http://www.trackemtigers.com/2010/9/27/1713714/the-greatest-show-on-turf
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/09/sunday-knee-jerk-stage-1-complete/
http://eyesonauburn.blogspot.com/2010/09/south-carolina-review.html
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/scarbinsky_gators_would_be_muc.html
The bottom line is that Cam Newton is AWESOME. The guy is a big-time playmaker and as I said before he is on his way toward coming one of the best quarterbacks in Auburn history. The touchdown run and now legendary leap into the end zone was AMAZING. As the articles I linked to above said, this team would be 3-2 or even 2-3 without Newton. Anyone who disagrees just does not understand football and everything this guy is doing for this offense. His mere presence on the field now opens up things on the offense. Yes, again he is still not great at reading defenses quickly and delivering the ball but he is improving. Even with his weaknesses he is still the most dynamic playmaker at quarterback in the conference and such a BIG improvement over what we have had the last few years.
Our defense is up and down, our senior offensive line has done a decent job, McCallebb is good at what he does, Dyer looks like he has a ton of potential, Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachary are All-SEC and the rest of the wide receiver corps looks good but to borrow an old phrase, Cam Newton is “the straw that stirs the drink”. We would have lost to Clemson and South Carolina without Newton and might have lost to Mississippi State. The best thing Chizik and Co. have done so far is bring in Newton.
The South Carolina followed our typical script with a Malzahn offense and a Chizik/Roof defense. The offense comes out on fire, goes flat and then recovers. The defense comes out and gets roasted, adjusts and closes pretty strong. As long as these coaches are here, we will see a lot more of this. Credit where credit is due though, the win over South Carolina was a big win. Coaches and players deserve full credit for getting it done.
I do think Steve Spurrier made a huge mistake jerking Stephen Garcia out. He still had a chance to tie that game with Garcia. There was no way a freshman was going to step into that situation and not have something bad happen. I will also say I thought the South Carolina defense would be tougher. However again you have to give credit to our offensive line for helping us put up 334 yards rushing. Gene Chizik’s strategy of calling out the offensive line sure seemed to work. It was an extra bonus to see Mike Dyer win the battle of the rookie running backs and get his first 100 yard game.
On the flip side, it was also surprising to see our defense completely shutdown Marcus Lattimore. Of course we paid for it through the air. South Carolina’s monster wide receivers and most of all Alshon Jeffery definitely lived up to their billing. However we won the battle and the defense caused 4 consecutive turnovers in the fourth quarter to win the game. Obviously Auburn got a little lucky but you have to work hard to put yourself in the position to be lucky.
THE GOOD: Cam freaking Newton.
THE BAD: Steve Spurrier’s decision to bench Stephen Garcia.
THE UGLY: Arkansas blowing it against Bama before our game started.
Now to the Louisiana Monroe game. Not a whole lot to say. The whole thing was pretty good from the offensive fireworks to the complete clearing of the benches. I just have a couple of minor complaints. First, would this not have been a good game to work on covering receivers a little tighter??? I do not understand playing way off these guys and letting them drive three times into Auburn territory in the first half and letting them get a field goal. I think it would have been a good game to work on tighter more aggressive coverage. This confirms we will see this crap for the rest of the season. Second, Malzahn needs to resist the temptation of getting too cute. Our lone field goal only came after we messed around trying to throw passes down by the goal line. Just hand off to Dyer and let him finish it. Red zone efficiency was one of Malzahn’s weaknesses last year because of this. Sometimes you cannot trick the other guy, you just have to man up and run right at him.
THE GOOD: Just about everything except the two issues I just mentioned. A special kudos to Emory Blake for two huge plays the last two weeks...
THE BAD: Louisiana Monroe.
THE UGLY: Florida’s performance and Urban Meyer’s coaching against Bama. Wow, they are not wishing they still had Cam Newton are they?
AROUND THE SEC
Observations from the last two weeks…
1. As stated above I will never forgive Ryan Mallett and Arkansas for absolutely blowing a game they HAD. Bama is now winning by teams just falling apart from the pressure. It makes me physically SICK.
2. After the game against UAB you could plainly see once again that things are bad at Tennessee. Who knew it would get so much worse a week later… (more on that further down)
3. Mark Richt, like Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville before him, is hitting that decline that seems to hit all good coaches who are at a school for a decade. Nowadays especially in the SEC it is hard for even really good coaches to last at a school much more than a decade. Fulmer managed to slow his down and Tuberville speeded his up but the start of the decline was about the same. Richt’s decline seems to be more like Tuberville. It is happening fast. At 1-4 with a lot of good teams left on the schedule I am not sure that Richt can save himself. That said, Auburn still better look out.
4. I honestly cannot believe some of these guys get paid millions of dollars after watching the end of the Tennessee/LSU game. How many HISTORICALLY stupid calls can be made in 27 seconds? Let us count…
STUPID CALL #1 – Running the ball with only 27 seconds left in the game and no timeouts. At the very least you have the QB roll out with a run/pass option.
STUPID CALL #2 – After making stupid call #1 and getting stopped, you then try to run in multiple substitutes in with the clock almost a 0:00.
STUPID CALL #3 – You watch your opponent make stupid call #1 AND stupid call #2 and as he is literally throwing the game away before your very eyes you decide to try and do multiple substitutions as well.
STUPID CALL #4 – As you make stupid call #3 you forget to keep track of who is going in and who is coming out and end up with 13 players on the field and end up costing yourself the game.
I have never seen anything like that in my life and I do not think I ever will again. After watching that (plus all his other late game blunders) and then his completely incoherent post game interview (plus all this other strange interviews) I have finally come to the conclusion that Les Miles is out of his mind. The guy is really mentally unbalanced. He is a complete lunatic AND HE IS GETTING PAID OVER THREE MILLION DOLLARS (!!!). Unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the Derek Dooley manage to top his end of game blunders. A tough year at Tennessee just keeps getting worse.
5. Florida will win the East but they are not the powerhouse they have been. Urban Meyer also showed once again why coaches that run their entire offense out of the shotgun formation are stubborn and they are wrong. I stated earlier that sometimes you cannot trick a guy, you have to man up and run right at him. I would add to that that you also need to get under center at those moments. BUT NOOOOOOO… Meyer, Malzahn and the rest of them just will not do it AND THEY CONTINUE TO GET STOPPED ON 3RD AND 4TH AND 1. Florida drives down to inside the two yard line and they try to run out of the shotgun and they get STUFFED. Yes Tim Tebow was the exception to the rule but he is gone. Cam Newton should be an exception but he has been stopped on 3rd and 1 running out of the shotgun this season as well. Tommy Tuberville had a lot of faults but I saw him run quarterback sneaks from under center at least a hundred times during his decade at Auburn and I do not remember us ever being stopped. I am sure it happened but in a DECADE it did not happen as many times as it happened to Malzahn last season and Florida this season. Back to Saturday, after getting stuffed Florida then tried that ridiculous jump pass that everyone in the world knew was coming. Again, sometimes you have to man up and get it done. Florida had another chance with a 3rd and 1 on their next drive but wussed out and tried a pass that of course did not work. Florida with all their super recruiting classes and great players should be able to line up and get a yard against the Baltimore Ravens defense.
Well I guess this gets me up-to-date. This week is not the monster week the last few have been but there are some interesting matchups. Bama vs. South Carolina will be the headliner followed by LSU vs. Florida, Auburn vs. Kentucky, Arkansas vs. Texas A&M and finally Tennessee vs. Georgia. Hopefully I will be back to review it promptly this coming weekend…
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