Three takeaways from No. 16 Auburn's stunning win over No. 11 Oregon

Thomas Lott

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Three takeaways from No. 16 Auburn's stunning win over No. 11 Oregon image

Bo Nix had one heck of an introduction to college football.

The true freshman quarterback led his No. 16  Tigers to a 27-21 win over No. 11 Oregon at Cowboys Stadium and threw the game-winning touchdown pass for good measure.

Auburn has once again started off a season with a big win over a ranked team while Oregon picked up where it left off last year losing to a team it should have beaten.

Three takeaways from No. 16 Auburn's stunning win over No. 11 Oregon

The same, but different

Justin Herbert and Bo Nix really couldn't be further away in their careers at this point. Herbert is a senior, Nix is a freshman. Herbert is a potential top-10 pick and Nix is trying to prove himself. But despite what should have been an experience and skill mismatch at the QB spot, the two men essentially got the same results Saturday.

Herbert did it with his big arm going 28-of-36 passing for 242 yards and a touchdown while Nix did it with his resourcefulness rushing seven times for 42 yards and picking up big first downs with his feet when he needed to. Nix only went 13 of 31 for 177 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, but when it came down to it, the Tigers were neck and neck with the Ducks from the first snap of the game.

And on the last snap Nix took, he nailed Seth Williams for a touchdown to give the Tigers their first win of the season. He wasn't as good as Herbert in this game. He shouldn't have been expected to be. But he made it work and helped his team come away with a win.

What happened to the quarterback sneak?

This feels like a baseball purist asking why teams don't bunt anymore, but honestly, it feels like this question is justified for this game. Over and over again the Ducks got into short-yardage situations against an Auburn team whose strength is just that and yet Oregon kept running it out of the pistol.

Now, we know Oregon runs just about every play out of the shotgun in some way or another. We get it. But every single player on every single college team has at some point run a play under center. They know how to do it. So why when you get stuffed on consecutive plays running out of the pistol do you try once again to run out of the pistol in a short-yardage situation. Oregon's decision to do this with about five minutes left in the third quarter is a perfect example.

Another great one came in the first half when Oregon had the ball inside the 5-yard line and ran it multiple times at Auburn's line and came up short. It was forced to kick a field goal after a dropped touchdown pass and the kicker missed. Though in that instance, Oregon tried to do something different by throwing it, and what do you know, it worked out. It was just a drop.

But running the ball of the pistol in short yardage is an iffy proposition at best and the times it winds up working out really don't make up for the times it doesn't.

What does this game tell us?

Absolutely nothing. Let's be clear about this. This game means zero, zilch. It's the first game of the year. Did anyone watch Tennessee lose to Georgia State? How about Ole Miss falling to Memphis? Or better yet, remember when Auburn beat Washington to open the season last year? Yeah. Even we at the time said that meant something. That this meant Auburn was really good.

The Tigers then went 7-5 the rest of the way and lost to Tennessee. Auburn really wasn't all that good. The point here is this — in the first game of the season there will be hiccups. Teams will struggle to execute their offenses perfectly and mistakes will be made. Oregon's punter was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty for crying out loud. What we saw on this field can tell us something, but it isn't a good indicator of which team was better.

And honestly, Oregon should have been up by three touchdowns at the half, but you know what, it wasn't. The Ducks left tons of points out there and let an Auburn team that was struggling with a freshman quarterback hang around. So does a low output on the scoreboard indicate this Ducks offense isn't good? No. It does not. It means this is the first game of the year and there is a whole lot of football to be played. Check back with us in Week 6 or 8.

Thomas Lott