ARLINGTON, Texas – Less than three minutes into the game, it already looked like the previous nine that had come before it. The Ducks won the toss, elected to receive and methodically marched down the field with ease. In 2:39, Oregon ran 10 plays and traveled 75 yards to take a 7-0 lead.
As far as what the Oregon offense had become on its nine-game win streak that got them to this point, the opening drive was exactly it.
Marcus Mariota went 4-for-4 for 30 yards, running back Thomas Tyner –who made his first start since the third game of the season – sprinted for 26 yards and Keanon Lowe capped it with a seven-yard touchdown grab.
However, the annual script that most of Oregon’s games this season have written suddenly flipped. On the following offensive drive and facing a third-and-four, Mariota connected with freshman wide receiver Charles Nelson for what looked like a five-yard gain. The Ducks continued to move at the pace they initiated instantly and were about to enter Ohio State territory for a second time within the first five minutes of regulation.
Yet, there was one problem. Nelson dropped the ball. Oregon’s punt team took the field.
Ohio State scored on the drive thereafter and Oregon found itself in a similar situation again. Only this time, as Mariota scrambled out of the pocket on third-and-nine and saw Dwayne Stanford wide open 40 yards down the field, the redshirt sophomore was the one mistiming the pass.
Suddenly, the up-tempo offense that was averaging 15.9 seconds per play on the first drive of the game, was exiting the field on back-to-back drives.
“Against good football teams you can’t beat yourself and early on in the game that hurt us when we had a drop, those kill drives,” wide receivers coach Matt Lubick said. “It was hard enough to beat a good football team when you’re doing things right, but when you do those it makes it a harder hill to climb.”
A domino-effect followed. A third-down false start caused Oregon’s next drive to sputter and a goal-line stand from Ohio State in the second quarter defined what type of night it turned into. By the end of it, it was a 42-20 loss for Oregon – one highlighted by missed opportunities and unforced errors.
“I think in the first half we killed them with the tempo,” freshman running back Royce Freeman said. “They were trying to hold on, but then we got out of rhythm and they started to be able to catch their breath and we couldn’t get anything going.”
Oregon finished with eight drives that ended scoreless and its rushing attack gained just 132 yards, which pales in comparison to its 242 yards per game average. In addition, the offense scored one touchdown on its four red zone trips and only mustered 10 points off four turnovers.
While that was happening, Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliot sprinted his way towards 246 yards of rushing.
“Usually we get that job done and it opens up a lot of things for us,” Freeman said.
In every which way, the game became one whose final result was indicative of the stat line. As senior center Hroniss Grasu said, “we shot ourselves in the foot too many times.”
“When they gave us the ball you gotta take advantage,” Grasu said. “We weren’t able to do that.”
As it turned out, Ohio State was the better team Monday and convincingly so. The game led to a point near the end of regulation in which the scarlet and gray’s echoes dominated the chorus at AT&T Stadium. Out of sorts and completely disheveled, Oregon’s offense whimpered on its final two drives, looking nothing even remotely similar to the one that had sprinted down the field about three hours earlier.
Those two drives amounted 22 yards on seven plays and culminated at the end of the game with Mariota throwing an interception. Everything was completely out of whack, and Ohio State had, to put it mildly, beat them.
“They just played their game,” wide receiver Byron Marshall said. “We tried to play ours. It didn’t really work out as planned.”
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise
National Championship: Oregon’s offense loses its rhythm, suffers 42-20 loss to Ohio State
Justin Wise
January 11, 2015
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