Auburn Defeats Oregon for Football National Title

It wasn't the display of offensive firepower that many had expected, but the Auburn Tigers beat the Oregon Ducks 22-19, to take the Bowl Championship Series Title.

Auburn was in control for much of the game, but got a scare when Oregon was able to tie up the game with just over two and a half minutes left. Auburn ran the ball to get into position for the final score, including a 37 yard run in which, initially, Auburn running back Michael Dyer looked to be down after about ten yards. Replays showed his knee never touched the ground and the full run was good.

Replay would come up again when Dyer ran for 16 yards and dove into the endzone. Dyer's knee came down a the half yard line, before he was able to reach the ball past the goal line. Auburn had ten seconds left on the clock and was setting up for a field goal. Oregon made a mistake, in my opinion, by calling their final timeout trying to ice Auburn kicker Wes Byrum. If Oregon would have allowed the play to happen, at least they would have got the ball back one more time with a couple of seconds left.

Coming out of the timeout Auburn changed their gameplan and ran the ball once to get the clock down to three seconds. Byrum came in to kick the 19 yard field goal and win the game for Auburn.

Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas threw for 363 yards and a touchdown, but threw two big interceptions as well. The Ducks never got their running game on track, rushing for just 81 yards in the game.

Auburn's freshman Dyer led all rushers with 143 yards. Heisman trophy winning quarterback Cam Newton had 265 yards passing and two touchdowns. The title is Auburn's second football National Championship. The first was in 1957.

More from this contributor:

The 5 Best College Bowl Games

Sources:

scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=310102483