Oregon and Ohio State Fight For Roses

in Bowl Season by Asher Feldman — December 8, 2009 at 5:49 pm | 1 comment

Oregon Ducks (10-2) vs. Ohio State (10-2)

If you want to talk about up and down seasons, the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes might be your exhibit 1 and 1A.

Both teams had high hopes coming into the season, but both faltered at some point in the season.

For the Ducks, the Byron Hout-LeGarrette Blount incident speaks for itself in terms of the media and team firestorm it created.

For the Buckeyes, midway through the season, the team was at risk of not winning the Big 10 for the first time since 2004 after loses to USC and Purdue.

Yet both teams, led by athletic and dynamic quarterbacks, turned their seasons around and won their respective conferences. As a reward for their resiliency, the teams received bids to the “Granddaddy of Them All”, the Rose Bowl, in what promises to be among the best bowl matchups of the bowl season.

Offenses: Both offenses start with their quarterbacks, Jeremiah Masoli and Terrelle Pryor, both of whom have set the tone for the offenses all season. As Pryor has gone, so too have the Buckeyes, and his inconsistency has been a problem all season. Masoli runs the spread option to perfection for the Ducks, but when the run has been bottled up by the opposition, the Ducks have struggled to win with a one-sided attack.

Ohio State also features a strong running attack, having averaged 199 yards per game this season using a power running game under coach Jim Tressel’s proven system.

Defenses: This discussion has to start with Ohio State’s defense, which held its opponents to a mere 12.8 points per game, including three shutouts and two Big 10 conference games in which they let their opponents score just seven points. Many times this season, it’s been the defense that has carried the Buckeyes, especially in light of their 33 takeaways — good enough for third in the nation in that category. Against the Duck rush attack, a unit which surrendered less than 90 yards per game on the ground is sure to be tested.

The Ducks image may be all about their offense, but their defense isn’t half bad, only allowing 329 yards per game to opponents this season, which came most against the fiery Pac-10 offenses this season. That was good enough to rank in the top 40 in the nation, but the Ducks were hit hard multiple times this season, most notably against Stanford, where they surrendered 51 points to the Cardinal.

Prediction: Oregon 35 vs. Ohio State 27. The bottom line will be about Oregon’s offense vs. Ohio State defense, a matchup which Masoli and the Ducks can certainly win, and if they do, the uneven Buckeye offense will not be enough to make up the difference.

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Tags: bcs bowls big 10 conference College Football featured jeremiah masoli jim tressel ohio state buckeyes oregon ducks pac 10 conference preview rose bowl Terrelle Pryor