“Turnovers tell the story.”
“Whomever wins the turnover battle tends to win the game.”
When you watch football, you will hear those two lines said many times, and they form the theme in the majority of the games that we watch and enjoy. However, on Monday night, the Ohio State Buckeyes shredded that storyline. Ohio State won the inaugural College Football National Championship, defeating Oregon 42-20 despite falling behind in the turnover battle by a huge number.
Sometimes, when you are engaged in a story, you have a sense of where the story is going to lead you within the first few pages and sometimes the story deceives you. Last night’s story of the national championship deceived us in the beginning. After each team’s first drive, there was a sense that Oregon would dismantle Ohio State like they dismantled the Florida State team eleven days ago in the Rose Bowl. However, the storyline began to change quickly.
Ohio State’s offense kicked into high gear and the defense began to shine. The shine sometimes came in the form of a quick stop and at times, it came in being flexible and bending but not breaking. On Monday, TheAOSN team reported that the Ohio State’s red zone defense could be the key, and they proved to be so. Oregon marched into the Ohio State red zone four times, and in those trips, all they mustered up was 1 TD, 2 FGs, and a turnover on downs at the one yard line.
We will take a look at the impact players, and how they helped or hurt their team in their effort to win the national championship. For Ohio State, we will look at Ezekiel Elliot, Cardale Jones, and the defensive line. For the Oregon Ducks, we will look at Marcus Mariota and Byron Marshall.
Ezekiel Elliot
The picture above could describe the Oregon’s woes on defense all night long against Ezekiel Elliot. They were holding on for their life hoping for help from anyone, but that help never came. On many plays, there were multiple Oregon players swarmed around him, but he pounded away and produced. His performances against Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship and Alabama in the semifinal game in the Sugar Bowl were dominant and many felt there was no way that he could produce three back-to-back games of brilliance again the top two teams in the nation. On Monday night, he showed everyone that it was possible, and in doing so, finished with an astounding total of 696 yards in those 3 games.
On Monday night, they handed him the rock 36 times. On those 36 carries, he produced a National Championship Game record of 246 yards and 4 TDs. When they needed the big yards, the big plays, or simply to gain first downs to maintain possession, the ball was given to him. Elliot was named the MVP of the game and while it may be way too early for such talk, put him at the top of the Heisman watch for next year.
Cardale Jones
Cardale Jones played an excellent game. He really only had one error and it was his fumble in the 3rd quarter when he tried to throw the ball away. His excellent game came from both his feet and legs and the numbers from his feet are the most intriguing.
In the air: 16 -of-23 for 242 yards and 1 TD. He did have 1 INT, but that only came after a receiver juggled a ball into a defender’s hands. He spread the ball out to four of his receivers. They were: Corey Smith (2 receptions for 76 yards), Michael Thomas (4 receptions for 53 yards), Jalin Marshall (5 receptions for 52 yards), and Devin Smith (1 reception for 45 yards).
On the ground: 21 rushes for 36 yards and 1 TD. The intriguing part of his running was the following: He had a 17 yard run for his long run that extended a drive. When you take the long run out, he was 20 rushes for 19 yards. However, it did not seem that he was only averaging 1 yard a carry. The “mere” 36 yards seemed so much bigger. One of Jones’ runs in particular epitomized Ohio State’s physical dominance on offense. With a one-point lead and inside Oregon’s half in the 3rd quarter, the Buckeyes faced a 3rd-and-3. Jones took the snap, stepped up in the pocket, and took off running for the first down. In his way stood 6′ 4″, 310 lb. nose tackle Alex Balducci. Jones simply ran over him on the way to the first down.
Defensive Line
In the game preview, we talked about the defense line, who would be charged with the duty of stopping Marcus Mariota’s running attack as well as the other Ducks running backs as well. They zeroed in on the run game due to the fact that the Ducks WR crew was depleted and their strategy worked. The Oregon Ducks only managed 132 yards on 33 carries for a 4.0 yard average. The Ducks tried a balanced attack but neither of the three worked well. Their rushing totals were the following:
Thomas Tyner: 12 rushes 62 yards (5.3 yards average)
Mariota: 10 rushes 39 yards (3.9 yards average)
Royce Freeman: 10 rushes for 22 yards (2.2 yards average)
Marcus Mariota
Many individuals have criticized Mariota for having a down game and it really is an unfair assessment. Mariota played a very good game especially considering the focus on his running game and he was down two of his top four receivers. For the night, he was 24-of-37 (65%) for 333 yards and 2 TDs. His only INT came on the last play of the game on a desperation Hail Mary throw. Yes, he was limited on his running as mentioned above compared to his season totals, but the loss cannot and should not be pinned on Mariota’s performance.
Byron Marshall
Byron Marshall left it all out on the field. Without two of the four top receivers on the field, it was up to Marshall to carry the load and he shined. The Buckeyes defense focused on Marshall but he still performed well. He had 8 receptions with 169 yards and 1 TD. Even with his stellar performance, he alone could not propel the Ducks offense enough to get into the end zone.
Now that we look at the individuals that made the impact, let us take a look the game totals:
Total Yards: Ohio State (538) Oregon (465)
Passing Yards: Ohio State (242) Oregon (333)
Rushing Yards: Ohio States (296) Oregon (132)
Turnovers: Ohio State (4) Oregon (1)
From a statistical standpoint, it might be tough to pick the winner if you did not see the game. However, the Buckeyes dominated and shined and despite the turnovers, they absolutely took charge and won the game. It could even be argued that if not for the turnovers, Oregon would have been blown out. Congrats to the Buckeye’s and the college football world should watch out because most of this team will be coming back.
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