Was it just me, or was the ending to the National Title game the most anti-climatic and least celebratory winning moment in recent history? First, it started with Brent Musberger's amazingly boring call of the game winning kick. Then it carried on with the on-field "celebration" and interviews. I'm not even sure that Cam Newton cracked a smile. It was all really eerie to me. Which is a shame, because the last 7 minutes of the game (the only part I saw due to an old-man soccer league) were some of the most interesting theatre (Canadian spelling) of the year.
Down 19-11, Oregon was forced to punt with 5:05 left in the game. The odds were seemingly insurmountable - I mean, even if the Ducks defense had been playing well, their surely was no way that Auburn wouldn't pick up at least a few first downs. Not with Cam Newton leading the way. And then it happened. On 2nd down, Casey Matthews knocked the ball out of Newton's hand and the Ducks recovered. It was an unthinkable error by Newton, although you wouldn't have known it listening to Musberger and Kick Herbstreit as they were falling all overMatthews with praise. Now this is not meant to take anything away from Matthews, but we all known Newton needs two hands on that ball in the situation. Anyways, Oregon goes on to score and they get the two point conversion to tie. Again, Musberger and Herbstreit missed the most important part of the 2-point conversion -the amazing catch by Ducks QB Darron Thomas on a miserable snap.
This alone would have been enough drama and intrigue. Auburn however was not done and with a little over 2 minutes left, freshman Michael Dyer had the run of the year. Given the circumstances, I would dare to say that it was even more important than what we saw from Marshawn Lynch on Saturday. Dyer ran up the middle for a 3-4 yard gain, seemingly tackled but then with the encouragement of the Auburn sideline started running again. Looking at the reply, his knee was never down - he had fallen on top of the tackler but never went down. It was an amazing event and one that both he and the refs got right. From there, it was all about getting into the middle of the field and killing the clock.
Yet somehow, the Ducks defense let Dyer break through the line and he ran in for a TD. But wait a minute, another review. This time the on-field ruling was overturned as he was tackled 6 inches from the goal line. There was 10 seconds left. Auburn had 2 timeouts. I think most of America was screaming at their tv's when coach Gene Chizik sent out the field goal team. I mean, you have a Heisman winning QB who ran for nearly 1500 yards and 20 td's this year. Surely you should run the ball and call timeout if you don't make it....well, Chizik only decided to throw Newton on the field after the Ducks called timeout to ice the kicker. Newton abruplty got stuffed on a QB sneak that everyone saw coming (what was up with the Victory formation at that time? Either take a knee or sneak with a real formation). Then with 2 seconds left, Wes Bynum hit a 19 yard field goal to give the National Title to the Auburn Tigers.
It was one of the more amazing final 7 minutes of a game that I have seen. The only thing that would have been better is if I heard a little more emotion from the announcers and seen a little more emotion on the field. I just looked at the front page of ESPN.com and it shows a picture of Newton with the crystal ball and a huge smile, so obviously he did smile at some time during the night. The fact that there was no emotion when the kick went through the uprights, however, is an image that I won't be forgetting for sometime, however.
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