Poker, Football, and everything sports

Auburn vs Oregon. For an offensive fan, this is a dream matchup. For a defensive fan, it will be an eye sore. The game has been looked at from every angle for about 2 months now, which is just ridiculous. One of the things I hate most about the BCS, and yes its a very long list, is the fact that all these teams have weeks off of live play. Guaranteed that despite the high powered offenses, both teams will struggle to shake off the rust at first. But lets take a look at the matchup.

How Auburn can Win: The only tape that Auburn can really learn from is Oregon's game against Cal. Somehow, Oregon was held to just 15 points by that bad team. So Auburn will be studying all aspects of that video to try to come up with a way to stop this offense. The easy answer would be to assign a spy or two to keep an eye on the running back and quarterback. I think the way to go is to try to make Oregon beat you through the air, and try to limit their ground attack.

How Oregon can Win: It goes without saying that whichever defense can play better will win this game. Luckily for the Ducks, there is more footage out there of how to shut down Newton and Auburn's offense then the other way around. We will find out just how good Casey Matthews is, as I'm guessing he will be used as a spy on Cam Newton. I want to say that Oregon will be the fastest team on both sides that Auburn has seen this year, but it is really tough to say definitively.

My Prediction: This is honestly a toss up for me. Clearly the key will be the defenses, and I will be extremely interested to see what the teams decide to do with the coin toss. If I won the toss, I would be inclined to kick first for a couple reason. I think both teams will struggle just a bit to shake off the rust in the beginning, and in a game where defensive stops will be hard to come by, the possibility of a team having the last possession of the first half and the first possession of the second half could be huge. Ultimately, my Pac-10 bias/SEC hatred is kicking in, and I'm going with the Ducks in what could be the best national championship since the 2006 Rose Bowl. I got the Ducks winning this one 38-34.

Tune in later this week for my thoughts on the NFL wild card games, and my thoughts on the next matchups. Here's hoping I do better then 2-2 this week.