Week 13 Review - A LOT of good coaching

WOW. That would be my first response to the last 48 hours of SEC football. I journeyed to Auburn Thanksgiving afternoon, HAD MY GUTS RIPPED OUT FRIDAY AFTERNOON and returned home later that night completely drained. I then crawled from my bed to my favorite chair yesterday and for the most part watched on-and-off 12 hours of SEC rivalry football. I feel like one of the survivors walking out of the rubble in one of those disaster movies.

OK obviously the first place I am going to start is Auburn vs. Bama. If you have read anything on this blog you know I am not one of these emotional super-positive cheerleaders. I leave that to others. I try to make accurate analysis based on the facts. For the most part (as detailed in my last post) the outlook for Auburn has not looked good and I have said so. I have been a consistent doubter of Gene Chizik and just did not buy in into any of this "special team" stuff I have seen written elsewhere. I just don't think a season where you lose to Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU, Georgia and Bama is special. I still believe that but I will now certainly concede that the coaching and effort displayed by the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl was special and that I was wrong about how the game would go. A loss is a loss and nobody has said that more than me but the effort displayed on Friday was something special.

I honestly did not think we had that game in us. I really did not, not even deep down. I can see getting a 14-0 lead on Georgia but to come out and blitzkrieg the Tide is a special effort indeed. Auburn threw everything at them including reverses, onside kicks and QB-to-QB-down field passes. Everything in the world went right and the mighty Tide was knocked back into the ropes. It finally made them shut up and sweat for a few minutes. It also made all the people wearing those "shutout" stickers at the game look foolish. As any champion would do Bama fought back and tied it. I thought like the Georgia game we had shot our wad and that was it. However Malzahn and Co made that super aggressive defense pay for jumping routes and Auburn made it 21-14.

Then a series of dumb moves by Auburn put the Tide in position to score twice. First after kicking away from him the whole game we for some reason actually punt to Arenas (???) and he has a big return. On the next series Chris Todd then tosses a critical interception. A defense that I thought and predicted would break wide open somehow held the Tide to field goals both times. Incredible effort. Even at this point I did not think we would win. However after we pinned them near the goal line, held them and got the ball back near midfield with about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter I texted my Auburn buddy "WE CAN WIN THIS GAME". It was there for the taking. Oh my gosh it was there for the taking. Even a field goal might have been enough. Unfortunately at that game-winning point we went straight backwards, punted to them and the rest is history. MAKE NO MISTAKE though Auburn, flawed and lesser talented Auburn, could have won this game against one of the better Bama teams fielded post-Bryant.

They did not and this Bama team did show the heart of a champion by first stopping us and then gutting out that final drive. I think Bama fans can stop putting Auburn down for not beating their 2004 team worse. I have heard that for years. The Auburn 2004 team did better than this Bama team. I think the Bama fans that went on about that then and since then look pretty bad now. Bama fans are crowing now but they were sweating it most of this game. Since I had tons of them around me at the game I saw it first hand. The coaching staff also seemed to be feeling it as well. Bama's offensive play calling seemed to tighten up at times. $aban knew he had the better team and was desperately trying to avoid a turnover (which he did) and hoping a conservative play would break big. However the attempted halfback pass and the final touchdown were gutsy calls. Now to the Iron Bowl edition of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"...

THE GOOD
The Auburn defense. A defense with only two linebackers, a true freshman at the other linebacker making his first start (in the Iron Bowl???), another true freshman at safety, a first year JUCO subbing in at the other safety and a defensive line that got pushed all over the field by Georgia. This defense stood strong all day against one of the top teams in the country with the front runner for the Heisman trophy. The Auburn defense completely shutdown Mark Ingram giving him on 30 yards on 16 carries. The Auburn defense stood strong in spite of Bama having great field position most of the day. The Auburn defense held Bama to field goals twice after a big punt return and after a critical interception. The Auburn defense completely stuffed Bama on a late critical fourth and one. The Auburn defense made Bama earn every inch on the final drive faltering one play from giving the offense a chance to win the game with a field goal.

Bama got the score and the win but I can still only say how proud I am of the defensive players and the effort they gave. Outstanding job by Coach Roof and Chizik for a great game plan and on-the-field coaching. I was sure glad to be completely wrong about our defense. They played 60 minutes of great football. They absolutely gave everything they had and played an extremely smart game. It was great to see a warrior like Antonio Coleman go out like that.

Also on the good side I have to again give kudos to the coaches. I did not think they had that in them either. Overall it was obvious Coach Chizik got the team prepared and ready to play. Defensively as documented above Coach Roof did his best job of the year. Coach Malzahn's opening salvos were stuff of legend. Bama was down 14-0 before they knew what hit them. From Terrell Zachary taking it to the house on the first drive to the Burns-to-Todd-to-Adams play it was awesome. The stop-and-go touchdown burning Bama's aggression was also a perfect call at the perfect time. Those offensive moments were some of the best of the season.

THE BAD
Unfortunately the offense and Coach Malzahn finds themselves on this side as well. I just do not understand the stubbornness of spread coaches. Again just like last week we faced a critical 3rd and 1 and we threw a screen pass (???). I saw Tommy Tuberville call the quarterback sneak dozens of times over the last decade on 3rd and 4th and short. I think we converted over 90% of those. I don't care what offense you run, when it comes to those situations you just get the first down and quarterback sneaks or dive plays to your senior tailback with a fullback in front of him are the BEST WAY to get it. That is a fact not an opinion. It has been proven over and over again this season as we continue to line up in the shotgun and FAIL in these situations. Unless you have Tim Tebow it is simply stupid to run out of the shotgun on these downs.

I was wrong about a lot of things on this game (see my last post) and maybe a few over this season but once again I was not wrong about Chris Todd. Thankfully he did not paint his "final masterpiece" as I feared in my previous post and he actually made a few great throws. However he also missed a lot of throws, held the ball too long and made two critical mistakes. Of course one reason he did not make more mistakes is smart game planning and play calling by the coaches. They were dedicated to running the ball and for the most part getting the ball out of Todd's hand quickly. Unfortunately there comes a time when you cannot trick the other guy. You have to drop back, run the route and simply execute. Chris Todd could not do this.

Early in the game Auburn was stuck deep in it's territory and Todd tried to hit an open Tommy Trott over the middle twice and missed him badly. The first one was at least eight feet over Trott's head. A safety back would have had an easy interception and of course that is what happened later on. Todd narrowly escaped at least two more interceptions. On one occasion he tried to force a ball into triple coverage and the Bama defenders basically stopped each other from catching it. He held the ball far too long on obvious blitzes and gave up over 30 yards on sacks and a critical fumble. Auburn wins this game with a little bit better play from the quarterback position. No one will ever be able to convince me one of our other quarterbacks could not have done better with a whole season under their belts.

I am sad to see many of our seniors leaving. Ben Tate has been the one constant on this team through four years of turmoil. The guy came to play and played solid every game. The same can be said of Antonio Coleman and several others. Good job guys and best of luck. I simply cannot say the same thing about Chris Todd. If he was coming back next year I would have to seek psychiatric help. It has been four years of watching a weak armed #12 at quarterback and in those four years we have had constant offensive problems because neither Brandon Cox (post 2005) or Todd could consistently throw the deep ball. I wish we could retire the number because if I see another weak armed #12 I am going to lose it. It is hopefully your time Mr. Rollison and it cannot come soon enough.

THE UGLY
I have simply never and I mean EVER seen a worse special teams unit in my life than the 2009 Auburn special teams. Keep in mind that this unit has one of the best place kickers in the country and it is STILL that bad. I have never seen a team give up more return yards. I have NEVER EVER seen a team give up more FUMBLED PUNTS. I am sorry, these coaches are paid a LOT of money and not being able to find or train SOMEONE to simply be able to CATCH A PUNT WITHOUT FUMBLING IT is pathetic. My gosh what a disaster. It is arguable that we lost this game on special teams.

Let's go to the low lights... We start the game off kicking it out of bounds which is just an inexcusable mental error. After our last touchdown we kick a perfect kickoff making Arenas field it at the goal line corner yet somehow still let him return it almost 50 yards. We spend the whole day punting it out of bounds which was GOOD but then inexplicably kick it to Arenas in the third quarter who then brings it back almost 60 yards setting up one of Bama's scores. Throw in another fumble on a punt return that we somehow got back and that pretty much says it all. The special teams other than Byrum and Washington's kickoff return at Georgia were simply horrible or should I say UGLY the entire year. I certainly hope we make a LOT OF IMPROVEMENT next season.

Elsewhere on rivalry week in the SEC I had my first losing week on the picks. Saturday was certainly a reminder that the SEC has some of the best football coaches. First, as detailed above, Gene Chizik nearly engineered the biggest upset in the country. There was more where that came from. Steve Spurrier and South Carolina routed ACC Atlantic Division champion and 15th ranked Clemson even after Clemson scored on the opening kickoff. South Carolina's awful late season slumps are over. At the same time Coach Dan Mullen and Miss St made a MAJOR statement routing Ole Miss. Dan Mullen has really shown something this year at State. This guy is the real deal. The last time I said that about a coach in the state of Mississippi was when a guy named Tommy Tuberville arrived at Ole Miss.

Sandwiched between the early games above and the nightcap was Florida vs. Florida St. There were no surprises in Gainesville as Tim Tebow put up one more legendary performance in his finale at "The Swamp". Everyone is sick of hearing about the guy but there is no denying he is one of the greatest players in SEC history. The nightcap on Saturday lived up to it's billing with three awesome games, two of them going into overtime. Tennessee, as always, nipped Kentucky in one of the overtime games. LSU did an about face from last week and somehow pulled out a victory against Arkansas in the other overtime game. Unlike last week this was an extremely well-coached game that went back and forth till the end. Bobby Petrino and Ryan Mallett came back strong after a slow start and it appeared they were going to win the game. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks much maligned Les Miles and Jordan Jefferson were able to get LSU in position for the tying field goal to send it in to overtime and then win it. This was another great game in a series that is starting to become full of them.

Finally another much maligned coach and team rose from the ashes to win a big one. Georgia pushed ACC Coastal champ and top ten ranked Georgia Tech all over their own field. Georgia ran for over 300 yards and held on late to get a big big win. If you are keeping count that makes the SEC 3-0 vs. the two best teams in the ACC and Florida St this weekend. The two best teams in the ACC were physically manhandled by the 3rd and 4th place teams in the SEC East. It appears the ACC still has a long long way to go in football.

All in all, like I say in the title there was a LOT of coaching going on in the SEC this past weekend. After the smoke cleared the SEC has 10 teams bowl eligible and if Miss St did not schedule such a tough out-of-conference slate they would certainly be eligible as well. There are SIX 7-5 teams and LSU at 9-3 and Ole Miss at 8-4 and of course the two big dogs. Now all that is left is the most anticipated SEC Championship Game ever and the bowl exhibitions. I will be back later this week with thoughts on the big game.