THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015
SPORTS
7A
Buckeyes won title behind
line play, Elliott and Jones
AP Photo/Brandon Wade
Oregon’s Marcus Mariota scrambles during the second
half of the NCAA college football playoff championship
game against Ohio State Monday in Arlington, Texas.
Was it Mariota’s last
game at Oregon?
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)
— Marcus Mariota’s season
ended without the honor that
mattered to him most. Now
Oregon waits to see if he will
be back for another try.
Going into Monday night’s
game against Ohio State,
the standout junior quarter-
back said he would trade the
Heisman Trophy he won this
season for a national champi-
onship because the team honor
was more important to him.
Instead, the Buckeyes
bottled up Mariota and
overpowered the Ducks for
College Football Playoff
championship.
It may have been Mariota’s
until Thursday to decide if he
will skip his senior season and
declare for the NFL draft. Mar-
iota, who has already complet-
ed his degree, is expected to be
a top pick.
Did the devastating loss
change his mind about com-
ing back?
“I’m sure it will weigh in
a little bit, but there’s a lot of
other things that have to play
into that decision,” he said.
“There’s starting grad school,
coming back for another year
to improve, there’s a lot of oth-
er things that could bring me
this loss.”
Despite the loss, the
soft-spoken, lead-by-example
team leader had a stellar season.
In addition to the Heisman,
Mariota was named AP Player
of the Year and the Pac-12’s
offensive player of the year
and a slew of other awards.
He set conference records
for most touchdowns in a sin-
gle season with 58. He had 42
via pass, 15 on the run and a
touchdown catch. He has also
set the conference mark for
career touchdowns with 134.
He has also thrown at least
one touchdown pass in all 41
games he has started in his ca-
reer, the second-longest streak
in NCAA history behind Mar-
shall’s Rakeem Cato (46). And
he’s one of four quarterbacks
in FBS history to pass for more
than 10,000 yards and run for
more than 2,000 in his career.
Not that any of that mat-
tered much to Mariota on this
night.
“My main focus was to be
a great teammate. That’s all I
hoped to accomplish,” he said.
“I don’t care about legacies.”
All season his bold moves
-
meanor off it. Against Wyo-
zone for a touchdown, and
against Arizona he caught a
touchdown pass from running
back Royce Freeman.
“The impact he’s had on
-
icant,” Oregon coach Mark
probably even bigger.”
Senior center Hroniss Gra-
su said he’ll miss his good
friend. Last season both Grasu
and Mariota decided they’d re-
turn to the Ducks for another
year.
“He’s just an unbelievable
leader. Unbelievable guy.
Unbelievable person,” Grasu
said. “Anyone can learn from
that guy because of the way
he handles everything that’s
thrown at him, the way he
handles the success, the way
he handles the attention. Noth-
ing fazes him.”
But Mariota faced chal-
lenges against Ohio State.
Oregon’s receiver corps
was hit earlier in the week
when redshirt freshman Dar-
ren Carrington was declared
ineligible for the game be-
cause of a failed NCAA drug
test. Carrington did not travel
to Texas for the biggest game
of the season. The team had
already lost freshman receiver
Devon Allen, who also runs
on Oregon’s track team, on the
opening kickoff of the Ducks’
59-20 victory over Florida
State in the Rose Bowl.
Junior tight end Pharaoh
Brown had six touchdown
catches for the Ducks this sea-
son before he sustained a sea-
son-ending knee injury against
Utah. And before the season
started, junior receiver Bralon
Addison tore a ligament in his
left knee.
That left Oregon, which
regularly uses three- and
four-receiver formations, with
just Dwayne Stanford, Keanon
Lowe, Charles Nelson and
converted running back Byron
Marshall.
While Mariota found
Lowe on Oregon’s opening
drive with a 7-yard touch-
down pass, both Nelson and
Stanford dropped third-down
Ducks trailed 21-10.
of a groove with his receivers
as the game wore on, hitting
Marshall with a 70-yard scor-
ing pass to close the gap to 21-
17 in the third quarter. Oregon
got closer with Aiden Schnei-
Ezekiel Elliott answered
the threat with a pair of rushing
touchdown to put Ohio State
up 35-20 and Oregon couldn’t
catch up.
“It’s tough. It happens. It’s
a part of football,” Mariota
said about the injuries. “But
I thought that the guys who
played stepped up and made
plays.”
SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
TODAY
Girls Basketball — Molalla at
Astoria, 7 p.m.; Seaside at Es-
tacada, 5:30 p.m.; Rainier at War-
renton, 6 p.m.; Vernonia at Knap-
pa, 6 p.m.; C.S. Lewis at Jewell,
5:30 p.m.; North Beach at Ilwaco,
7 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Astoria
at Molalla, 7 p.m.; Seaside at
Estacada, 7:15 p.m.; Rainier at
Warrenton, 7:45 p.m.; Vernonia at
Knappa, 7:45 p.m.; C.S. Lewis at
Jewell, 7 p.m.
Swimming — Valley Catholic at
Astoria, 4 p.m.
Wrestling — Seaside at Nestuc-
ca, 4 p.m.; Ilwaco at Toledo, 5 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Wrestling — Astoria/Banks at
Seaside, 5:30 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)
— Coming into the national
championship game, there
was a school of thought be-
hind picking the best team to
win.
Those who favored Ore-
gon said that Heisman Tro-
phy-winning
quarterback
Marcus Mariota was too
skilled, his team was too
quick and played too fast, the
offense was too polished and
deep and the defense too pli-
able for them to lose.
The backers of Ohio State
more physical on both sides
of the ball, had a horse of a
running back in Ezekiel El-
liott and a quarterback who
but unbeatable.
Before a crowd of 85,689
at AT&T Stadium, things
couldn’t have more closely
followed Ohio State’s tem-
plate. The Buckeyes’ big guys
up front dominated, Elliott
rumbled for 246 yards and
four touchdowns on 36 carries
and Cardale Jones continually
came up with big plays with
his legs and his arm.
The result was a surpris-
ingly easy 42-20 victory for
the Buckeyes (14-1), who
-
al championship since 2002. It
was a bitter defeat for Mariota
and the Ducks (13-2), thwart-
ed once again from winning
Here’s what to know about
how the Buckeyes won and
why the Ducks lost:
TROUBLE ON THIRD
DOWN: Oregon had trouble
on third down, converting just
two of 12 chances. The Ducks
were 0 for 2 on fourth down,
including a goal-line attempt
that they couldn’t punch in.
That was uncharacteristic for
a team that went into the game
ranked fourth in the nation for
third-down conversions, at
51.6 percent.
“Third down was a big
deal. And part of that was pre-
cipitated by not being good on
-
gon coach Mark Helfrich said.
BRONZE STATUETTE:
When Oregon was up 7-0
early and the Buckeyes were
on their heels, it was Elliott
— and Ohio State’s overpow-
ering offensive line — which
took over the game. The soph-
omore’s 33-yard burst seemed
to jump start the Buckeyes
and their fans.
He doesn’t shirk from
talk that he might just be the
front-runner for the Heisman
next year.
“Just thinking that I’m go-
ing to have the opportunity
next year to compete for the
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott (15) breaks away for a nine-yard touchdown run during the
NCAA college football playoff championship game against Oregon Monday.
Heisman, it means every-
thing,” he said. “I’m not going
to change. I’m going to keep
grinding. I’m going to do all I
can to win it.”
RUN DEFENSE: Oregon’s
run defense was mediocre this
season, allowing opponents
an average of 156.1 yards per
game to rank 49th in the na-
tion. Ohio State was averag-
ing 262 rushing yards a game
going in. In the end, Ohio
State rushed for 296 yards
against Oregon, and Ezekiel
Elliott led the way with 246
yards and four scores.
“When you have him being
as fast and physical as he is
and then you trump that with
a 200 and-whatever-he-is 55
or 60 quarterback, those are
three pretty good hammers
game and some of the other
stuff that they’re able to do,”
Helfrich said.
OVERCOMING TURN-
OVERS: Ohio State coach
Urban Meyer said despite the
538 yards his offense amassed,
it was the defense cleaning up
after the offense that won the
game. The Buckeyes turned
the ball over four times —
three fumbles and a bobbled
interception — but those
gaffes didn’t hurt them badly.
-
sulted in zero points for Oregon.
The second two turned into 10
points, but Ohio State had built
an 11-point lead to maintain its
advantage. Then Elliott closed
out the scoring with three more
touchdown runs.
“Defense won the game,”
Meyer said. “We lose that
game if we don’t stop them
after our turnovers.”
NO MARIOTA MAG-
IC: Known for his ability to
create plays when it appears
none exist, Oregon quarter-
back Mariota was stymied by
Ohio State’s defense. He had
two touchdown passes, one on
the opening drive to Keanon
Lowe and a stunning 70-yard
scoring pass to Byron Mar-
shall that pulled the Ducks
within 21-17 in the third quar-
ter. In the end, this season’s
Heisman Trophy winner com-
pleted 24 of 37 passes for 333
yards. He was sacked twice
and intercepted once — on his
“It hurts. I can’t really put
it into words much more than
that,” Mariota said.
WHY STOP AT ONE?
Meyer conceded that he
thought next year was Ohio
State’s year. After all, the
Buckeyes are very young —
half the starters are freshmen
or sophomores.
“To say we had this vision
back in September or even
August, no not a chance,”
he said. “I thought this was
a team that could battle and
a bunch of games and then a
year later go make a run at it.”
Remember, though, that
there are three top-quali-
ty quarterbacks, Elliott and
two-thirds of the starters
coming back.
Wide receiver Michael
Thomas cautioned Ohio State
fans to save their money.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We’ll
be back.”
to questions about NFL future
ARLINGTON,
Texas
(AP) — Cardale Jones start-
ed the year as Ohio State’s
third-string quarterback.
After leading the Buck-
eyes to a national champion-
ship, he’s pondering whether
to head to the NFL.
A third-year sophomore,
Jones is eligible to enter the
draft. It’s now a feasible op-
tion after the way he played
Michigan, pushing Jones to
the top of the depth chart.
Boy, did he take advan-
tage of his chance.
Jones threw for 257
yards and three touchdowns
season, and since there’s no
guarantee he’ll be the Buck-
eyes starter next season.
Jones was MVP of the
Big Ten championship game,
a 59-0 rout of Wisconsin in
THURSDAY
Boys Basketball — Ilwaco at
North Beach, 7 p.m.
Swimming — Seaside at Asto-
ria, 4 p.m.
led the Buckeyes to wins
over Alabama in the Sugar
Bowl and Oregon in Monday
night’s national champion-
ship game.
FRIDAY
Girls Basketball — Astoria at
Yamhill-Carlton, 7 p.m.; North
Marion at Seaside, 7:15 p.m.;
Warrenton at Clatskanie, 6 p.m.;
Knappa at Gaston, 6 p.m.; Rainier
at Ilwaco, 5:45 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Yam-
hill-Carlton at Astoria, 7 p.m.;
North Marion at Seaside, 5:30
p.m.; Warrenton at Clatskanie,
7:45 p.m.; Knappa at Gaston, 7:45
p.m.; Rainier at Ilwaco, 7:30 p.m.
knows’ right now,” Jones
said.
Braxton Miller was sup-
posed to be the Buckeyes’
starter but he went down
with a shoulder injury be-
fore the season even began.
Redshirt freshman J.T. Bar-
rett took over the job and
played so well that he fin-
ished fifth in the Heisman
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Ohio State’s Cardale Jones holds the championship tro-
phy after the NCAA college football playoff championship
game against Oregon Monday.
Trophy balloting.
But Barrett sustained a
season-ending injury in the
college start. He passed for
243 yards and another TD in
a 42-35 win over Alabama.
He turned in another sol-
id performance in the title
game, despite an odd play
that resulted in a fumble,
completing 16 of 23 for 242
yards and a score with one
interception.
If Jones returns next sea-
son, there’s no guarantee
he’ll keep the No. 1 job.
Barrett should be recov-
ered from a broken ankle by
the start of next season, giv-
ing him a chance to reclaim
the spot.
Miller also has a year of
eligibility remaining, but he
could transfer without sitting
out since he’s already gradu-
ated.
“It’s up in the air, sort
of, because my No. 1 prior-
ity is graduating from Ohio
State University and walking
away with something that no
one can take away from me,”
Jones said.