THE GOOD
Cam Newton, of course. The legend grew with an unbelievable touchdown catch in the end zone. I am starting to think we need to get Cam Newton in on defense (which he actually did as well after an uncharacteristic fumble). He also did a great job throwing the ball. Of course he was standing behind a solid wall with no pressure on him. He is still going to have to speed up his reads against Georgia and Bama. His release is getting better. He showed off a quick release on several of those passes.
Cam Newton has a lot of company this week though. As mentioned, the guys up front got it done again leading another 300 yard rushing effort and the other Auburn running backs stepped up big time. Mike Dyer is finally looking like the running back prospect he was supposed to be. He broke tackles and showed big time acceleration in rushing for 180 yards. Ontario McCalebb showed off his speed and elusiveness for the second straight week going for 100 yards. The man behind it all called a brilliant game as well (except for trying the Neil Caudle trick-pass play, not going to happen in the SEC).
THE BAD
Our defense got it done in spots but is just going to have to play much better to get through our last two games. Yes Georgia had a lot of turnovers against Florida but Florida has been doing that to everyone the whole year. They have a good defense, Auburn does not. We are still asking a lot of our offense to have to score 40+ points every game. With our current defense, Georgia and Bama are going to score A LOT of points. We have a let down or a bad quarter or two on offense, it could spell doom against these two teams. Again I think we have to put more pressure on the quarterback. We cannot let Aaron Murray and Greg McElroy stand back there all day. It does not matter how many men we drop back in coverage.
We also HAVE TO TACKLE BETTER. There were a ton more missed tackles last night. Our guys have got to wrap up and bring the guy down. The offense is working at about maximum capacity, we need to use these next two weeks working on the defense. Our last two games will be the biggest and toughest of the season. If we are going to be a championship team I am convinced we have to play better defense.
THE UGLY
There was really nothing ugly about this game other than Ole Miss' grey uniforms (and I dogged the BCS last week) so I will use this space to point out again how ugly the current television format makes football. The pros have reduced the pain slightly by speeding up the games and getting them to fit in neat three hour time slots. However they did that by reducing the amount of football you get to see. College football has not YET done that but the networks still get in their commercials which make watching a live football game a completely exhausting experience. I do not know how anybody but big time fans of the teams playing could sit down and watch a college football game. It dampens everyone's experience watching games. I know the television people have to pay the bills but when there is more commercial time than the actual product carrying the commercials, something is wrong.
AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East has finally cleared up. Florida took down Georgia and now the Florida vs. South Carolina game in two weeks will decide the SEC East champion. Again, as bad as Florida has been this year I think they will get it done and ruin Spurrier's best chance to win the East at South Carolina.
Meanwhile everyone including me is starting to talk about the Iron Bowl deciding the West. However that is not true yet. Bama has two tough games remaining with LSU and Mississippi State who only have three losses between them. Auburn has to stop Georgia from getting "the thumb" on them as Auburn has not beaten the Dawgs since 2005. Auburn and Bama will have to get past these road blocks before the Iron Bowl.
Last and least, you have the BCS. Ah the BCS, where the #1 team in the SEC can whip another SEC team on the road and drop. I would wager a rather large sum that neither Bama and Florida with the exact same team as Auburn would have dropped after a 30 point beat down of Ole Miss in Oxford. I do not think they would have dropped even if Oregon had beat an undefeated actually legitimate USC team. You also would not have had ESPN's current group of cretins that masquerade as college football analysts dogging Auburn out. I love the schedule questions. Google Oregon's football schedule. Other than Stanford and I guess USC Oregon has played NOBODY. When you are propping up Stanford as your best win, doesn't that really say it all?
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