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Players were congratulating each other on a tremendous season while battling immense disappointment. Oregon had a chance to win the program’s first national championship, but a mixture of poor play and poor execution on offense and defense stopped the Ducks from achieving that goal.
“I think this team battled,” offensive coordinator Scott Frost said. “They battled through injuries, battled through people doubting them early in the year. Honestly, they probably overachieved. We had some special players and we were missing a bunch of them. I think if a few things go another way, this game could have been closer or different.”
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact thing that plagued the Ducks because when one thing went wrong, everyting else seemed to snowball. Despite scoring on their first drive of the game and forcing Ohio State to punt on its first possession, the Ducks' offense stalled much of the contest. And when the Ducks stalled, the Ohio State offense chewed up the clock with its running game. Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 246 yards and four touchdowns, and averaged 6.8 yards per carry. Elliott continuously found holes in the Oregon defensive line as he broke through arm tackles to get into the second level.
“We just had self-inflicted wounds,” defensive lineman DeForest Buckner said. “We kept making mistakes on defense, offense, special teams and you can’t make mistakes against a good team like that. We didn’t tackle really well, yards after contact. We just didn’t get it done.
“We weren’t ourselves. We weren’t tackling well. A lot of guys just tried to do too much, not just their job.”
Oregon did force four Ohio State turnovers, which was really the only reason the Buckeyes didn’t make this a bigger blowout than it was, but managed just 10 points off those turnovers.
Frost said the problems with Oregon started with the second and third offensive possessions. Both drives were stalled because of a dropped pass on third down. If those passes are complete, Oregon’s offense gets into a rhythm.
“I think if we could have scored another time in the first quarter, I think the game would have looked a little different,” Frost said. “Whether or not we would have won, I don’t know. But we executed really well the first drive and then started executing well the second and third drive and had some things kind of backfire on us, and that would have changed things a little bit.”
The Oregon offense converted just two of its 12 third-down attempts and had the ball for just 1:52 in the third quarter while it was attempting to make a comeback. Oregon’s defense was on the field so much that it didn’t have the legs to stop Elliott or quarterback Cardale Jones, who was not only battering the line with his rushing ability, but also making pinpoint passes to receivers who seemed to catch everything thrown their direction.
Even when Oregon started to gain a little momentum, Ohio State would do just enough to steal it and change the flow of the game back into its favor.
Oregon’s team relies on flow, and at no point during the game was it ever able to achieve it.
“We just didn’t execute,” receiver Keanon Lowe said. “That first drive we executed pretty well and then we just didn’t execute. When you’re playing a team like that, you’ve got to execute. You can’t give them any sign of life and make mistakes. You know, we made mistakes and we were still in the game, obviously. But they’re a very opportunistic team.”
For more Oregon news, visit DuckSportsAuthority.com.
For more Ohio State news, visit BuckeyeGrove.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturdayAnd don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook