in the Midwest, I feel so proud to see a team with a hard nose, grind-it-out personality like OSU destroy a team on the west coast that everyone feels is the "unanimous" champion because of one player. Who knows, maybe you'll get a chance to knock USC down next year. That is if they can get themselves in the rankings again.
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