Bruised and Battered Auburn Looks To South Carolina

It’s been an alarming two weeks of football, at least from where I am sitting. Good point on Trooper. (I think he may just be easily excited) Really, I don’t understand that. I was under the impression before the season that our receiving core would be among the best in the league. I really did. From what we were led to believe we had all kinds of guys that come in, get open, and catch the ball. That has not been the case so far in 2010.

The o-line has also been hard to pin down. I’m not sure if its attitude or these guys are really that ineffective in run blocking, but something has got to give.

Malzahn’s play calling has been confusing the past two weeks. The lack of passes called Saturday was alarming. 14. I mean 14?!

I think (and hope with all my heart) that all of these problems are just AU getting the rust out and finding their rhythm. But it may end up being a long season if we can’t find some consistency on offense.

War Damn Eagle! Beat SC!

That was one tough physical game Saturday night. Hand it to Clemson, they played their hearts out.
My personal belief is that our offensive line is letting us down thus far. Penalties, blown assignments, and now a terrible injury to deal with is tough on an offense.
One other factor, the coaches seem to have purposely simplified the game plan for a new quarterback. Malzahn has repeatedly mentioned, not wanting to put too much on Cam too early. Well now it’s put up or shut up time!
Auburn must find a way to play more consistently on the line when we have the ball.

WAR EAGLE!

“With the exception of the third quarter Saturday, this is an offense that looks nothing like it did a year ago.”

In your opinion how did the offense last Saturday night stack up against the one put on the field in 2008?

BTW, I don’t remember you running a poll in 2008 asking:

"How would you rate the performance of Auburn’s coaches so far this season?

i was VERY CURIOUS what the sentiment would be here today. i thought the clemson game was very exciting physical, athletic football… mostly because of the drama, and the comeback W.
viewed a good part of the game once again yesterday…and couldn’t help but think that we are seeing strong habits/ tendencies built in to Newton show up now.
i think this is a guy who enters the snap on a passing down with one guy he really wants to get the ball to…and the other option that he’s considering right behind that is running the ball. i don’t see him going through his progressions and finding the open guy underneath. in fact, i saw a couple times where the LB didn’t cover the flat at all and ran back in coverage to the primary receivers downfield.

this is a real shame, i was excited about Newton having the vision to read the play, balance and decision make … i was thinking these guys in the slot are going to benefit the most. that hasn’t been the case.

i do want to say,… the play calling is hard to figure with final game stats. many of Newton’s runs were on pass play downs and pass play calls. i really think this offense better find some more balance NOW.

having said all that, Auburn moved the ball pretty well in the second half.
my game balls: darvin adams_clutch catches moving the chains and extending drives on 3rd and long. most of his catches were with defenders right on him.
josh bynes. a couple of key tackles that stalled drives for Clemson in the second half. i don’t know how this guy plays all game, but he is a true warrior on the field.
HM: m. McNeil … thought he brought some MUCH NEEDED physical play to the AU secondary.
…
players i am concerned about: cam newton. he has got to find a rhythm of ball distribution and consider the short passing game in lieu of tucking and running so much. i wonder if he didn’t run so much if he would make decisions more clearly and be more patient in the passing game.
neiko thorpe. i’m really concerned here. he not only is trailing every play,…he’s getting turned around in circles. we need this guy to show up and play better. i don’t know who is going to cover alshon jefferey saturday.
HM: Oline to many penalties once again. got to buy more time for Newton on pass plays to go through progression(s). not pushing the line of scrimmage as the AU Dline seems to be

It has the feel of a must win (though unfair.) If we see another poor o-line performance, along with overall offensive and defensive struggle. MULTIPLE coaches’ seats will begin to heat.

The 3rd quarter was great Saturday night, but overall the offense has been very sloppy in 2010. This does not look like a 2nd year offense. I know Cam is new to this style and his still learning, but the offensive style has nothing to do with progressions, making reads, and staring down receivers.

I can’t believe I am as frustrated as I am after a 3-0 start. It has been an extremely disappointing turn of events thus far.

Right now, it seems to me that they are pkaying like a 9-3 team. Trovon Reed is a freshman, and has been hurt. Apparently the coaches dont feel like he’s well enough to play a whole game. They just put him in a couple of plays to make sure he didn’t think they forgot about him.

In 2004, the Tigers survived a physical game with LSU, and used a whole lotta luck to do so. The problem with this year is, we’re not following our tough, bruising game with the Citadel.

Jay is my kind of writer, an unabashed homer that is not afraid to tell it like it is. I love the line about “Shug Jordan smiling from the sky.”

I know a lot of folks are concerned about Auburn’s offense. I have my concerns as well. Malzahn’s unique brand of spread is predicated on a strong running game. It’s easy to check back at all his previous offenses (Ark., Tulsa, & AU in’09) they all had a smash mouth running game. Untill we can establish that, the Malzahn spread and bag of tricks will not be as successful,simply because it will be predictible.

The second thing, I was and still am excited about getting Newton signed. However, when you watch his Blinn College clips you see he is used to tuck and running. He’s now at the D1 level and that dog want hunt. He needs a lot of coaching to be able to look off the receivers and also be able to make the short passing game an effective part of the arsenal. Short passes (hitches, slants, and screens were also a big part of Malzahn’s past MO).

In the short run, I am very concerned about SC, especially as Jay puts it, “History doesn’t smile favorably on football teams’ coming off emotional overtime wins.” Having said all that, I still have faith in this staff. This is not a Nall-Ensminger offense. And this is a team that believe’s in each other… so yes “I believe.”

That said I am bothered by the level of negativity I have seen in many of the comments recently.

We need to realize that last season we had no depth, especially on the defensive side of the ball. It showed in how poorly the defense played. This year that has improved but again the depth in the 2 deep is mostly redshirt and true freshman. It remains to be seen how the defensive depth will hold up under our SEC sechedule.

Offensively, Last year we had a power back (Ben) and an accurate quarterback (Chris). These are both a must for Gus’ offence. He has preached downhill power running is his style to anyone that will listen. This year we do not have the power back although I truly believe Mike Dyer will become that back with a year of SEC experience and an off season in the weight room. Cam may or may not end up being the answer, I hope he is. He does help with the power running game but if he cannot accurately make the short to intermediate passes (a Malzahn staple) the box will stay stacked with 8 and 9 men.

If there is a segment of the team that has not lived up to reasonable expectations it is the offensive line. I am not sure what the reason is here but this is an area where we will improve.
 
Let’s get behind the the team and believe in them as much as they appear to believe in each other.

War Eagle!!!

Seems we all have some concerns and rightfully so. Let’s all hope for a better showing on Saturday night against S. Carolina! We’ll see you on the Plains! WDE!

as long as our OL keeps getting blown up. Plain and simple you have to have better execution for any play to work and our OL was the weak point the first half against Clemson which affects every facet of the offense and makes them all look bad.

JumpnJackFlash beat me by one point as he hit the score right on the nail with 27-24 Auburn and I was one off with 28-24 Auburn. I have to say Auburn is exactly what I thought they would be this year. With that said, I did not expect the offensive line to be struggling like it is. I fully expected the problems with the secondary but the offensive line not playing well has really disappointed me so far. I’m thrilled with the victory and the fact that the young men did not quit and kept the fight going even after getting seventeen points down in the first half. It showed me that this team does not quit and we learned more about this team.

I’m not sure where the mid-passing range game has gone, but I would think that Cam Newton really has not learned it yet. I think he is struggling to adjust to the speed of smash mouth top college football. Whether Auburn wins like many thought they would or not, I would like to see the Auburn family come together more. I realize I’m one of the worst, but we have got to support the team. I’m not saying it will be a long season by any means. I just tend to think people threw some lofty expectations on this team and I never really understood why. At any event, just support the team as that will help recruiting and solidify Auburn for the future.