A Game for the Ages That Really Wasn't

GLENDALE, Ariz. – For the umpteenth time Monday night, but this time with the game tied and just over two minutes left, Auburn from its own 40 on first down called for Cam Newton to run an inside zone read to the right side. He handed off to Michael Dyer, and five yards later Oregon's Eddie Pleasant wrapped up Dyer and spun him to the ground. Everyone stopped.

"The next thing I knew," Auburn guard Mike Berry said, "he (Dyer) just started running again."

And a flock of Ducks took off after him. They didn't catch him before he'd run another 32 yards to Oregon's 23-yard line.

Five plays later, Auburn lined up at the two-yard line and its kicker Wes Byrum booted a national championship winning 19-yard field goal as time expired to make the final 22-19.

It was the oddest end to a title game in recent memory, and quite unfortunate. Had it happened on a school lot, most everyone would've agreed to wave it back.

But a replay showed Dyer's knee never touched the ground and no players involved said they heard a whistle. The refs (from the Big Ten, no less!) got it right. So it shouldn't tarnish Auburn's victory or provide the Ducks -- who to their credit never pointed to it -- an excuse.

The Tigers deserved to walk away Sunday with the crystal football. After all, what the Tigers did against Oregon was rather remarkable. They merely kept the most-explosive offense in the country from exploding.

The Ducks came into the University of Phoenix Stadium averaging nearly 50 points per game with a winning margin of just over 30 points per outing. They racked up almost 550 total yards on average. Their diminutive star running back LaMichael James led the nation in touchdowns. Ducks' quarterback Darron Thomas was more like a point guard for a Paul Westhead basketball team than anything else.

The Tigers just didn't let them into the end zone. It seemed that they found a way to keep them on the other side of midfield for most of the contest, like a pesky defensive line in hockey that keeps the puck from crossing the red line.

James couldn't get loose. Thomas couldn't find big strikes, except one, downfield. Their offense racked up 449 yards but managed just 19 points to show for it, its second-lowest output of the year.
This wasn't a game of great execution. ... It didn't make for a gem of a contest or hardly a classic. It started out so sloppy that it made you wonder if either team was worthy of being in the ultimate game of the college season.
But let's get one thing straight: That didn't make the 2011 college football title matchup a defensive battle. Even though the over/under was in the low 70s, Auburn tallied 519 total yards. Combined with Oregon, there were nearly 1,000 yards of total offense between the two teams.

The reason the scoring was down was because this wasn't a game of great execution. Oregon cornerback Cliff Harris said the confusing Dyer scamper in the closing minute of the game was "one of those plays for the ages." But the overall game was not. It didn't make for a gem of contest, or hardly a classic. It started out so sloppy that it made you wonder if either team was worthy of being in the ultimate game of the college season.

Darron Thomas threw two interceptions in the first quarter. Cam Newton didn't look like the Heisman winner after adding one interception of his own as Auburn managed just 21 yards of offense.

Things didn't heat up significantly till the second quarter. Oregon kicked a 27-yard field goal shortly after it started. Two minutes later, Newton passed 35 yards for a score to Kodi Burns. And less than two minutes after that, following an 81-yard pitch and catch between Thomas and Jeff Maehl, James took a pass eight yards for Oregon's first TD.

And just before the half, Auburn managed a safety and another touchdown to take a 16-11 lead.

There was an Auburn field goal in the third quarter and that was all the scoring until the last three minutes, when Oregon finally managed another TD and Auburn kicked the title winner.

Sloppiness, however, is what the BCS organizers chance when they hold this game roughly a month after the teams last played. The start often looks like both teams are starting the season all over again. They hardly have the sharpness they displayed in the heart of the season against the toughest of competition and that's a real shame. All of the stars coming into Sunday night's game were off their games except, maybe, Auburn's all-world defensive tackle Nick Fairley. He reminded of LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey who in 2008 led those Tigers to a national championship against Ohio State.

"Nick Fairley proved he was the best defensive lineman in the country," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said in his matter-of-fact delivery. "It was a tough match up for us."

It was a losing one.

BCS National Championship

• Auburn Wins 2011 BCS Championship
• Fab 40: Auburn Finishes Season No. 1
• Zebra Report: Grading the Officials
• Oregon's Offensive Mojo Crumbles
• Auburn's Defense Rises to the Challenge
• Final Box Score | View Photos

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Fairley tallied five tackles by himself, several, it seemed, of James. Three he made behind the line of scrimmage for a total of 14 lost yards. Once he sacked Thomas.

It was a brilliant performance if not for Fairley's continued inability to maintain sportsmanship. Already with a reputation of being a dirty player, he drew a referee's flag when after a gang tackle he shoved James' facemask while James was down. It was the second such offense by Auburn in the game, which undoubtedly didn't endear the team to fans beyond Auburn, Ala., who looked askance at the program since the NCAA found Cam Newton's father, Cecil, attempted to sell his son's talents to another school.

Fairley should be credited for attempting to atone for his on-the-field sin after the game. As his teammates bum-rushed the field following their game-ending, championship-winning field goal, Fairley cut through the humanity -- just as he had Oregon's offensive line most of the night -- straight into the Oregon sidelines as the Ducks lumbered off the field. He skipped around for a moment until, one last time, he found James and swallowed the 5-foot-9, 185-pound running back in his 6-5, 298-pound frame.

James returned the hug as best he could and the pair exchanged words.

"Told him he had a great season and don't get his head down," Fairley said he told James.

"It was nothing bad," James said of what Fairley said to him. "It was all love. I was calling him a cheater because he kept grabbing my facemask. He really is a good guy. He was a competitor."

And Fairley was most responsible for making Auburn the better team Monday night.