The moment all college football fans have asked for will come on Monday night when the Oregon Ducks, lead by heisman trophy winner, Marcus Mariota, go and face Urban Meyer's Ohio State Buckeyes, led by the hands down best third string quarterback in football Cardale Jones.
The two teams face each other after beating the previous champion (Florida State) and a team in the middle of their dynasty (Alabama). The very ironic part about this, is that if the college football playoffs were to be implemented one year later, the projected polls would have Alabama as number 1 and Florida State number 2 and they would be playing for the national championship. But instead it's Oregon and Ohio State who both are looking really good going into the championship.
How close are these teams?
Well I evaluate a team based on three things; can they run the ball, can they throw the ball, and can they stop the ball. So can Oregon throw the ball? Is this even a question? absolutely, they can. Can Ohio State throw the ball? In there win against Alabama, Cardale Jones looked shaky in the first quarter with drives only coming up with field goals while Alabama was cashing in touchdowns. But Jones rallied his crew and put up 42 on a Nick Saban defense, which was due to Ohio State's ability to run the ball, not his arm (only 243 passing yards) which answers my next question about the two teams. So can Oregon run the ball too? With arguably the best dual threat qb behind center and a very talented true freshman, Royce Freeman, absolutely they can. So with the slight edge to Oregon we still need to factor in each teams defense. Both defenses are the cream of the crop, Ohio State giving up 22.1 points per game and Oregon only giving up .2 more points per game than them.
Final Call
This game will be a iconic game, for being the first playoff final and having two excellent teams compete against one another. But when it comes down to who will win will be determined by Ohio States question marks. Can Cardale Jones throw the ball to win and not rely on his legs? Will Ohio State rely too heavily on the run game against Oregon? Can Oregon stop Jones and Elliot from running all over them? All questions will be answered Monday night but as for a prediction...
Oregon 38 Ohio State 30
I just need more proof of Jones's throwing ability to give Ohio State the nod and from watching the Alabama game, when in doubt, Jones ran for the first down and it'll be hard to believe that Oregon hasn't noticed that and hasn't came up with a game plan for Ohio State. Mariota will show once again why he won the Heisman trophy and why he should be the number one draft pick.
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