For over a month, the main, predetermined story line for the BCS National Championship Game was “offense, offense, offense”. And why not? Auburn and Oregon were averaging roughly 45 points per game with their two Heisman finalists, Cam Newton and LaMichael James.
But the story in the first half was defense. Well, relatively speaking.
An odd 16-11 halftime score in favor of the Tigers is surprising to say the least, especially given that the score was knotted at 0 after the first quarter and much of that was attributed to turnovers and general rust. Early on, it seemed as though Oregon couldn’t get out of its own way and Newton couldn’t get into any sort of rhythm.
As the second quarter progressed, though, we saw both teams -- especially Auburn -- begin to establish some continuity on offense. And while we hope that trend continues in the second half, it will be interesting to see how the Ducks’ defense responds to Gus Malzahn‘s adjustments.