Oregon got beat. Handily, convincingly, and thoroughly, and Urban Meyer didn’t need to run up the score to prove that point.
It was a beat-down. And despite the Ducks getting break after break – from Buckeye fumbles, to Cardale Jones’ Jameis Winston impression, to Byron Marshall just barely avoiding Kaelin Clay ignominy on the goal-line – Ohio State’s superiority was clear.
It’s disappointing. Not just because Oregon once again came up short on the biggest stage, but also because this Ducks team was the one we really wanted to win.
They carried themselves with class and calm and a barely believable togetherness. They had contributors from all over the depth chart, were well drilled by an unsung coaching staff, and led by pride of Coos Bay in Mark Helfrich and the pride of Honolulu in Marcus Mariota.
These were good guys. That’s why it was hard to see their journey end like bouncy house that has just had the air let out of it.
Oregon will have to live with the fact that they played pretty poorly on the biggest stage. They committed way too many penalties, yielded too many yards, and got blown back on the lines of scrimmage by the Buckeyes.
Ohio State walks away champions. They were almost flawless in a performance that started with their freshman quarterback making just his third start. It was a master-class in coaching from Meyer, who wins title number three.
After a bout with depression after winning his last national title at Florida, hopefully he gets to enjoy this one.
Were the Ducks soft? Nah. Re-watch this game and you’ll see Thomas Tyner, who could have spent the rest of the season drawing up his transfer papers after being unseated by Royce Freeman, fighting and clawing for every available yard on the field at AT&T Stadium. There weren’t many out there.
Ohio State was just better. Oregon knows it. And the Buckeyes knew it too when they pounded away with the clock ticking down to zeros trying to get Ezekiel Elliott his fourth touchdown.
It’s not Marcus Mariota’s fault. It’s not Helfrich’s because he punted in the fourth quarter. The game was up by then. This isn’t on Don Pellum. He did just about as well as his counter-part Kirby Smart at Alabama did against OSU.
This isn’t on Darren Carrington, or the NCAA’s prehistoric marijuana policies.
Want something to blame? Hell, take it out on the uniforms. They were just as disappointing as we thought they’d be.
Oregon gave it everything. They played for each other. When Marcus Mariota was hit late and injured in the fourth quarter and the entire offensive line jumped out of their skin, we saw that.
Of course, the final score wasn’t preordained. Oregon’s first drive was a thing of beauty. They got four turnovers, and had the game at 21-20 in the third quarter. They had their chances. They just didn’t have any killer instinct.
Losing to Auburn hurt because more than five minutes around a Tigers fan made you want to throw up and because of the last-second heartbreak of that loss.
This one hurts because the championship window was so wide open for as long as #8 was playing quarterback. This appeared to be the year. But it wasn’t to be.
The truth is probably that Oregon overachieved all year. Their system and their signal caller papered over a lot of cracks. The Ducks didn’t have elite talent at receiver, on either line, in the secondary, or on special teams, and injuries and suspensions made the Ducks’ talent deficiencies even starker.
Oregon’s 2010 team had NFL players everywhere on defense and offense. I don’t think that’s the case with this team. They were young and inexperienced.
Think the Ducks’ system failed tonight? The system was responsible for getting Oregon to Arlington.
It’s been a hell of a run. A championship would have popped the cork on the champagne of this era. But there will be no forgetting the Ducks’ sustained and unrelenting excellence since 2009. And never were they any more excellent than from after the Arizona loss until the glorious Rose Bowl win over Florida State this year.
It’s interesting that Oregon fell apart in the fourth quarter. If there was any sign that Ohio State were going to be the deserved winner, it was that they didn’t fall for the Ducks’ tempo. Urban Meyer’s halftime emphasis on the second half was the first sign that this game was going to be different.
It was. Only a story as wacky as Cardale Jones – who might be the third-stringer again at Ohio State next year – and the three quarterbacks could have trumped Marcus Mariota’s destiny.
The future from here is murky.
Mariota has a decision to make, and if he wants to shock the world and return to school for a fifth year, that’s great. But he shouldn’t decide based on this one loss.
Questions will be asked of Helfrich, as if thirteen wins, a Pac-12 championship, a Rose Bowl championship, and a national championship appearance later, he isn’t already arguably the second most decorated coach in the history of the program he grew up rooting for.
It’s all about winning, right?
Wrong. Hard as it might be, look past the final score. Be proud of this team – they absolutely deserve it.
The Ducks lost on Monday night. They’re now 0-2 in the national championship, and the next opportunity may be decades down the road.
Will Oregon have regrets? Sure. Should they be sad? Absolutely not.
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