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Twists, Turns and One Roll Give Auburn the Title

احدث اجدد واروع واجمل واشيك Twists, Turns and One Roll Give Auburn the Title

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As polarizing as he is scintillating, and as charismatic as he is controversial, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton spent this college football season as the sport's lightning rod.
From winning the Heisman Trophy to dodging N.C.A.A. investigators to leading Auburn to the Southeastern Conference title, Newton delivered college football one of its most unforgettable seasons.

In what was likely his final college game, he did not deliver the customary big plays, big smiles and dramatic flare. Looking as if he was running gingerly at times, Newton never found the dominant form that defined him all season.

Instead, an iron-clad Auburn defense and two huge late runs by the freshman tailback Michael Dyer led Auburn to its first national title since 1957. Dyer's runs of 37 and 16 yards on the final drive set up the senior kicker Wes Byrum for a 19-yard field goal as time expired to give Auburn a 22-19 victory.

The victory erases a history of Auburn near-misses with the national title. In 1983, the Tigers were leapfrogged by Miami on Jan. 2 to miss out on the title. In 1993, Auburn's undefeated team never got a shot to play for the title because of N.C.A.A. probation. In 2004, the Tigers felt as if they were snubbed by the B.C.S. system, going undefeated without having a shot at the national title.

The longer of the runs by Dyer on the final drive will be mimicked in schoolyards across eastern Alabama. Oregon's Eddie Pleasant appeared to lasso Dyer to the ground, but Dyer rolled over Pleasant, and his knee never touched the ground. He worked his way back to his feet and turned what would have been an 8-yard run into 37 yards.

"I was just trying to go out there and make a play and do something special for my team," said Dyer, who finished with 143 yards on 22 carries.

Newton finished 20 for 34 for 265 yards and 2 touchdowns, with a fumble and an interception. He gladly took a back seat to Dyer and the Tigers' defense, which, behind the bulldozing defensive tackle Nick Fairley, held Oregon four touchdowns below its season average. The Ducks did everything possible — faked a punt and ran their punter on a 2-point conversion option pitch — to move the ball.

"I could not be more proud of our defense," Auburn Coach Gene Chizik said. "For one month, our defense was bound and determined to show up and play the best game of their life."

Auburn held Oregon's innovative offense, which led the nation in scoring, to two touchdowns. The Tigers' defense finished with 11 tackles for losses and 2 sacks, rarely allowing Oregon's offense to get revved up.

Fairley, a junior defensive tackle expected to enter the N.F.L. draft after the game, looked to be the best player on the field. He finished with three tackles for losses and one sack. And while he did deliver a cheap shot for a 15-yard personal-foul penalty, he anchored a unit that made an explosive offense look pedestrian.

It is players like Fairley, defensive tackles as athletic as they are massive, that separates the SEC from other leagues. So it is fitting that Fairley's monster performance led the SEC to its fifth consecutive national title.

The biggest defensive stand for Auburn came late in the third quarter, when an Oregon fake punt put the Ducks in position to tie the game. But Fairley plugged a hole on fourth down from the Auburn 1 that Ducks tailback Kenjon Barner could not find his way through.

Auburn's defense did have one late lapse, allowing Oregon to tie the game with two and a half minutes to play. After Casey Matthews poked a fumble from Newton with just under five minutes remaining, Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas hit tailback LaMichael James on a 2-yard shovel pass for a touchdown.

The Ducks tied it at 19-19 when Thomas hit Jeff Maehl on the 2-point conversion. Thomas threw across his body, and Maehl made a leaping catch.

James finished with just 49 yards on 13 carries. Thomas went 27 of 40 for 363 yards and 2 touchdowns, with two interceptions.

The expectations for this game were set in early December, mere minutes after Auburn crushed South Carolina in the SEC championship game. South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier praised Oregon Coach Chip Kelly and Auburn's offensive coordinator, Gus Malzahn, as the two best spread-offense coaches in the country and predicted that the score in the B.C.S. title game could end up 60-55. Few could have predicted a halftime score of 16-11, Auburn in front, with players on both teams appearing to struggle with the slick footing.

Spurrier's was a reasonable projection: Oregon entered the game No. 1 in scoring average at 49.33 points a game, and Auburn was No. 4, having scored 49 or more points seven times.

But early on, the game had the rhythm of a junior-varsity scrimmage, which may have been because the teams waited 37 days for this game. In the first quarter, they combined for three turnovers, three punts and no points. With the combined point total set by oddsmakers to be in the mid-70s, the early sluggishness was surprising.

A sloppy and forgettable first quarter gave way to a downright weird second quarter that allowed Auburn to take the lead. The teams' offenses found their tempo at times, but the biggest play of the half came when Auburn defensive tackle Mike Blanc stopped James in the end zone for a safety.

That cut Oregon's lead to 11-9, and atoned for a poor throw from Newton on fourth down on a difficult but catchable pass to Eric Smith from the Oregon 1.

After the free kick, Newton cashed in, giving Auburn the 16-11 halftime lead by shrugging off Oregon tackle Zac Clark and hitting Emory Blake for a 30-yard touchdown pass.

Early on, Newton appeared as if he could fall victim to the Heisman jinx that plagued some recent winners in the game, including Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Troy Smith of Ohio State. Newton threw a bad ball that Oregon cornerback Cliff Harris picked off in the first quarter, and Harris nearly picked off another pass, but replay officials ruled it incomplete. That call turned out to be one of the biggest plays of the first half because Newton hit a wide-open Kodi Burns on the next play for 35 yards and the game's first touchdown.

Oregon's offense took a while to get into flow early on, and Thomas threw two interceptions. But Thomas threw a gorgeous ball to Maehl for an 81-yard completion to set up the answer to Auburn's first touchdown. Thomas capped the drive by hitting James on a deftly designed 8-yard throwback play for a touchdown.

But James's safety offered the enduring first-half image for Oregon. He limped off the field, holding a fluorescent yellow cleat and glanced up at the replay of his failure on the replay board.

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