Bo Nix leads Auburn Rally with a 27-21 win over Oregon

With just over two minutes remaining, Oregon's mission was to stop an Auburn attack that slowly but surely gained momentum throughout the second half of the season. at the edge of the field. It was not the easiest of challenges, because the Tigers brought a line down to 40 meters, but the Ducks defense (on paper) had something that the man who was leading the opposition did not have: a Experience – The trait of a certain College Football Knower breed loves to salivate the most.

Real quarterback Bo Nix, who had made only 9 passes out of 25 until now, took the ball for Auburn. You would be forgiven if you watched the clash – on one side of the ball, the first real first-year player to open an inaugural match of the Tigers season since 1946; on the other, a strong defense of the top 15 – and presumed that Nix would be half who would have missed at the end. However, Oregon had provided a significant ripple that had helped tip the balance in favor of his opponent by preventing Auburn much earlier.

There were signs of this problem at first. In the second game of the Ducks, Justin Herbert, the NFL's top prospect, nearly scored two touchdowns, but his pass was pushed back by the receiver's shoulder into the end zone. To make matters worse, the team could not even increase by two points after Oregon kicker Dustin Lewis missed the coup de grace that followed. The Ducks finally had this second touchdown – on an incredible throw and catch– but then they missed a chance to go up 21-3. This time, Herbert and his offense were just nine yards from the end zone, but the efforts of the special teams were canceled when the quarterback escaped the ball during the first go-around game. allowed a return of 83 yards in the other direction. Hell, the first hit by the defense was a missed opportunity in the sense that they failed to show a semblance of skill.

But the most notable missed opportunity came with about five and a half minutes of play. Herbert completed a four-yard pass to put the Ducks in a tremendous fourth-and-one goal on Auburn, 41, but as he ran into kneeling with a defender blitz and falling, he had to sit for a game. This would not have been possible at a worse time since Oregon had just allowed the Tigers to reduce the gap to an advantage after a 69-yard run that ended with a desperate plunge against Nix's stealthy QB. The situation was very hard to live, so coach Mario Cristobal did his best to try to remedy the situation. The Ducks coach called two (!) Time-outs in the hope that the authorities will allow Herbert to go home, but that was not helpful. Cristobal had to cope with a quarter of a backup to try to make things work. Things did not work.

For all that, the Oregon defense has somehow managed to take advantage of most of these missed opportunities. The training that followed the first two defeats gave only goals, and Auburn scored three and a half goals in training after the fourth major stop. But that's where the numbers tell how much the Ducks let the Tigers stay alive. Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports said that after 176 yards in the first quarter, Oregon had only 156 in the last three. After scoring two touchdowns in their first three possessions, the Ducks only reached the end zone once again in their 11th final. , and 12.0 against 6.7, respectively – and distinguished a possession where three consecutive passes only led to a fourth and a 1, which Oregon did.

With all this in mind, it's no wonder that a real struggling freshman could have compose himself just enough to put his team in a position for this incredible comeback. Real exploits started in the fourth and thirds, when the Ducks defense had a well-covered bootleg, but was unable to get close to Nix in time, barely crossed the 50-yard line to get the clutch first. Nix then completed a pass that, in any other circumstance, would have ended his homework for the day. Receiver Seth Williams scored 13 points and put the Tigers in the right position to give the best goal. But Gus Malzahn, coach of Nix, Williams and Auburn, found an opportunity to clinch the match and called another pass game. Nix, whose maturity in the pocket seemed to be reaching almost professional levels throughout the campaign, hit Williams again, this time for a 26-yard touchdown.

Even with this emphatic victory to his credit, it is worth mentioning that Nix has a long way to go in terms of his development. He has had his share of mediocre shots, with a couple leading to interceptions and not-so-smart decisions that tend to come with players making the jump from the high school superstar to the SEC starter. to forget that he was no longer only playing against teenagers. But what he's shown is that if you give him a track to lead Auburn to victory, he'll be sure to accept it.