.....for the Auburn faithful to show up, and BE LOUD! You could not ask for better football weather, for this one. And the 5:00 PM kickoff is perfect, timing-wise. And here's hoping US 280 is as clear as it was for South Florida! I'm heading down about 2 hours from now!

.....War Eagle!

but we'll take it. The defense looked great as expected. We have some serious issues on offense to get corrected before Amen Corner.

And now, another Acid Reign report, on a grinding, businesslike Auburn win over a spirited Ole Miss team. Conservatism was the buzzword of the day, at least from where I sat, in section 30, row 24, seat 15. The fanciest play Auburn ran was an end around to Mario Fannin, which went for big yardage, before being called back on a hold by Tim Hawthorne. Auburn also broke out a new, four wide receiver set, with three to one side. And, they ran every single time out of that formation, and with some success, too. The Auburn defense was conservative, as well, dialing up only a few blitzes. They conceded the slot receiver the short catches, playing off over ten yards. The slant was there all day for Ole Miss, but for unknown reasons, Ole Miss offensive coordinator Dan Werner failed to take full advantage.

The Auburn fan faithful were out in full force, with nearly a sell-out crowd. The visitors' section was speckled with plenty of orange, as Ole Miss brought only a small contingent of fans. The crowd both outside the stadium, and during pre-game was subdued, perhaps a hangover from the heart breaker a week ago in Baton Rouge. After a tremendously excellent pre-game show by the band, a soaring lap around the stadium by Nova, and the usual spine-chilling player entrance ceremony, the crowd caught fire, and made a LOT of noise. After Rod Smith's fumble in the first quarter, though, 87,100 throats developed a large, collective lump. Visions of USF/MSU, and another possible turnover-plagued loss were suddenly flashing through the fans' eyes. The crowd did not recover fully, till Smith redeemed himself with a clutch slant reception on third down, after which Smith spun completely around, ditched his defender into the sod, and raced into the corner of the end zone for a 34-yard, clinching touchdown. War Eagle! That was easily the loudest cheer of the night!

As a former member of the Auburn band, I was really proud of those guys! That was easily the best Auburn Band game-day band performance I've ever seen. They sounded GREAT! And, there was some actual marching. Pick those knees up! My son attended the game with me, his first EVER Auburn game, and he was really impressed that the band was playing a Green Day song from one of his video games. I got to beat my chest a little, and brag that "I was in that band, down on that field, once upon a time." Yeah!

In the game itself, Auburn dominated in many ways, but somehow found ways to sabotage drives. Ole Miss hung around, clawed, scratched, fought, and really never went away, till Brent Schae-fah! threw up that Hail Mary intended for Pat Lee. We had several motion penalties, holdings, drops, and whiffed blocks down in the red zone. Against the second worst (UT is the worst) defense in the league, we did not score like we were capable of. And, I was not happy, during the game, with the decision to cede the short pass. On some of those, we did not tackle well, and gave up some yards after the catch. However, after the game, on the Tiger call-in show, Coach Terry Price mentioned that Ole Miss had managed to burn just about every team they played this year with a long bomb or two, and that did not happen in this game. Maybe our coaches know some strategy, after all? Grades, grades, grades.

Defensive Line: A-. When you hold an all-SEC runner to 62 yards, and the offense under 200, you're doing well up front. Most impressive was that even when guys like Josh Thompson, Pat Sims, and SenDerrick Marks went to the sideline for a blow, guys like Ricks, Blanc, Goggins and Carter filled in with little drop-off. Points off mainly on Simms blowing repeatedly into the backfield, and failing to wrap up. Antoine Carter got sealed and lost contain on a couple of their more successful runs. Still, great job by this bunch. This is the best line we've had since 1988, and has more depth than that bunch.

Linebackers: A-. We largely used a two linebacker, 5 DB set against the Ole Miss attack. Chris Evans and Tray Blackmon carried a LOT of the load, although Craig Stevens got time, too, and made some plays. Blackmon, as usual, was in on some eye-popping hits, including the one that took Ole Miss QB Seth Adams out for a couple of series. M. Stafford and J. P. Wilson? Try scrambling up though the middle this year! Better bring some aspirin... Points off for just a few missed tackles, and a shirt-grab by Chris Evans that got flagged, and gave the Rebs a first down.

Secondary: B. For the most part, Ole Miss was denied the long ball. Ole Miss' longest completion was for 16 yards. We gave up the short stuff, but tackled fairly well. Even when Jonathan Wilhite got hurt on kick coverage late, Walter FacFadden came in and locked down the outside guys on the wide side. I like our depth, here. Still, the slant was there all day long for the Rebs, and they missed a ton of open receivers. Ole Miss also dropped a few. Against a better passing team, we might have been in a little trouble!

Punting: A+. This was mostly successful pooch-kicks, although Shoemaker boomed one 58-yard rain-making howitzer, that from my vantage point, seemed to clear the upper deck! Wes Byrum even got into the act, coming in on an apparent field-goal attempt, took a direct snap, bunted a lazy wobbler high into the air, and dropped it down on the one yard line! Ole Miss only had two returns for 9 yards. Sounds excellent, right? Special mention for deep snapper Robert Shiver, who delivered a massive, bone-crunching hit on Ole Miss return man Marshay Green, and then later downed the Byrum punt on the one. Shiver was a one-man wrecking crew on punt coverage!

Punt Returns: C-. OK. I have to admit it. Maybe we need Robert Dunn back. In the first quarter, Chris Slaughter messed with one punt that was headed inside the ten, bobbled it, and was lucky to fall on it.  On that bobble, he lined up only 30 yards back from the line of scrimmage, and was trying to backpedal and recover. Way too many punts hit and rolled. And, Slaughter was repeatedly right near the bouncing ball, often with his back turned. We were REALLY lucky we didn't loose a fumble on this stuff. We need to get a WHOLE lot better, here. Slaughter does have one thing in his defense: Ole Miss was punting mostly short, and used that running rugby kick, too. That's tough to field. On the other hand, there should be opportunity to block those things!

Kick Returns: C+. Ole Miss only kicked off once, to start the second half. They squibbed it to Mario Fannin, but we blocked nobody, and Fannin leaned forward for a measly 6 yards.

Kick-offs: C+. We kicked off 4 times, and never got it past the Ole Miss 20 yard line, and gave up about 30 yards a return on the first three. This is pretty bad. The last kickoff, Ole Miss lined up in a foolish formation, we bowling-ball-kicked it right into a giant empty space, and by the time it was corralled by Andy Hartman, the coverage was there to clobber him at the 30. Best kick-coverage play of the year..

Place Kicking: A-. Zack Kutch got his first career point in the first quarter, but kicked an awful-looking buzzard-ball on a later FG attempt. Wes Byrum, who was not supposed to play, limped himself out on the field and easily drove in a "routine" 36-yarder, as well as an extra point, late. Get well, Wes. We'll need you against the last two teams...

Offensive Line: B-. We are lucky that Rogers Reddings' SEC zebras almost NEVER call holding on offensive lineman. King Dunlap got a three-headed chewing out over on the sideline after our first series. Dunlap also got the wind knocked out of him later, allowing Ryan Pugh to come in on the goal line, and pave the way for a short Lester dive for a touchdown. Dunlap would return, and play some pretty solid ball. Brandon Cox enjoyed excellent protection, for the most part, although he took a sack on a big third-down blitz in the second quarter. It is perhaps surprising, to hear complaints about line play on a day where the team rushed for 231 yards, but we were pretty sloppy, from where I sat. This was one of the worst defenses in the SEC. Pass blocking was good, run blocking was decidedly not, for the most part.

Tight Ends: B. Mostly solid blocking, especially on blitz-pickup by the wingback/tight end. Cole Bennett had a drop, and almost another, on a 19-yard reception.

Wide Receivers: C+. Fumbles, wrong route reads, blocking penalties, two false starts, and generally lackluster down-field blocking doom this grade. Rod Smith got it together after his first quarter fumble, though, and was a real weapon. Why the Rebs didn't double him, I have no clue. Billings did well when thrown to , too. Billings made a great, clutch catch late in the 4th, over the middle, on a ball that was thrown high. He got clobbered by a DB, but held on for a key first down. That was as big-league a catch as we've seen all year!

Fullback: C. Carl Stewart was it, here. He had one great run on the belly play, but got stopped short the other three times. Often, he went though the line as a lead blocker, and completely whiffed, coming out the other side with no contact on any white jersey, at all. We'll need better than this, to run on UGA or UA!

Tailback: A-. We were pretty good here, but no long breakaways. There were a couple of drops of passes, too, but the one by Tate was an excusable reach-back job on a ball thrown behind him. This grade may be low for a group that ran hard, and didn't fumble, exactly. There were about a half dozen loose ball, ground caused it, or they got it back, type things. We racked up 231 yards, but if we could have gotten some consistent down field blocking from wide receivers and fullbacks, this could have been probably doubled.

Quarterback: A-. I'm counting off a little for a few missed passes. For the most part, though, Brandon Cox hit his throws. There were several drops, as usual. Brandon showed great pocket awareness, pulling it down and stepping up, then finding an open receiver and flipping it forward. Brandon wasn't even close to any turnover, and made a number of nice checks. Kodi Burns came in for one play in the first half, and failed to get the play off before Tuberville had to call a time out due to the play clock being almost out. Burns played late in the game, and ran the read-option out of the shotgun a few times, picking up a good first down himself.

Composites
Defense: A-. Special Teams: B. Offense: C+

We needed to do a WHOLE lot better against a bottom-feeder defense. Occasional slop by the line, and lackluster blocking at the FB and wide receiver positions really held our offense down. We still need drastic improvement on the kick-return game, both returning, and kicking/covering. On defense, we're still pretty good. With a little tighter coverage, we can be great!

And so, after a long day, I'll do a one-pass skim-proofread, a bit of reading, to see what I missed on the net today, and then I'll crash. It's been a long day, but a good one. Anytime I can see a live, Auburn win at Jordan-Hare, that's a great day!

War Eagle!