Oregon vs Auburn National Championship Thread

[UOducksTK1]

Woo!

[woundedknees]

Go Ducks!

Eat the War Eagle!

[thomas time]

Seems like a dream, unreal season so far. I don't what I'm going to do without a game for five weeks, two weeks seems like way too much for me. One more win for the REAL DREAM full all of us. Go ducks!!!!

[DarronThomas5]

I'm still numb to it. All these years seeing them coming up short made me continually expect them to fall this year.

Years upon years of winning 20 straight National Titles with the Ducks in EA sports has made it hard to really comprehend logging onto espn.com and seeing the Ducks officially into the REAL title game.

I don't know if this is all gonna set in before I hear Brent Musberger tell me that I'm looking live at University of Phoenix Stadium.

[CammyCam Juice]

Congrats Ducks on your trip to Glendale! Can't wait for Jan.10 to get here.
This should be a very exciting game to watch. Can't Wait!

[War Eagle 96]

I am looking forward to this game bigtime! I've been an Auburn fan all of my life. I went to school there, met my wife there, my parents met there, my sister went there too. Never have I felt more rewarded for my support of the school and program. Got my tickets and I'll be in AZ for the big show. How bout y'all? War Eagle!

[gofightingducks]

Go Ducks!

Eat the War Eagle!

War Machine will destroy War Eagle!

Seriously though this is going to be a tough game, Cam Newton is one of the best players in a long time to play college football, his size, running ability, speed, arm strength and accuracy. Even though he is the one that accounts for most of their offense there are some good receivers, they have a good line, good RB and their d-line is going to push around our o-line if the Ducks play like they did the last few games, they are good against the run and in can play in space, unlike most teams the Ducks have faced, Fairley is a beast. DT is going to need to be on like he was against UCLA and USC passing the ball and maybe even like he did against Stanford running the ball.

[brich75]

Congrats Ducks on your trip to Glendale! Can't wait for Jan.10 to get here.
This should be a very exciting game to watch. Can't Wait!

I have to admit that helmet on the right is sick looking...

[AcctTiger]

This game is going to be sick! I can't wait!!!

Looking forward to some friendly banter over the next month!

[oregon232]

Didn't take too long in C4Q history for this thread to finally be created!!

[SuperDuck]

Thought I'd jot down a few thoughts.

Nick Fairley is outstanding, about on the level of Stephen Paea of Oregon State. He'll definitely be a factor in our preparation. The thing is, as was pointed out by (gulp!) Dr. Lou, when you're going up against a defender that's great like that you don't keep running straight at him! Ohio State's defense last year was outstanding and, admittedly, they pushed us around quite a bit. However, we were still able to get significant yardage on the edges. The Buckeyes raved about how fast Kenyon Barner was after the game.

Also, a few other things to consider.

1. Ohio State's secondary was MUCH better than Auburn's. I know that it was last year, but we're essentially the same team with 19 returning starters.

2. Our O-Line was in its first season as a unit last year, but now we're one of the best in the nation and we go eight deep without much drop off. Are we big? No, but we're still one of the best in the nation.

3. Darren Thomas is a much better passer and manager of the game than Masoli was. Masoli was an outstanding QB, but his first instinct was to run and that backfired a lot of times. Also, he wasn't tall enough to see very well over the line, so they had to create a "rolling pocket" for him to throw effectively. Thomas isn't the running threat that Masoli was, but he still can run very well and he can also either drop back or rollout and make those throws.

4. We lost three big pieces of our secondary midway through the season last year and two are in the pro's now. Walter Thurmond (Seattle), T.J. Ward (Cleveland) and Willie Glaspar. When that happened we had a lot of young guys that had to step up like Cliff Harris, John Boyett, Anthony Gildon, etc. Just because those guys are young in age doesn't mean that they're inexperienced. They're actually VERY good, plus they have around 20 games, two conference championships and a Rose Bowl under their belt.

5. Our defense is in the Top-25 nationally. I don't get where some of these "experts" say that we're no good on defense? Skip Bayless said that this morning on 1st & 10. I wonder sometimes if these people actually watch the games. Also, many of the yards that the Oregon defense has given up has been in "garbage time" because the other team kept having to throw the ball.

6. Our Special Teams are very good. I would say "outstanding", but our kicker, Rob Beard, hasn't quite been himself since his normal holder, Nate Costa, was lost with a season ending knee injury. Costa was also our backup QB. I expect him and his new holder to get a LOT of work between now and game time.

I could go on, but I just wanted to bring up a few things that maybe hadn't been thought of.

I'd like to also say that Auburn is an outstanding team and is every bit as deserving of being here as the Ducks. I see a great game happening from start to finish. Hopefully, my Ducks come out on top. I just hope that it's a good, clean game that's won by the best team and nothing stupid, like a bad officiating call.

That being said....

Welcome to the board Tiger fans!

But...

Go Ducks!!!!!!!

[Hoagduck]

Turnovers will play a big part in the game. Shocking I know. The stats favor Oregon heavily though. Here are the ranks nationally.

Turnover margin: Oregon is 7th, Auburn is 33rd
Interceptions: Oregon is 4th, Auburn 74th
# of Fumbles forced: Oregon is 20th, Auburn 63rd
# of Fumbles lost: Oregon is 112th, Auburn 53rd

Cliff Harris and John Boyett both are tied at 11th in Interceptions at 5, no Auburn player is in the top 100.

The one turnover-related edge Auburn has is that Newton has 6 ints to Thomas' 7, but Newton also has 75 fewer passing attempts on the year.

[NCDucks09]

I will be there representing the Ducks' Fan Base and yelling as loud as I've ever yelled! Hopefully the Ducks can find an answer defensively for Cam. I have a feeling his speed isn't going to be what hurts us, but his size. He's 260lbs!!! That's bigger than anyone in our line-backers and secondary corps. That's a problem because they're the only ones fast enough to catch him. Tackling him in space is going to be the difference in this game.

Oregon's Offense will be stressed heavily vs Auburn's D. They are SEC caliber players and will be perfectly coached to stop the Spread Option. They'll be fast and bigger than our line (similar to Cal). The question mark here will be Oregon's play-calling and the synergy of our line, receivers, backs, and QB to execute their A+ game.

Oregon will have to play their best game of the year to beat Auburn. They will have to play perfect. Otherwise, it most likely will go down similar to last year's Rose Bowl, close, but no cigar.

[wheaton4prez]

I remember when Oklahoma and Oregon fans loved each other. Before Oklahoma lost.

I look forward to enjoying friendly talks with Auburn until after the game, when everyone will become the worst fan base known to man to each other.

Just kidding. Looking forward to getting to know Auburn, win or lose, before and after.

[SuperDuck]

Another challenge will be stopping Auburn on 3rd down. Terrell Pryor killed us on 3rd down! Kenny Rowe was on his heels all day long, but Pryor kept buying time with his feet and killing us by completing miracle pass after miracle pass. Does anyone else remember all those completions? Devier Posey killed us! 9 times out of 10 those would have been incomplete in the regular season, but they kept hooking up and breaking our hearts in the Rose Bowl.

I think our experience with Pryor will help some with game planning Cam Newton, though Newton is obviously bigger and better. The biggest difference is that while Pryor was always a threat to get to the edge, Newton can go right up the middle too. That's a BIG boy! The Defense better start eating their spinach now.