Breaking Down Oregon vs Auburn and what it means for LSU

I decided to go through and breakdown some numbers from the championship game so we can see how LSU might go about their game.

~I mainly focused on what Auburn's offense did against Oregon's defense. Auburn exposed a weakness in the Oregon D and exploited them for 254 yards on the ground. Dyer rushed for 142, Newton and McCaleb for about 45 each. Heres the breakdown of where they picked up those yards

Left: 13 rushes for 6.1 yards per rush
Middle: 15 rushes for 3.4 yards per rush
Right: 21 rushes for 6.6 yards per rush

Those numbers would have you believe that its going to be key for LSU to get good blocking on the outsides and Spencer Ware should be able to pick up solid yardage. Thats not to say Auburn didn't gain solid yardage up the middle as well. Dyers highest ypr came on runs up the middle at 4.9 ypr.

Passing:

Newtons line of 20/34 265 yards 2TDs and a pick isn't eye popping, but if JLee can replicate a similar line, The Tigers might be in a favorable position. Heres the breakdown of Newton's passing

Left:9/11 114 yds TD 12.6 ypc
Middle: 6/8 102 yds TD 17 ypc
Right: 5/15 9.8 ypc

Obviously, Cam was most successful when throwing to the left side and over the middle with only 4 incompletions between the two. I'm not certain but I'd venture a guess that Oregon's star CB Cliff Harris was playing on the right side where Cam threw 10 incomplete passes. Harris was also responsible for the interception. The good news here is that as we know, Cliff Harris won't be playing this game. Lee should be able to utilize Randle on the outsides. Also, keep an eye out for Deangelo Peterson catching some passes across the middle.

~As far as defense goes, I'm stating the obvious here but the absolute key is to stop the run. Auburn COMPLETELY shut down the Oregon ground game which we know is their bread and butter. The Auburn defense held them to just 75 yards on the ground. LaMichael James racked up just 44 rushing yards and Darron Thomas finished with -19 yards. If Auburn can do it, I feel certain LSU can too.

~Auburn forced Darron Thomas to throw on them....which he did quite successfully, passing for 363 yards. But as brothers in the SEC, we know how weak Auburn's defense especially their secondary was in 2010. The optimal situation for LSU would be to shut down the run in a similar manner and force DT to throw the ball...because theres no way he goes nuts slinging the ball against our stingy secondary.

~I expect that Chip Kelly has been watching LSU-Auburn film religiously and his gameplan will be somewheat similar. He'll come out and use DT's legs hoping to exploit us on the ground in the same way Cam and the Tigers did. Surely, the Chief has burned his plan from Auburn last year and come up with a new way of stopping a strong running team.

Fortunately for LSU, we no longer have a brain dead OC (Remember when he refused to throw deep on Auburn's secondary ). Right now I've got the Tigers by 10. But it could be even more if our D plays up to their potential and shoots down the Ducks. BTW, tl;dr