The Oregon Ducks and Florida State Seminoles are playing in the Rose Bowl for the College Football Playoff Semifinals on Thursday and the matchup on New Years Day is from California starting up at 5 pm ET on ESPN and the WatchESPN website as Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston battle and this is a high profile matchup for the playoffs as FSU and Ore battle to see who will make it to the national championship game.
Winston and Mariota come in after winning the Heisman Trophy over the past two seasons, with the Oregon star winning it this year. The Ducks come in after going 12-1 this season and they were 8-1 in the Pac-12 conference and they have as good of an offense as anyone in the nation. Oregon comes in after winning big against Arizona in the Pac-12 championship game and they are currently ranked number two heading into this matchup.
Oregon dropped 51 points on Arizona after previously losing to the team earlier in the season and now they have won eight straight games heading into this matchup. The Seminoles have not lost since before last season and they have won 29 games in a row with Winston. The Seminoles come in as the undefeated side and national champions and they will have to play some tough defense to stop the Ducks attack.
Oregon has not scored less than 40 points since the loss against Arizona and they have only been under that in one other game apart from that this season. Oregon went 4-0 against top 25 teams this season and they were undefeated in their division in the Pac-12 and now they are looking to matchup with OSU or Alabama in the national championship game after next week. Mariota had a fantastic season with 3783 passing yards and 38 touchdowns and he also added 14 TDs on the ground with over 600 yards rushing.
The Oregon defense has been playing well this season and they are ranked in the top 30 in points scored with 22 allowed per game. The team is ranked third in the nation in points scored per game with 46 and they are also in the top 25 in both passing and rushing yards per game. The team averaged over 300 yards per game through the air and they put up over 230 yards per game on the ground. The Seminoles have been close in a ton of games this season and that could make this matchup a very tough one for both sides of the ball, especially on defense with all of the weapons that Oregon has.
Florida State comes in after a two point win in the ACC championship game and they have been much weaker this season then they were last year while winning the championship. The team comes in ranked 28th in the nation in points scored per game this season and they are in the top 30 in defense with 23 points allowed per game. Winston threw for 309 yards against Georgia Tech and they are 13-0 this season after going 8-0 in the ACC and they have not lost since back in 2012.
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