Outcome in hands of Auburn defense

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.

They have given up trying to figure out those wacky play-calling cards. The ones with pictures of TV personalities and maps and moose and bizarre logos and symbols. The ones that could mean anything from formation to protection to run to pass to someone get Phil Knight a cup of coffee in his luxury suite.

Gene Chizik doesn’t think his football team needs to be experts at Pictionary to win a national championship. He thinks all will work out if Auburn’s defense can simply line up fast enough each play.

"If we can’t," Chizik said, "we don’t have a chance."

Chizik will take a final score of 8-7 or 10-9 or 15-14. He will also take 65-64. He will take anything that means Auburn players are holding aloft a crystal trophy Monday night because they scored at least one more point than Oregon in the Bowl Championship Series final.

Yeah. Good luck with 8-7.

There is a reason ticket brokers say many who want to gain entry into University of Phoenix Stadium are paying more than Super Bowl prices, that $19,000 is being sought for select seats with a face value of $325, that officials are expecting 10,000 or so fans without tickets arriving here in search of the best deals.

Oregon and Auburn have never met.

That, and 65-64 isn’t all that crazy a notion.

"It might be 60-55, something like that," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier told reporters after his team lost to Auburn in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game. "Maybe somebody will rise up and play a lot of great defense."

The Tigers might settle for a little.

Auburn has won 13 games and yet appeared average defensively in more than half. It allowed at least 24 points nine times and 31 or more four times. It placed only one player — Lombardi Award winner Nick Fairley — on the first or second All-SEC defensive teams.

But you can bend like a rubber ruler again and again and still be OK when you have a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback producing averages of 42.7 points and 497.7 yards. For all the times Auburn’s defense struggled, the Tigers still won six games by 20 points or more.

Hand it to Cam Newton. The quarterback has been fantastic at hiding the weakness that is his team’s secondary.

"I know for a fact we as a defense have to be the ones to win this championship," Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes said. "It’s going to be up to us, clear as day. You have to stop somebody at some point."

Problem: Auburn hasn’t faced the Peregrine falcon that is Oregon. No team nationally strikes faster. None owns a more relentless attack.

The Tigers have surrendered nearly twice as many points in the first half as the second, which speaks to their ability to adjust. But that was against earthly offenses. Oregon is from an entirely different planet, having scored at least 42 points in 10 of 12 games.

It uses the mysterious cards to signal in plays and snaps the ball quicker than you blink. Auburn will have spent 36 days trying to simulate the speed and timing and tempo it will face and might need 36 more to completely understand how fast Oregon plays.

No, this is certain: Oregon is good enough defensively — 25th nationally in yards allowed and fifth in red-zone defense, 18.4 points allowed per game, holding all but four opponents scoreless in the fourth quarter — to make you believe it can slow Newton just enough times to win.

This is not certain: Auburn playing well enough defensively to lift that crystal trophy.

"I don’t know what to expect," Chizik said. "I really don’t. Our (defensive) players will see what they see and listen to what they listen to and read what they read. At some point, you get tired of hearing about it and just want to play.

"We have to get lined up and recognize formations and be in the right spots. We’ve done as good a job as we can simulating (Oregon) in practice. The bottom line is, our defense is going to have to come through for us."

There is a chance such a long layoff between games will affect the offenses most, that it might be impossible for both teams to regain the type of rhythm that produced so many big plays and points. It has happened before in this game.

But the chance of 8-7 or 10-9 or 15-14?

About the same as Phil Knight wearing a swoosh-less wardrobe come Monday.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM.