Don't Underestimate Importance of Auburn Victory

A = excellent
B = good
C = satisfactory
etc.

At the beginning of this week, I though just getting a win would be excellent. It seemed like a tough game, and it was. But I’m not sure the teams were as evenly matched as the final score would indicate. As I posted in the game thread, our offense and defense were better than State’s in week one, and possibly against a better opponent. The only thing we had to fear about the game was the fact that it was in Starkville.

All that is to say that I gave Auburn a C for the evening. I’m satisfied with the outcome, but I feel like it could have been much better. The defense gets a resounding A but the offense sputtered along in the second half. I was not a fan of the ball-control style offense either. I guess if it resulted in a win, I shouldn’t complain! Here’s to sending the purple and orange Tigers back to SC with a loss in nine days!

I gave them a C but really would give them a B- if possible. The Defense played great but still looked really weak against the run on the corners. Gotta hope Craig Stevens is coming back …..and soon. I was really surprised that Mullen didn’t keep runnig that option attack at us because we didn’t do well against us. Otherwise the line was incredible and really stepped up their game in the waning moments. The secondary really did themselves proud and ended up stifling the Bulldog offense every time they tried to establish the passing game.

The biggest concern for me was the play calling and lackadaisacal approach to putting points on the board at the end of the 1st half. Gus’ playcalling was baffling at times and certainly did not take advantage of our speed and depth at wide receiver. Ontario McCaleb had a good game but was totally misused as they ran him between the tackles to no success…..and they did this several times. Dyer is MEANT to handle that roll but was given limited opportunity to do so. What bothered me the most was that Malzhan did little to try stretch the field by throiwng the ball downfield or by doing play action. It didn’t make much sense to me given since the BUlldogs were intent on shutting down the run. Lots to work on but I’m good with it.

Anyway it was a great win, regardless of how pretty it wasn’t….and don’t get me started on the Cowbells and the Refs. Great start to the season and I hope they keep it rolling next week against “the other Tigers”

 … That was probably more due to my glee over the win. After reading The Colonel and The Legend’s comments, I would agree that the Defense was at least A- and the Offense maybe should get a C grade. I know that Averages out to a B, but I would make it a C+ or a B -, not a strong B.

I tried to participate with Acid’s game thread last night but I couldn’t sit still. I was bouncing all over the living room. Getting too old for that.

As regards Mario, I now wonder if his few carries have been because of a sore shoulder from practice. If it can’t take a constant pounding at TB, then move him back to H back. He more than proved his worth at that position last year. He has been very productive blocking and catching passes out of the back field. In fact, he is the best blocking back we’ve got. He was an important reason for Ben Tate’s success.

I was proud of Onterio and Dyer last night. But we are missing a back that can just pound defenses (like Ben Tate). Maybe Ladarious Phllips can bring that when he is cleared to play. You mix a downhill pounding back with the moves of McCaleb and Dyer and I think we would have a heck of a runnimg attack. It would also lessen the times that Cam will have to take chances with his body. i know he’s a beast but it still worries me for him to have to tuck and run too often.

As usual Jay outstanding read. Looking forward to Clemson. War Eagle !

….clicked “C.” We won. That is satisfactory, is it not? As to what I’d give ‘em, don’t really know, yet. I’ll have to break it all down. Some things, like punt returning were pretty bad. I think you can count on a pretty good D-line grade. I’m going to have to re-watch it to really see.

They played a hell of a game in a hostile environment. Last week I made the statement that Auburn was 1-0, the Offense was 1-0, but the Defense was 0-1. Well; Now I see it as AU 2-0, Offense 1-1, Defense 1-1.

The stands the Tigers made last night were deja vu invoking in that they were much like the defenses of old. It really pleased me to see us stuffing runners in the backfield and getting some serious pressure on Relf and Russell. I also liked how we fought back and evened up the turnover battle. All very good signs for this defense mocing forward.

Special was nauseating once again. Blocked FG and a muffed punt really got me hot. This is something that has been an issue for far too long. I think at this point it is completely in the heads of the players and only time will smooth this problem out. Problem is, how much time?

Now to the offense. And I’ll say first and foremost I am not the most knowledgable when it comes to football, but the playcalling last night was curious at best. I think it is now safe to say that Fannin is not going to be the running threat out of the backfield I thtought he would be. McCalebb hasn’t been put in as many positions to succeed yet as I thought he would, though I think his speed and elusiveness are just fine. Dyer has looked very good. I said yesterday I was hesitant to make him King of our running attack, but it looks as if he’s our one threat to have a very physical runner out of the backfield who can also break tackles and make plays on the outside. Ladarious Phillips getting healthy will alleviate some that as well I think.

Cameron Newton played very well I thought. He didn’t get rattled after that INT and I liked that very much. He came back and rifled a TD pass to Darvin Adams, and that was good to see from both guys. Overall he should be very very pleased with how he responded on the road, in a short week, in a very hostile environment.

Malzahn’s play calling was curious (as previously stated) but maybe it was in the execution. I noticed on atleast two plays Fannin bypassing a hole opened up by the line, only to ‘bounce’ it to the outside and get met with several MSU defenders. SO, maybe Malzahn was off of his game, maybe the offense was, maybe we were off all the way around. I’m also not discounting MSU’s effort here. Their defense had a tremendous game. They showed up and performed, especially in the latter stages of the game, so hats off to them.

Overall, this game left a lot to be desired, but a win is a win. And we can never complain about that. I am proud of the way we responded and I didn’t see any panic in our coaching or play. We have a long week to work on communication and get some mistakes corrected.

I also would like to give Moseley a shout out for coming in for an injured Ziemba and making me forget Ziemba was hurt. We ran the ball several times to his side of the line and I thought he did an excellent job of filling in. I hope Ziemba is going to ok. I also hope Fannin didn’t bang his shoulder up too much either.

impossible.

what a W… as dirty and smelly and gritty as it was. i’ll take it. i have great respect for MSU, and their fight in this game. i think when i look at this recording i’ll get a bit more frustrated that AU didn’t pull away in the second half.

shootin from the hip…
1. echo all previously mentioned props to the D. they brought the NRG for sure. i saw a few blown coverages, and was surprised at holes that were opened in the AU Dline a couple times,… but overall… this line was solid. it was clear this group was motivated.
2. demond washington avgd 25 with returns last game… and 32 this game. in a game where field position went back and forth, this was big…he has been a productive returner early for AU.
3. the moment for me: AU D forces 3 and out after the recovered onside kick following their TD
4. the vet WRs come through: t-zac in the 1st half, and d. adams in the second half. clutch catches sustaining drives.
5. impressed with newton and his maturity to take what the D gave him… only a couple times when he should have thrown the ball away instead of dancin in the backfield. overall, i thought he managed the game well.
6. i didn’t like our play calling in the second half…we seemed to lose some aggressiveness. i was also concerned with AU’s redzone O…this is where that intermediate pass game needs to come out more for me.

what a huge W for Auburn. looking forward to watching s. carolina this weekend…and the AU game once again- got to find out what happened to the AU O in the 2nd half!
no points!?

When Relf fumbled the ball into the endzone and it was recovered by a MSU player, why was the ball not spotted at the point of the fumble? In the 2005 UGa game when Aromashadu fumbled into the endzone it was recovered by us (can’t rememeber who) and the ball was spotted at the point of the fumble. Is the difference that it was 4th down on the Aromashadu play? Or is there some other part of the rule that I don’t understand?

I thought our defensive line and linebackers really stepped up getting pressure on passing plays. Not so much against the run. I thought our secondary play was really erratic. There were a few plays where they covered well. But if it were not for dropped passes by the MSU recievers and poorly thrown balls by the MSU qb’s, we could have easlily been blown out of this game. If we don’t improve our pass coverage, we are in trouble. I think overall, I would give the defense a grade of B-.

I have no idea what was up with the offense in this game. Maybe it was due to the cowbells, maybe it was by design to keep the defense fresh, but there was no real up-tempo attack the whole game. I did not understand why we didn’t call a time out at the end of the 1st half to get off 1 more play and really didn’t understand why there seemed to be no since of urgency by the offense on that drive. I give the offense a C for the game.

Is it just a coincidence that we didn’t score again after Ziemba’s injury?

For the negatives:

—Special teams errors all night long

—Fumbles, albeit not all of them lost

—Excellent pass protection, but run blocking was subpar

—Quit sending McCalebb up the middle

—Inability to put this game away given ample opportunity

—Where were the reverses and passes to the RB?

until the pass to Cam. It almost seemed to me that Gus was worried about doing anything to diminish Cam’s confidence. I understand that this was his first SEC start, and on the road to boot, but I think there were more opportunities for him to grow as a QB, even if it meant learning from mistakes. Well, we won, and I suppose thats what they pay the coaches for.

It’s borderline between C- and C. Again, Nick Fairly looked great. I think he’s becoming our Mount Fairly as I was calling him to my Alabama buddies last night. The defensive line is as good as it gets. I have no problem with their skill, effort, and overall performance. I’d have to give them an A+. As far as the secondary goes, it’s still a weak point to me, but it’s getting better. I’m teetering between B- and C+. I guess I’ll go with C+ because of but I liked the physical nature with which they played. I can tell you why Mississippi State didn’t execute during the second half. They kept getting hard hit after hard hit laid on their ass. I am thrilled to be so wrong about Roof and the defense and I’ll give credit where credit is due. With that said, keep in mind it was only one game and that it was against Mississippi State. The best offense we’ve seen will be here next Saturday.

Speaking of offense, it seems like the offense has been sandbagging this hole time. I may be crazy, but for the most part, it’s all plain vanilla. They’re not airing it out and spreading the field much. I think part of that reason is Auburn does not have a true threat at running back right now. Dyer will become that in time, so I think this will be fixed. Until then, Auburn really only has Cameron Newton for its power running attack. Coach Malzhan seemed really stubborn last night. He refused to stop going up the middle and he had very little success. Fannin, when he did have a hole, tried to bounce it outside and simply got taken down for losses. Damnit, losing Ayecock to weed really hurt. Auburn would be doing so well right now if we had him too. I hope we get another top running back recruit. I give the offense a C-.

Now, for the bad part: Special Teams. You know, our returns weren’t bad and our coverage wasn’t bad. Yet, I still give this unit a D- leaning towards F. If Car doesn’t fumble that ball last night, Auburn wins this one going away I really believe that. That fumble which led to a Mississippi State touchdown was what really made this a close game. The defense and offense were clicking, and then we muffed a punt. If we’re playing somebody like Arkansas and that happens, that equals a loss every time. In addition, I couldn’t stand watching that field goal get blocked. In the first place, I hate field goals, and in the second I could certainly see a reason to go for it but it was a long fourth down so I understand it. However, the field goal being blocked is unacceptable. You might as well have gone for it in that case. I felt sick to my stomach with that one.

I’m glad we won, but there’s so much to work on it’s unreal. We’re having a tough time replacing Ben Tate. His absence is a painful one for sure. Dyer will get better and better, though. Plus, Phillips coming back will help. Eric Smith isn’t on the field much either, I think he’ll get more time as the year continues.

i hope his presence in the run game will limit the times newton has to scramble up the middle and run over people. that isn’t a prescription for a healthy QB for 12 weeks of CFB. i like newton running outside much better, …where he can just punish the DBs.

what are all your thoughts on this?

mine…

if you’re a coach that is interested in getting consistency out of your players…
for whatever reasons you have…(reduction in penalties, higher pass completion%, sustain offensive drives, etc.) you’ve got to call the game with more consistency.

tangent…
last year, i was really disappointed that more adjustments weren’t made to play to the sticks and look to just sustain drives (with the lack of defensive depth we had). it didn’t feel that the offensive scheme took the AU D’s issues into consideration. the 2 seemed to be operating independent of one another…which is contrary to what i think needs to happen with this offense.

last night, we had a lead and were still moving the ball…and after about the 1st quarter or so(?), it felt like the gear changed (slowed) and the play calling started to focus on the sticks. i completely agree that the end of the 1st half seemed to lack a sense of urgency. i can only associate it with a reluctance to challenge the secondary of MSU, and/or a want to change the rhythm of the game which was bouncing back and forth with a crazy # of possessions. of course, this is also near the time when ziemba got taken out.

was this offensive detour mitigated by a change also in the AU D?… i think so.
if i recall, about the same time i noticed the AU O slowing things down a bit…the AU D shifted to more of an attack mode.

i am curious if either of these or both adjustments were preplanned or not by the coaches. i was confused by them when i watched the game. i guess it would seem logical to me to grab the pieces of each that PRODUCED the best and get those running the whole game. i don’t sense we have the depth issues that would limit us from making that happen.

your thoughts?

Well, I was dead wrong about how this game played out except that we won. I figured there would be 1000 yards of offense between us and that obviously never materialized.

One of my concerns last week against Ark. State was time of possession. I figured if we kept scoring so quickly and giving MSU the ball back that quickly, it would turn into a shootout which is not optimal for us in that tough road game atmosphere.

That might have occurred to Gus Malzahn too, because the plays last night seemed designed to control possession rather than score points. THe fact that such a tremendous difference was apparent in less than one week speaks volumes to me about what we can do.

The defense played a whole lot better and all of it indicates to me that our best performance lay ahead of us this season. I really don’t think this is a championship caliber team but we are going to give everybody we play serious problems. Everyone.

Is it just me, or did it look like McCaleb was starting to go down before he was even hit on a number of plays? Like he was clumsy, or something.
I would really like to know why we didn’t try for points at the end of the half. It’s like we were satisfied with out lead or something. I’m never satisfied with our lead!

War Eagle!

Ok someone needs to explain Auburns Mojo in the 3rd quarter. 2010 Outback bowl NW got 14 points, Auburn go 0. Arkansas State got 7 in the first 5 mins, AU got 0. MSU got 7 Auburn got 0.

All jokes aside, the defense played an amazing game, hats off to roof. The offense looks good with Newton but WE HAVE TO SCORE WHEN WE GET INTO ENEMY TERRITORY!!! and no more penaltys. Once again we droped a punt, which equaled 6 on the board. Here is my grades.

Offense: B-
Defense: A
Punting Teams: C+
Kickoff teams: B+
Overall: A