National Championship Preview: Oregon's front 7

The first College Football Playoff National Championship Game is finally upon us and Dr. Saturday has your pregame prep covered. Every day leading up to the game, we’ll breakdown a piece of each team and preview its role in the upcoming title game. Previous previews: Ohio State's front 7.

Season highlight: Oregon’s best effort on defense came in a 51-13 win against Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship. The Ducks limited the Wildcats, who were one of the most potent offenses in the country, to a season-low 224 yards, including just 111 yards rushing. Arizona's offense was held scoreless in the first half for the first time since 2012. The Oregon defense also had four sacks and forced a fumble.

Player to Watch: Defensive end DeForest Buckner has emerged as a force on Oregon’s much-maligned defensive line this season. Buckner doesn’t have jaw-dropping stats — 69 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, and four sacks — but he’s become the anchor of the Ducks’ 3-4 defense and a key to its bend-but-don’t-break style.

Strengths: Let’s be honest here, Oregon’s best defense is its great offense. Because the offense scores so quickly and puts opponents into deep holes, it takes a little pressure off the front seven, who have good numbers against the run because so many teams abandon it in an effort to catch up. However, it’s important to point out that in the past couple games, Oregon has done a much better job of getting to the quarterback and the front seven also has done an excellent job this season in recovering fumbles. The Ducks have 18 recovered fumbles, which ranks third nationally.

Weaknesses: While Oregon has done a better job of getting to the quarterback recently, that hasn’t been its strength and it’s also susceptible to dual-threat quarterbacks. UCLA’s Brett Hundley had 89 yards and a score against the Ducks and even Stanford Kevin Hogan managed 42 yards. Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston started the CFP Semifinal strong on the ground even though he hasn’t shown much in the running game this season. This could result in a big advantage for Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, who used his 6-foot-5, 250-pound frame to punish Alabama’s normally stout defensive front for 43 yards.

Overview: For the entire year, the Oregon defensive front has been trying to shake off the notion that it’s soft.

It’s seemingly done that in the past couple games by limiting two of the nation’s best offenses to some of their worst outputs of the season and getting into the backfield to disrupt the flow of play.

The Ducks combined for six sacks against Arizona and Florida State and forced seven total fumbles, five of which were recovered. The front seven had three of the team’s four tackles for loss against Florida State, including two from linebackers Tony Washington and Torrodney Prevot.

However, the Ducks’ 3-4 defense was shredded early by the Florida State running game led by shifty running back Dalvin Cook, who had 103 yards, and Karlos Williams, who added another 80 yards. In fact, Florida State seemed to target Oregon’s defensive front with five runs during its first nine plays, which resulted in 31 early rushing yards. On the Seminoles third drive of the game, it ran the ball nine times during a 12-play drive that ended with quarterback Jameis Winston stopped on fourth down at the 1-yard line.

The reason that’s so astounding is because Florida State’s running game was one of the nation’s worst this season. Now, some of that was attributed to youth and injuries to both running back and the offensive line, but the Seminoles had very little trouble moving the ball against the Ducks. The Seminoles didn’t actually abandon the run until the second half when turnovers put them at such a deficit that they had to pass to try to get back into the game.

If Florida State’s run defense, which was ranked in the 90s nationally could move the ball on Oregon, there’s no telling what an Ohio State team that ranks ninth in the country in rushing will be able to do. In the semifinal against Alabama, Ohio State rushed for 281 yards, including a Sugar Bowl record 230 by Ezekiel Elliott. And that was against an Alabama defense that ranked fourth nationally against the run and had not allowed a 100-yard rusher this season.

However, the Oregon front seven seems to do better on a shorter field. As noted above, the Ducks are the quintessential bend-but-don’t-break defense. It allows 421.9 yards per game, which ranks 84th nationally, but just 22.3 points per game, which ranks 27th. Of the 15 red zone scores the Ducks have allowed in the past six games, only four have been rushing touchdowns and seven have been field goals.

Containing Ohio State’s offense, which averages 45 points per game, is not going to be an easy prospect, but it’s not like the Oregon defense hasn’t faced high-scoring offenses already this season. As noted earlier, the Ducks' best defense all season has been its offense and as long as it can keep putting points on the board, the front seven will have a better chance of keeping the running game fairly quiet.

For more Oregon news, visit DuckSportsAuthority.com.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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