National Championship Preview: Oregon's receivers

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, Oregon's front 7, Ohio State's secondary, Oregon's secondary, Oregon's O-line, Ohio State's O-line, Oregon's running game, Ohio State's running game, and Ohio State's receivers.

Season highlight: Like Ohio State, Oregon had its best receiving game against Michigan State. The Ducks had 17 catches for 318 yards and three receiving touchdowns in a 46-27 rout. It wasn’t the Ducks’ best game of the season in terms of numbers, but it was their best performance against one of the nation’s best defenses.

Player to watch: Former running back Byron Marshall has emerged as the team’s top receivers with 66 catches for 834 yards and five touchdowns. He’s one of the team’s most versatile players as he also is fourth on the team in rushing with 51 carries for 386 and three touchdowns touchdowns. Look for him to run some reverses and catch passes out of the backfield. He likes to move around to make it difficult for defenses to key on him.

Strengths: Oregon is really good at using a lot of guys in a lot of different ways to keep defenses off-balance. Nine different players have at least 10 catches and all of those players have at least 100 yards. Eight players have at least 300 yards. Even more impressive is that 11 different players are averaging double digits in yards per catch. It’s hard to key in on any one receiver in this offense because so many guys get involved.

Weaknesses: Oregon will be without one of its top receivers in Devon Allen, who suffered what is being reported as a season-ending knee injury during the opening kickoff of the Rose Bowl. The loss of Allen is tough because he's an NCAA track champion with top-end speed that put a lot of pressure on opposing defenses. Oregon was able to adjust without him against Florida State, but Ohio State’s secondary is much better and a much bigger challenge.

Overview: It’s all about options for Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota and he has plenty of them. With nine different players having at least 10 catches already this season, Mariota has a plethora of receivers from which to choose.

Choosing which one to pay the most attention to is going to be one of the biggest challenges for the Ohio State secondary heading into this game. Marshall has led the team in receiving this season, but he hasn’t been the team’s top target the last couple games. That honor has gone to Darren Carrington, who has 291 yards and three touchdowns in the past couple contests, which equals 41 percent of his season total. Similarly, tight end Evan Baylis had six catches against the Seminoles, which was two more than he’d had all season.

Marshall, who actually graced the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, had five catches in each of the past two games, but for just 23 and 20 yards respectively.

Ohio State did a nice job of locking down Alabama’s star receiver Amari Cooper, who caught nine passes for 71 yards and two touchdowns. It was only the second time this season Cooper didn’t average at least 10 yards per catch. The Buckeyes also nabbed three interceptions, including one that was taken back for a touchdown late in the third quarter. Still, Alabama was able to gain 237 passing yards, which is more than the Buckeyes’ 191.6 yard average.

Overall, Oregon’s passing game is going to be up for a challenge against an Ohio State passing defense that ranks fourth in the country in pass efficiency defense and fourth in interceptions with 24. Defensive back Vonn Bell and Doran Grant lead the team in interceptions and Bell is second on the team in total tackles. However, this Ohio State defense hasn’t seen a passing game as multiple and dangerous as the Ducks’ this season.

Something will have to give.

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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