Or do we???? Last night at Jordan-Hare had to be the most  riveting, emotionally wrenching, gut-knotting game I've seen in years. West Virginia had us overmatched in every facet of the game except kicking....but we still won. That says a lot about the coaches and more importantly it says a great deal about the team's character and desire. 

We should not have won that game last night but we hung in and continued to play for 60 minutes and were ready to capitalize when WVU decided to give the game away.  Every team has a bad game, (USC and BYU anyone??) but can you win that game? Auburn didn't deserve that win last night from an X's and O's standpoint but boy did they deserve to win based on effort and making their opponent pay for making mistakes. Thats called making your own luck and there isn't another attribute more necessary to win in the SEC than that.

Based on last nights game, here is what I know about these Tigers. Ted Roof needs to make anybody trying to tackle a shoulder pad, run until they puke. We were horrible last night trying to tackle big guys, Jarrett Brown and Jock Sanders up around their shoulder pads and were consequently thrown off or pushed down he field an extra 5-10 by them. Thats got to stop. It was clear from early in the game that we needed to contain Jarrett Brown but didn't  have the ability to do so.

The line did a good job of bullrushing up the middle but that just pushed Brown to the perimeter where he made plays with his arm and his feet all night. Unfortunatley Josh Bynes, Craig Stevens and Eltoro Freeman (yes, he was on the field most of the night, not that you could tell) mostly came into the picture 10 yards down field. We've got to find a scheme to minimize our LB's ineffectiveness....that scheme may unfortunately require us scoring 40+ pts a game.

This is going to catch up with us eventually because when your LB's are ineffective, the defense spends all night on the field watching the opposing offense march down the field...and Gus isn't going to help them in that regard either. On the plus side, when we kept Brown in the pocket, we made him make mistakes and our secondary did a good job of making him pay when he made an ill-advised throw.

Unlike UGA's DB's, our DB's catch the ball when they get their hands on it. If we had been able to contain Brown most of the night, I think the game would have been much different...and low scoring. The defensive line played very well again and was the difference in the game for us. Colemen, Fairley and RIcks has outstanding games and were pushing into the backfield all night. I expected Devine to get his yards but was really disappointed he was able to break off that 70 yarder so early in the game.

Amazingly we seemed surprised by Brown and Devine's speed and elusiveness. I guess thats the difference between practice and game speed. Game ball goes to the defense for their inspired play, most notably Craig Stevens and Jake Ricks for those Mountaineer slaying int's that won the game for us. Roof should have the LB's doing Oklahoma drills during practice all next week.

On the offense here is what I know:

Chris Todd can not carry this team. I knew this before, but last night really drove that home. Now I'm not going to give Chris a hard time, in fact I think he played very well considering we were unable to esablish our running game.  Chris made several plays on third and long and continues to find Darvin Adams open in the red zone, which amazingly nobody has taken away from us...yet. 

He is able to read the field and make the throws he needs to....when he has time. When Chris is blitzed or has pressure in his face, he is a different QB. He gets Riverdancy when the rush is closing in on him and focuses on one area of the field hoping someone will get open. Too often last night he held on to the ball too long, when he knew the rush was behind him and closing and took drive killing sacks.

That being said, I was impressed with how he managed the game and handled the rush in the second half, stepping up  in the pocket to buy himself some more time. He made some bad rows but not bad throws into coverage, except for the int. in the second qtr. If anything Chris showed last night, he can be the difference maker on this team IF we can keep the running game going.

Wes Byrum was exceptional again, making all the kicks we needed him to make, which is impressive on a soggy and slippery turf. I don't care how well the field drains, being able to plant your foot and drive a 46 yd field goal through the dead middle of the uprights was impressive last night. He looks like a totally different kicker from a year ago and I think he was the key in keeping the game from getting out of hand last night. If Wes misses either of those kicks in the first half last night, it would have been a complete momentum and confidence killer for the team.  Wes' ability to make those kicks made us believe we were still in it....if we could just hold them. And we did. Great Job Wes!!!

Here is what I still don't know:

Can our DB's really defend against a poised pocket passer? While our guys did a good job against Jarrett Brown ,when he was forced to stay in the pocket, Brown made poor decisions and even worse throws time and again. Brown only made his hay on the perimeter of the pocket or throwing in the middle of the field, where our invisible linebackers play. Fortunately we may not have to learn the answer to this question until we travel to Fayetteville.

Is Mario Fannin a vital cog of our offense or not? I thought going into the year that we needed to get Mario Fannin more involved with the offense for it to be successful. Last night showed again that he can be a difference maker in game, and that play seemed to really throw the Mountaineers into the pit of despair. They never really recovered.  We traded haymakers last night, but ours in the 10th round seemed to be the one that won the fight. The problem is, I just don't see us trying to get Fannin the ball enough.

Onterrio McCalebb had a great couple of games to start the season, but he was not the same back last night. Is McCalebb the lightning to Ben Tate's thunder or is he not going to be effective against the faster SEC defenses? Onterrio was bottled up last night and was never able to get into the open and show his speed.  Was that an aberration or a sign he isn't really ready for the SEC?

Can we really establish the pass with the run? I was shocked that we were so ineffective running the ball last night. The mountaineers were not confused by the machinations and fakes taking place in the backfield and just used those delays to swarm into the backfield. I think they have an advantage practicing against the spread everyday but it was clear they were going to make us beat them with Chris Todd. Can we win against our rivals that employ that same strategy? The long standing criticism of the spread offense is that it's fakes, misdirections, and east/west movement can't excell against the speed of SEC defenses. It did well against Miss St, not so good against WVU. How well will it do against, Tenn, Arky, and LSU???

Overall I like the spirit and desire of our team. In the college game thats almost as important as a sound gameplan. Last year we lose this game 49-10, guaranteed. We were so divided, and waiting for the next bad thing to happen that we could not, and would not respond to a challenge.

Last night, not only did we respond, we overcame, turned the pressure back on our opponent, challenged them to respond and defeated them. Regardless of what happens the rest of the season, Coach Chizik and his staff have established an attitude that will pay dividends in the long run. I don't know yet if this is a 10-2, 9-3 or 8-4 team, but we are going to beat the folks we should beat and probably a couple we shouldn't. Coach Chizik, you and your staff are off to a great start.....LETS KEEP IT UP!!! 

WAR EAGLE!!!