By Chris Schumerth
Sports Capital Journalism Program
INDIANAPOLIS – On a night that had once eliminated heartbroken teams from a chance to reach the College Football Playoff, Oregon’s spot in the first 12-team field was not at stake on Saturday night. But its 45-37 victory over Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Football Game still had a “survive-and-advance” feel to it.
Senior defensive back Nikko Reed’s second interception of the year, on Drew Allar’s poorly-thrown deep ball with 1:54 left, all but clinched the victory for the “home” team that had traveled more than 2,000 miles to secure the number one seed.
On second down, with only a yard to go at the Penn State 46-yard-line, Allar took a shot down the right side of field in the direction of junior pass catcher Harrison Wallace III, who had scored on a 14-yard strike over the middle with 3:41 to play.
Allar overthrew this one just enough and to the front rather than back shoulder of his receiver. Oregon safety Tysheem Johnson was in good position to help his teammate, but Reed was in perfect position to look up in time to receive the gift, as Wallace III tried to climb his opponent’s back to prevent the inevitable.
“The belief in our team, you know throughout the game it never wavered,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said.
Lanning may be correct about his team’s steadfastness, but Penn State certainly gave Oregon reasons to be concerned. The Ducks allowed 518 yards, the fourth-highest total in the 14 championship games. There were two times in the second half when the Lions were down double digits with most of the game’s momentum on the Oregon sideline until Penn State engineered touchdown drives of 97 yards on six plays and 75 yards on 13.
The one-yard run by junior running back Kaytron Allen that capped his team’s longest drive 43 seconds into the fourth quarter led Penn State head coach James Franklin to attempt his team’s only two-point conversion attempt of the game. The Ducks sniffed out and stuffed touted Penn State tight end Tyler Warren on a reverse.
“We were having a tough time stopping them,” Franklin said. “We knew we were going to have to score points, and we wanted to try to win the game in regulation. So going for two to give us the best chance to win in regulation, we thought was the plan that we needed to take and the approach that we needed to take. When you don’t pick it up, obviously that’s going to get criticized. I get it.”
Lanning said it was a game in which his players needed “to give just a little bit extra.”
If there was one guy who typified that extra, it was senior wide receiver Tez Johnson, who was voted the Grange-Griffin Award as the Most Valuable Player.
Johnson, in his second season at Oregon after playing three seasons at Troy, was unavailable due to injury in the Ducks’ 16-13 win at Wisconsin three weeks ago. He scored on one of Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s four touchdown passes at the 7:36 mark of the third quarter. On that 48-yard play like so many of Johnson’s other 10 catches, many of the yards that contributed to his Big Ten Championship record 181 receiving yards were after the catch.
Johnson, who was adopted by the parents of former Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, said after the game that his biological family watched him play in person for the first time.
“I told them, like, ‘This is the first game y’all coming to, I’m going to give y’all a show, I promise you that,’” Johnson said.
Oregon’s perfect season equaled a school record with 13 victories and extended the school’s winning streak to 14, the longest in the nation. In its first season in the Big Ten, the Ducks became just the sixth team out of 18 current members to win the title game since it began in 2011.
“You look around the country and a lot of people find a way to lose,” said senior tight end Terrance Ferguson, “and we’ll find a way to win.”
