Week 7 Review: A win is a win but...

The Auburn Tigers beat the Florida Gators 17-6 this last Saturday at Jordan Hare Stadium. The game was an ugly one matching two inept offenses. Those games are just hard to watch. However the weather and atmosphere sure helped. I attended my first Auburn game in person this year and enjoyed it immensely. My son and I rolled into Auburn around lunch and promptly headed to Tiger Rags and J&M to look for some gear and then headed to Guthries. We got to the stadium about an hour and half before the game and just soaked it all up. The weather literally could not have been any better. The temperature was perfect staying around 65 to 70 degrees with no wind to speak of. The band marching on, the eagle soaring, the intro videos, the team running onto the field, the fourth quarter team rush toward the student section and winning the game, another Saturday to remember on the Plains (even if the game itself was not quite one to remember).

There has been a lot of talk since the game defending the win despite the fact that Florida is just not very good (see the two previous weeks before this game). Let me say that yes, any win over Florida or any of the SEC's historically top tier teams is always a good one and like most of our other SEC wins this year, we did not know before the season started if we would be able to pull out a win in this game.

Also, this win coupled with a win over Ole Miss, the worst team in the SEC, and FCS opponent Samford will give Auburn a winning season. I will be the first to say how great that is. I predicted Auburn to go 6-6 and am frankly amazed the coaches were able to coax a winning season out of this team. So no matter what happens the coaches will be able to declare a victory for this season. Morale is high among most fans as Auburn is doing better than expected. I have seen bloggers comparing this team to anywhere from the 2001 team to the 1972 Amazin's. I would lean more toward the 2001 team but I do not think this team is even that good.

The defense has improved and I do see some real potential there. However slight improvement and potential still do not make this a good defense now. Of course, they are looking a lot better than the other side of the ball on which we are in a free fall scoring 17 or less points in every SEC game except State. Who would have ever thought our offense would be the one in worst shape after the Clemson game this season? However it is true, ever since the Clemson game the defense has shown improvement and the offense has sputtered to the point the passing game is nearly non-existent and the coaches are scared to death to even call a pass.

Yes we do have some injuries but that is just one small factor in the fall of our passing game. The line especially the tackles is again where it starts in my opinion. This line is just not that good especially in pass protection which dents their run blocking as everyone is now stacking the line. The quarterback position has also been a liability as Barrett Trotter has gotten worse every game since the Clemson game and has now lost the job. Clint Moseley threw a couple of good passes which enabled us to get the win against Florida but he has no other game experience. Kiehl Frazier, the future, continues to get shuffled in to run the ball and you see his potential but you can also see the constant shuffling is hurting the other quarterbacks. We then do have injuries to two of our starting wide receivers. You add all that up and you get an offense that is literally struggling to have any semblence of a passing game. It is sad to watch.

With that said, it is obvious we are not much different from what we were predicted to be before the season, the biggest reason Auburn is 5-2 right now is that the teams we have beat in the SEC were not as good as predicted. State's defense is almost as bad as ours and is not near as good as last year. South Carolina's offensive line is the worst I have seen this year and as I said in an earlier post has reduced their awesome skill players to very ordinary. Florida is just mediocre all-around. Even with their injuries, the lack of talent at Florida is startling. Urban Meyer did not just leave because of his family or his health, he also left because the Florida job looks like it will be a much bigger rebuilding job than anybody thought. Those top-ranked recruiting classes at Florida the last couple of years look to be WAY overrated.

The point I am trying to make is that I am happy we are 5-2 but I am concerned because I do not think we have improved as a team. I think the coaches decided to "Tub" there way through these games and get the win instead of trying to get better especially concerning the passing game. Good night we would not even throw the ball when the game was out of reach against Arkansas. This does not bode well for the rest of the season. We have already lost to the two proven good teams on our schedule and beaten the decent but overrated ones. In the coming weeks we will play the two of the best teams in the country and a good Georgia team. I do not see how we can win any of these games without a solid passing attack. I am dubious that we can plug in a guy that has never played much behind this line (with or without our injured starting wide receivers) and beat anybody any good.