Auburn Wins BCS National Championship
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 12:14AM 
By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
Better late than never.
Football fans didn't get the 60 minutes of excitement they were promised, but they still saw a thrilling final five minutes as Auburn won the BCS National Championship game over Oregon, 22-19, in Glendale, Ariz., Monday night. Auburn's Wes Byrum made a 19-yard field goal as time expired to provide the winning margin.
Auburn appeared to have scored the game-winning touchdown on a scamper up the middle by freshman running back Michael Dyer in the late seconds. But officials reviewed the play and ruled him down inside the 1-yard line. The Tigers then ran one play to kill some clock before trotting out Byrum for his heroic kick that sent Toomer's Corner into toilet-paper mode back home in ice-covered Alabama.
Earlier in that final drive, Dyer looked like he was stopped for a short gain, but his knee never hit the ground and the whistle was never blown. So although some players stopped, Dyer eventually slammed the jets back on and hustled down the sideline to the Oregon 23, for a pick-up of 37 yards. He would finish with 143 yards after sitting out the first quarter.
"That play killed us," Oregon linebacker Casey Matthews told ESPN after the game.
The Tigers protected a 19-11 lead through much of the second half before Oregon got a late touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game. Oregon star running back LaMichael James turned a shovel pass on 3rd-and-1 into a 2-yard touchdown, and quarterback Darron Thomas, after fielding a bad snap on the two-point try, found Jeff Maehl on an awkward cross-field throw to convert and knot the game at 19-19.
That Oregon scoring drive was made possible by a fumble caused by Matthews, who knocked the ball out of the hands of Auburn quarterback Cam Newton in Tiger territory.
But Newton and his team persevered, and despite major off-field distractions throughout the second half of the season, rolled to a 14-0 record and the surprising national championship after being ranked outside the Top 10 in every preseason poll.
"I'm a prime example of how God can turn something that was bad into something that (is) very great," Newton, this year's Heisman Trophy winner, told ESPN's Tom Rinaldi after the game. "Anything is possible."
The Tigers earned their first national championship since 1957, and they keep the coveted crystal Coaches' Trophy in the SEC for the fifth straight year, and seventh overall. Both Auburn and Oregon were playing in their first national championship game in the BCS era.
The scoreless, mistake-heavy first quarter surprised pretty much every writer, fan and all-knowing Twitter user Monday night. But Oregon got a field goal early in the second quarter, then quickly found itself playing catch-up after Newton hooked up with Kodi Burns on a 35-yard touchdown reception. The Ducks, though, wasted no time in answering.
Starting from his own 7-yard line, Thomas connected with Maehl on an 81-yard pass and run that quickly shifted momentum to the Ducks sideline. Three plays later, Thomas found James for an 8-yard touchdown pass that gave the Ducks the lead. Oregon stretched its advantage to 11-7 with a two-point conversion.
But Auburn would answer as well. The Tigers tackled James in the end zone for a safety late in the half, then got a Newton-to-Emory-Blake 30-yard touchdown pass on the ensuing possession to take a 16-11 lead into the intermission.
Oregon coach Chip Kelly called a few trick plays Monday night, none bigger than a third-quarter fake punt that was promptly followed by a long pass from Thomas to Lavasier Tuinei. Had it not been for Mike McNeil's shoestring tackle inside the 5-yard line, the Ducks would have had six points on the board. Instead, they came away with zero after an impressive goal-line stand by the Tigers' stingy defense that proved to be the difference in the game.
"Our defensive guys played their rear-end off and I love them," Auburn coach Gene Chizik told ESPN's John Saunders after the game.
Defensive tackle Nick Fairley, Auburn's bad-rep Lombardi Award winner, was named the game's MVP after recording five tackles, three of them for losses.
"Give him the due he deserves," Oregon coach Chip Kelly told ESPN after the game. "He's a good football player."
Reader Comments (2)
I'm glad Auburn won because in 5 years they will have to vacate the heisman and national championship, for paying whats his face.
Go TCU
Hey Skip: I don't think many anticipate anything being vacated. As we're now seeing, the "I didn't know anything" defense is quite effective. It would have to take Newton, as an NFL star several years from now, telling NCAA investigators that he knew what his dad was up to. That seems doubtful to me.