The first year of the College Football Playoff has been nothing short of tremendous thus far: The mighty Oregon Ducks snapped the 29 game win streak of the Florida State Seminoles in the Rose Bowl game as they cruised to a lopsided 59-20 victory.  Heisman trophy winner and potential no. 1 draft pick Marcus Mariota now has a different but similar task at hand when he quarterbacks the Ducks in the National Championship game against the Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten who knocked off power house Alabama in the Sugar Bowl 42-35.

Oregon has dominated all year with the help of Mariota, but the Buckeyes have had a different story.  Starting Buckeye quarterback Braxton Miller was shut down in the preseason due to a shoulder injury, which gave redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett his first chance to shine.  Unfortunately Barrett’s fantastic 2014 campaign, where he threw for 34 touchdowns and  rushed for 11, came to an abrupt ending when he went down in the fourth quarter of the last regular season game for the Buckeyes with a broken ankle.

So how did the Buckeyes end up making it to the championship? With their third string quarterback of course.  Insert Cardale Jones, the 6 foot 5 inch redshirt sophomore who absolutely powered his way through the Wisconsin Badger defense in route to a 59-0 smack down in the Big Ten Championship game, which eventually helped the Buckeyes leap Baylor and TCU to earn the final spot in the College Football Playoff.

Jones will count on senior wide receiver Devin Smith who has really stepped up lately catching four touchdown passes from Jones over the past two games while racking up 224 receiving yards in both wins.

Never count out Urban Meyer.  The head coach of the Buckeyes has done a tremendous job in his third year with the program, transforming his third string quarterback into a respectable starter.  If the win in the Big Ten Championship game wasn’t good enough proof, then I hope that the Sugar Bowl was.  Meyer led his team to a comeback win over no. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last weekend to claim their spot in the National Title game.  Once down 21-6 to the team who is sixth in the nation in points allowed, Meyer had all the confidence in the world in his third string quarterback to come back and win.

Now that Ohio State has gotten past the power of Bama, can they stop the speed of Oregon?  The Ducks have been on a complete roll since their early season hiccup against Arizona, but they eventually avenged their loss by taking down the Cats in a 51-13 cake walk in the PAC 12 Championship game.  During Oregon’s nine-game win streak, the Ducks are scoring nearly 50 points per game and it seems as if the Duck defense has finally peaked at the right time as they are averaging just 15.5 points allowed over the past four games.

With the Ducks locking down receivers and the front seven stopping the run game Jones and sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott will look to do the damage with the power running game.  Elliott, a St. Louis native, rushed for an astonishing 230 yards and two touchdowns in the semifinal game against Alabama.

However, Oregon has only allowed more than 200 yards rushing in a game just twice this season and Elliott and the Buckeyes will hope to dismantle the Duck defense on the ground in North Texas on Monday as they are averaging 262.2 rushing yards per game this season.

A couple of key guys for Oregon who will help stop the run game of Ohio State will be the 6 foot 9 inch junior defensive lineman Arik Armstead as well as redshirt senior linebacker Tony Washington Jr.

Jones didn’t have a great day throwing the football in the semifinal game as he completed just over 50 percent of his passes against a very weak Alabama secondary.  The defensive backs for Oregon will be a much tougher challenge for Jones to face as they are holding opponents to just 22.5 points per game with help from redshirt senior defensive back Erick Dargan, who leads the team and is third in the nation with seven interceptions this season.  Dargan’s redshirt senior counterpart Troy Hill has really stepped up his game lately as well and will be seeking to shut down receivers in the championship.

While Oregon’s defense is getting the job done as of late, the offense most certainly is too.  Mariota and the Ducks dropped 59 points on the defending National Champions last weekend and could have easily scored more before head coach Mark Helfrich decided to take his starters out with eight minutes left in the game.

Everyone knows how great Mariota has been this year, but how about true freshman Royce Freeman.  Freeman, just 18 years old, has rushed for nearly 1,400 yards this season along with 18 touchdowns.  Sophomore back up running back Thomas Tyner seemed to hit his stride in the win last weekend as well after he had battled injury for most of the season.

Mariota has a full arsenal of weapons in his wide receivers as well.  Junior Byron Marshall leads the team in receiving yards with 834 and five touchdowns to his credit. Dwayne Stanford the redshirt sophomore has taken over a big role in the Duck offense ever since junior tight end Pharaoh Brown had a season ending injury and now the Ducks will have to play without redshirt freshman wide receiver Devon Allen, who led the team in touchdowns this year, due to an injured his knee on the opening kickoff of the Rose Bowl.

Redshirt freshman Darren Carrington II has stepped up incredibly well over the past two games as he’s caught 14 balls for 291 yards and three touchdowns in that time span, but he will be suspended for the championship game after failing his drug test and did not make the trip with the team.  True freshman Charles Nelson will have to step up in the absence of Carrington.  Nelson has scored five touchdowns on just 21 receptions this year while also proving that he can give the Ducks another boost of speed to separate himself from defenders.

This match up should be a very high scoring game with tremendous speed and excitement on the field for both teams.  Oregon has the upper hand on offense with the Heisman trophy winner leading the way, but the power rushing attack of Ohio State could create some problems for the Ducks defense.  Nevertheless the Ducks should be able to pull this one out over the Buckeyes in what should be a shootout.

Final score prediction: Ducks 43 Buckeyes 36