Dillon Gabriel was the biggest winner of the weekend in college football, at least in terms of the Heisman Trophy market, and for Johnny Manziel, who won the award in 2012, it's easy to see why.
"You're looking at a situation now where [Oregon] can run the table and go undefeated, and then you're looking at one of the best quarterbacks in the country on a top-rated team," Manziel said during his weekly appearance on our own BBOC YouTube channel, Action Network's flagship college football platform. "That's usually a good recipe for a Heisman season."
Gabriel led Oregon to arguably the biggest win by any team this season, a 32-31 victory in a matchup of the No. 2 and 3 teams in the country. He finished 23-of-34 for 341 yards and two touchdowns while adding 32 yards and a touchdown on four carries.
After the dust settled on the wild weekend, Gabriel's Heisman Trophy odds had skyrocketed. At +400, he's now second favorite to Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty (+160). For Manziel, it wasn't just that Gabriel won the game, but it was how important he was to the Ducks.
"When they needed him to play well, he was able to move the ball downfield," Manziel said. "Ohio State gave him a lot of man looks, and he had to make some big-time throws, dropping the ball in the bucket, but also extended some plays with his legs. It was such a huge win for them, and they couldn't have done it without their quarterback playing the way he did."
Manziel and BBOC host Collin Wilson broke down what they agreed was Gabriel's most impressive play of the game. Facing a 3rd-and-2 in Ohio State territory, trailing by six points early in the fourth quarter, Gabriel took the game into his own hands.
"The defensive end is just so aggressive biting on the run that it's a really easy read for Gabriel," Manziel said. "But if you watch, Ohio State still has a safety coming downhill to stop this play at 6-7 yards and Gabriel just does a great job of making him miss. Then a corner getting blocked even has a chance to break this up and make a tackle here. So it's a little bit of Ohio State being in the right spot and Gabriel just being better and making guys miss."
This is Gabriel's sixth season of college football and first at Oregon. He previously played three years at UCF and then two more at Oklahoma. He has 13 touchdown passes and three interceptions this season to go along with 103 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. The Ducks travel to 1-5 Purdue this week before its last two games of the regular season against teams that are currently ranked, a home game against No. 22 Illinois and then a meeting with the defending national champions, No. 24 Michigan, at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Johnny Manziel appears weekly on Action Network's BBOC YouTube channel, with Johnny's Intangibles releasing every Monday and Johnny's Scramble Drill releasing every Friday. He also appears on BBOC Live, which airs every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET on the BBOC YouTube channel and the Action App.
