Heisman Is Marcus Mariota's to Lose After Dominant Late-Season Performances

Against rival Oregon State on Saturday, Marcus Mariota put up six total touchdowns (four passing, two rushing) and 406 total yards in the Oregon Ducks' 47-19 thumping of the Beavers. 

You know, just another day at the office for the Heisman front-runner. 

With Mississippi State's Dak Prescott and Marshall's Rakeem Cato both losing this week, and Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett being ruled out for the season with a leg injury suffered against Michigan, there's no doubt anymore. 

The Heisman is Mariota's to lose. 

His numbers have been off the charts, and in the "what have you done for me lately?" world of college football, Oregon looks like the nation's best team down the stretch. 

Mariota has thrown for at least 230 yards in each of his last six games. His lowest completion percentage of any game this season is 58.6 against Utah, a game he accounted for four touchdowns in a 51-27 victory. 

He's thrown for multiple touchdowns every game this year, and has just two interceptions all season. On top of his 36 passing touchdowns, he's also ran for 11 more. 

Simply put, Mariota's numbers are almost unmatched, and nobody matches his consistency. His only sin is losing to Arizona, when he still threw for 276 yards and two scores. Oh, and he also had a 26-yard receiving touchdown. Long story short, the loss wasn't on him. 

Even so, Mariota has a chance to atone for that loss in next week's Pac-12 title game, as the Ducks will face off against the Wildcats for a College Football Playoff berth. 

It's how Mariota, perhaps the most consistently great player week in and week out in college football, stands up to his competitors that puts him in the driver's seat to take home the hardware in New York City. 

Let's start with the reigning Heisman winner, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. The guy has thrown 13 first-half interceptions, 11 more than Mariota's thrown during all four quarters. The big difference is that Winston is undefeated, while Mariota has a loss. 

But again, the loss to Arizona wasn't on Mariota, and Winston hasn't necessarily led his team to victories. Rather, Winston's team has often had to bail him out. 

Next, Dak Prescott. 

In Mississippi State's two biggest games of the year against Alabama and Ole Miss, he came up short. Against the Crimson Tide, he threw three costly interceptions. In Saturday's Egg Bowl, he threw for just one touchdown and was limited to a 2.0 yards-per-carry average on 24 carries. 

How about Trevone Boykin? 

As good as the TCU Horned Frogs have been this year and how dynamic Boykin has been, he's also been just a tad too inconsistent to steal the award away from Mariota. 

This was most apparent in TCU's sloppy road win over West Virginia, where Boykin completed just 40 percent of his passes, threw for just 166 yards and ran for just 49 more. 

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His team's 61-58 collapse against Baylor, which may resonate all the way to the Horned Frogs' playoff hopes, also hurts Boykin's chances. 

The guy with the best case besides Mariota is Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon. 

The dude has racked up 2,160 rushing yards, set the FBS record for rushing yards in a game with 408 against Nebraska (the record stood for a week before it was broken by Samaje Perine of Oklahoma), and has 26 rushing touchdowns. 

Honestly, it's hard to find much wrong with his resume. If you're looking to be picky though, he was limited to just 38 yards against Western Illinois despite getting 17 carries, and the Badgers have two losses to their credit. 

The Heisman Trust likes winners, and while it's not necessarily Gordon's fault, nobody is talking about Wisconsin right now. Everybody's wondering how Oregon will fare in the Pac-12 title game, and for good reason.

Mariota has a chance to all but seal up the Heisman Trophy if he can heal the wounds from earlier this season and redeem the Ducks' loss to the Wildcats with a victory over them to secure the Pac-12 title.

There's more to Mariota's case than just his mind-boggling stats stacked up against his Heisman competitors.

He's gotten past the Stanford demons. The Cardinal, who beat Mariota and the Ducks in both 2012 and 2013, felt the full wrath of the Hawaiian gunslinger as he racked up 343 total yards and four total touchdowns in this year's matchup.

He also has Oregon, who so famously over the last few years has always been just one win away from a national title berth, on the verge of making the first College Football Playoff.

At the end of the day, Mariota looks like the nation's best quarterback while leading perhaps the nation's best team. That makes him a virtual lock for the Heisman Trophy.