15 Reasons Auburn Will Rout Oregon in the BCS Championship Game

The Oregon Ducks meet the Auburn Tigers on January 10, 2011, in a highly anticipated match-up of high-octane offenses, the Ducks' ugliest uniforms in sports history, and Auburn's controversial, unstoppable Heisman-winning QB.

If history is any indication of what the outcome will be, this could be a very disappointing and lopsided championship game - not disappointing for the victor's fans, but disappointing for those hoping for a good game.

Here are 15 reasons why Auburn could very well run away with this one in a rout:

15. History Says So (as just mentioned):

The last four BCS National Championship Games were all won by SEC teams... in dominating fashion.

The four SEC victories came by a combined 67 points, which translates to an average margin of victory of 16.8 points per game. If history is any indication, then Auburn should win by double-digits.

14. Auburn Can Come from Behind:

We haven't seen the Ducks overcome much adversity this season, but the Tigers have made a living off of coming from behind.

Auburn has trailed in eight of its 13 games this season, but still managed to win those games (some in blowout fashion), including an 18-point victory over Georgia and a 22-point victory over Arkansas.

Even if Auburn stumbles early, they've proven they can rally back and score a boatload of points in the second half.

13. The SEC Championship Game:

This one is pretty simple.

Did you see the way Auburn played against South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game?

That was as impressive of a performance as any team has had all season, and the Gamecocks entered the game with the SEC's No. 1 rushing defense.

12. The Passing Game:

Since Auburn averages 287 yards per game on the ground, it's easy to forget about the team's passing attack. But the Tigers can pass the ball.

Cam Newton throws for about 210 yards per game, and Darvin Adams has come on strong of late, catching seven passes for more than 200 yards and two touchdowns in the SEC Championship Game.

With Oregon trying to key in on the run, Newton and Adams could have a big day through the air.

11. Ball Control:

Oregon doesn't need the ball a lot to score—the Ducks lead the nation in scoring at 49.3 points per game despite having an average time of possession of less than 28 minutes.

But Auburn is one of only a few teams who can keep Oregon off the field.

Of the quality teams the Ducks have faced, only Stanford's rushing attack is comparable to Auburn's sixth-ranked rushing offense.

The Tigers can hold the ball for a big chunk of the game with that run-first mentality, which wouldn't bode well for the Ducks.

10. Oregon Has Played Weak Competition:

Outside of Stanford, Oregon has played a ridiculously weak schedule.

The Ducks have only faced two other teams who are headed to bowl games—Arizona and Tennessee—and those schools have a combined record of 13-11.

In fact, eight of the 12 teams Oregon faced in 2010 finished the regular season at or below .500.

9. 3rd-Down Conversions:

Auburn is one of the nation's best teams at converting on 3rd downs.

The Tigers have converted 77 of 145 3rd down attempts, or 53.1% of the team's tries.

Oregon has converted one more third down (78), but has had 170 chances - 45.9%.

It's a slim advantage, yes, but one that could play a huge role in determining the game's outcome.

8. Nick Fairley (Lombardi Award Winner):

With the exception of Oregon State's Stephen Paea, Oregon hasn't faced a dominant inside presence like Nick Fairley all season. He's one of the most disruptive defensive linemen in the country.

He won't make it easy for Oregon's offense when he's clogging up the middle on running plays or going after Darron Thomas on passing plays.

7. Second-Half Defense:

Auburn's season numbers on defense aren't going to "wow" very many people, but the Tigers have really stepped up on that side of the ball during their two most pivotal games.

In the regular season finale against Alabama, and the SEC Championship Game against South Carolina, Auburn allowed just two field goals in the second half.

That unit could be peaking at just the right time.

6. Auburn is Battle-Tested:

Auburn hasn't strolled its way into the national championship game. The Tigers have had one of the toughest schedules in the nation.

They've faced eight schools who were ranked at some point during the season, they've knocked off five top-20 teams, and they've beaten four top-12 teams, including last year's national champion (Alabama) and the current No. 7 team in the BCS (Arkansas).

5. Auburn's Defense:

Oregon's defense gets a lot more love because it forces turnovers, but Auburn's defense isn't far behind.

The Tigers have forced 18 turnovers and rank 34th in total defense (335.3 yards per game) while the Ducks rank 31st in total defense (331.6 yards per game).

So Auburn's "Achilles heel" may not really be one at all.

4. The Turnover Battle:

Oregon's defense may lead the nation with 36 turnovers, but the Ducks have also turned the ball over 22 times. That's eight more times than Auburn, which has just 14 turnovers in 12 games this season... and Cam Newton has thrown just one interception in the team's last seven games.

3. Auburn's Rushing Attack is not JUST Cam Newton:

Despite popular opinion, Auburn's rushing attack is more than just "let Cam Newton run and see what happens."

Michael Dyer, Onterio McCalebb and Mario Fannin have combined to rush for 2,108 yards and 19 touchdowns... and they've done that on just 310 carries, which translates to 6.8 yards per carry.

2. Auburn's Rush Defense:

Auburn's rushing offense gets a ton of publicity, so the team's rushing defense often gets overlooked, but not many teams can run on the Tigers.

Auburn boasts the nation's No. 7 rushing defense, allowing just 99.7 yards per game, and limiting its opponents to a measly 3.4 yards per carry.

1. The Heisman Winner:

You're probably getting sick of hearing about Cam Newton, but no one has been able to stop him for an entire game all season. Alabama did it for a half, but then he exploded... and not many other teams have even had a chance.

It seems next to impossible to stop this guy, as he's put up video game-like performances all season long.

Why should this game be any different?

This is all based on history, stats and analysis, but anything could happen, and... that's why they play the game.

Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

…all stores of food had given out and murder was everywhere upon the land. The world soon to be largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes and the cities themselves held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell.

Such is the world created by Cormac McCarthy in The Road, a brutally bleak post-apocalyptic scenario wherein a father and son struggle to stay alive from hour to hour as they plod along a devastating and pointless journey to the coast.

McCarthy’s ultra-stark, minimalist writing style (if you can call it style) takes some getting used to. It almost seemed pretentious at first – abandoning the use of quotation marks and his eccentric vocabulary – but the jarring nature of the writing supports the utter simplistic and immediate tone of this desolate world.

The man and his son, who remain nameless throughout the story, are clearly the long-term survivors of an unspecified apocalyptic event, probably a nuclear war. The winters are getting worse, food and water are running short, the landscape is scorched, and the ‘men who stalk the road’ are of the vilest nature. These are the elements that father and son face on a daily basis as they trudge along their journey, pushing a shopping cart containing all of their essential belongings (blankets, a tarp, canned food, and some tools), as they follow a rotting map while all the while avoiding any and all other human contact.

Their situation seems most hopeless when you realize that the pistol carried by the father (containing only two bullets) is not for their protection, but for their own suicide, should they encounter a gang of fellow survivors – ‘road agents’, cannibals – and he has to shoot the boy and then himself. In flashback we’re informed that this was the fate his wife chose, for fear of these brutal tribes.

The mutuality of surviving is a powerful and important theme in the relationship between father and son. The boy needs his father to care for him, to protect him, to socialize with, an to love him; and the father is acutely aware that the boy’s very existence gives him purpose… a reason to keep living in an unreasonable world. The intensity of his love for the child (and being a father I can attest that it is appropriately intense) has come to bear all the possible meaning in his life. The boy is the personification of all motive and purpose.

McCarthy fashions their ongoing existence as a series of desperately repetitive circumstances – starvation to plenty to starvation; despair to hope to despair; safety to danger and back again.

The narrative has no chapter breaks. There is no reprieve, apart from the inevitable end. At the same time, there is no real progression; never are we invited to hope (emphasized by the gradual worsening of the man’s cough). Like the man, the reader never really gets anywhere… for there is nowhere to go. What there is, however, is loss and trembling and love precisely expressed. McCarthy is a fantastic writer with artistic command of his style and syntax that is always systematic in its eccentricity.

Top 10 Films of the Noughties (by year)

My Top 10 List from 2000-2009 (one per year):

2000 (Tie): Gladiator & O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Man, I hate starting the list off w/ a tie, but I simply cannot choose between these two AMAZING films.

2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Whew! Now that one was way easier.

2002: City of God
I can't think of a better example of Orwellian doublespeak than the Brazilian housing project/slum for which this film is named. A rare glimpse into a world where the cheapest commodity is life itself.

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
What?

2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Thematically, it was pretty straightforward, dramatizing the old axiom that it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all. But then throw in a layered emotional texture w/ Michel Gondry's MTV-esque metaphysical labyrinth of memory erasing, AND Charlie Kaufman's hilarious, provocative and tragic script (not to mention Jim Carrey's best turn to date), and you've got the best of 2004!

2005: Sin City
To be honest, 2005 was not a big year for me @ the movies. I didn't see Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Good Night, and Good Luck, or Capote. And though I'm sure Sin City was not better than these Oscar-winning/worthy films, it is one that I saw, and I'm sure not giving the best film of the year to King Kong.
Besides, the visual adaptation from Frank Miller's graphic novel(s) to the big screen was nothing short of incredible!

2006: The Departed

As much as I love Clint Eastwood fims (Letters From Iwo Jima/Flags of our Fathers) whether acting or directing, I'm going w/ Scorsese this year. The acting (from Jack Nicholson's Irish mobster to Matt Damon's undercover criminal) is top notch. And Leo DiCaprio as an undercover cop, and Mark Wahlberg as a hothead sergeant give the performances of their careers. Another crime-in-the-streets classic from Scorsese!

2007: No Country for Old Men

An instant reminder why the Coen brothers deserve to be ranked at the forefront of American filmmaking. While Ratatouille is the 2007 film I've seen the most (I have two young daughters), quite possibly the year's best was actually made-for-TV-movie, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a chronicle of how the (native) American Indians were displaced as the U.S. expanded west.

2008: The Dark Knight

This was a toss-up, but Batman just edged Slumdog. TDK was appropriately sinister and consistent with the tone and darkness of the DC comic book series Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. And Heath Ledger's standout performance as mass-murdering psychopath, Joker, may just be what secured the top spot for 2008.

2009: ????

It's just too early to say. There are too many 2009 films I've not yet seen (since I usually have to wait for DVD release before seeing most films). Some that will be in the running are: Gran Torino, UP, District 9, Inglorious Basterds, and Avatar. Some I'd like to see before making a decision: 500 Days of Summer, Tyson, The Informant, and Where the Wild Things Are.

Stuff Christians LIke

This has been an ongoing little project that I've been having some fun with. This is also a completely stolen concept. I think the concept was inspired by a circulating email entitled "Stuff White People Like" (See entry #1). It has been adapted and even turned into a book on all things Christian, a sort of satirical overview of some of our most common trademarks, mannerisms and commonalities. Some of these are mine and some are... er... borrowed; some light-hearted, some kind of sad, and some tragically and painfully true.

Bottom line is it's for a laugh... I mean, if we can't laugh at ourselves, right?

So here are just a few of the Stuff Christians Like:

1. Putting a God spin on popular secular ideas (like 'Got Milk?' becomes 'Got Jesus?').
2. Reading "Love is Patient" at your wedding.
3. Songs with bottomless lyrics.
4. Comparing 'The Matrix' to Christianity.
5. Thomas Kinkade
6. Becoming awesome in a certain number of steps.
7. Dating God... instead of me.
8. Calling Satan "the enemy."
9. Greeting the people around you.
10. Dressing up church with cool words.
11. Mixing sign language and music.
12. Church names that sound like clothing stores.
13. Songs that sound Christian, but aren't.
14. Famous Christians.
15. Not dancing.
16. Occasionally swearing.
17. Creating new types of services.
18. Giving advice on things we've never experienced.
19. Metrosexual worship leaders/singers.
20. Rooting for secret Christians on American Idol.
21. Rob Bell.
22. Saying, "I'll pray for you," and then not.
23. Getting a precise definition of virgin from your youth pastor, or 'How far is too far?'.
24. Purpose, purpose, purpose.
25. Not owning nice stuff.
26. Calling people "seekers."
27. Being Relevant.
28. Aspiring to be nothing more in life than a wife & mother.
29. Being edgy.
30. Rededicating your life, again.
31. Fearing the rapture will come before you lose your virginity.
32. Editing pop culture.
33. The side hug.
34. Discovering our spiritual gifts.
35. Leadership.
36. Calling things "postmodern."
37. Getting caught off guard by divorce.
38. Grape juice instead of wine for Communion.
39. Offering a safe approach to life.
40. Using the word "Frickin" in place of the F word.
41. Journaling.
42. Disguising gossip as prayer.
43. Books that become empires.
44. Playing the G card.
45. Associating 'meditation' with yoga, candles and chanting.
46. Knowing where not to be during the rapture.
47. Emerging from something.
48. Wishing your testimony was more exciting.
49. Personality tests; or how to categorize myself so that you will truly understand me.
50. Discovering your personal calling.
51. The Five Love Languages.
52. Trying to be liked.
53. Kissing dating goodbye.
54. Coaching.
55. Never being in a room alone with a member of the opposite sex.
56. Evangelism tools.
57. Building a community of communities within community... and then worshiping at the altar of Community.
58. Witnessing to people who don't believe the Bible using the Bible.
59. Saying, "I grew up in the church."
60. Wishing sin wasn't fun.
61. Weird dating websites.
62. War themed ministries.
63. Waiting on God.
64. Telling you how many people come to our church.
65. The pray if you feel led prayer.
66. Chain email forwards.
67. Meticulously and Magnificently Making Multiple Messages Match (M)letters.
68. Giving open flames to kids on Christmas eve.
69. Referring to that verse where Jesus clears the temple when you get angry.
70. The Passion of the Christ
71. Singing, "You down with G.O.D." instead of OPP.
72. Committees on committees about committees.
73. Using "love on" as a verb.
74. Traveling mercies.
75. Thinking Vegas is slightly worse than hell.
76. Thinking temptation just kind of happens.
77. Thinking God is "testing you" when you encounter hard times.
78. Christianizing your facebook profile.
79. Disguising baby beauty pageants as Baby Dedications.
80. Reading through the Bible.
81. Precious Moments.
82. Confusing never with ever.
83. Lying because I love you.
84. Promise rings.
85. Narnia.
86. Margin, or life balance, or what $3 will get you.
87. The friend that went to counseling once and is now an expert on counseling you.
88. Wishing you had partied before becoming a Christian.
89. Going through "seasons."
90. Powerpointing for the Lord.
91. Using God as a financial plan.
92. "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West.
93. Loving issues, liking people.
94. Saying "just" during prayer.
95. Fishbowling the drummer.
96. The prayer grunt of affirmation.
97. Prosperity, or 28 ways Jesus blings.
98. Liking the Bible less than Hunter S. Thompson liked The Great Gatsby.
99. Background music for prayer.
100. Looking cool at church.
101. Arguing about the "wives submit to your husbands" verse.
102. Praying w/ our hands on people.
103. Worship leaders that add the word "and" to songs.
104. Sufjan Stevens.
105. Warning friends that the person they are about to meet is a "non-Christian."
106. The marriage triangle.
107. Christian emoticons.
108. Getting married before the legal drinking age; or How to pass the time at boring weddings.
109. Accountability.
110. Homeschooling.
111. U2
112. Saying "The Bible" when asked what your favorite book is.
113. Dividing the bill up to the exact cent; or contributing to the cost of the meal, but not the tip.
114. Not tipping.
115. The Republican party.
116. The secular culture parental filter, or "How I almost got to listen to Europe."
117. Breaking the chains.
118. Indie-folk-alt-country music, or music by uncool people for uncool people.
119. How Christmawesome your Christmas sweater is.
120. Bashing Obama.
121. Meeting at Starbucks
122. Getting single people married as soon as possible.
123. Talking about Bible college like it's University.
124. Reassuring single people that their mate is "still out there," or how to make single people feel like losers.
125. Talking about 'vision' more than living out 'vision;' or Meetings, Meetings, Meetings.
126. Waiting to hear from God before answering hard questions, or exercises in spinelessness.
127. Doing "everything else" except sex.
128. Lists.