Week 13 Review: Flashback

Bama 42 Auburn 14.  The exact score any person with a lick of common sense expected.  You average the totals from Auburn's four losses this season, round up and you get...  42 to 13.  I am not sure why the national media is making a big deal of this Bama win.  They just did what they were supposed to do.  They did not do anything Clemson, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia did not do.  Honestly, a neutral observer should be saying big whoop.  As an Auburn fan the game hurts of course but it was expected and again it was just what every good team we have played has done. 

I have more thoughts on the game but nothing new that I have not said all season.  I will get to that in a little bit.  As I said though this game was just a good Bama team beating a mediocre Auburn team with a score that was easily predicted.  This game will not be remembered even by Bama fans after a few years.  However last years Iron Bowl was one for the ages.  It was the greatest comeback in Auburn and Iron Bowl history and maybe SEC history.  I watched the whole game again on Thanksgiving and came away even more impressed.  Now it obviously had a lot more to do with the players than the coaches after watching this season but it was still incredible nonetheless.  It deserves another look especially with nothing positive to write about this year's game.

First my brief post on the game last year...
"I have never seen a game like the 2010 Iron Bowl and I do not think I will see another like it.  It is impossible to come back from 24-0 especially against a good Bama team in Tuscaloosa with over 100,000 fans.  When the score reached 24-0 I knew it was over.  Auburn has never had a comeback like that and I have not seen many Bama teams play any better.  It was over.  Then somehow, someway Auburn clawed their way back.  A few fumbles, a few stops, a few touchdowns and suddenly it was 24-14 in the third quarter.  I saw the sun peek from behind the clouds.  Then came the punt, the awful punt.  Auburn was about to get the ball around midfield and the chance to take the lead.  Quindarious Carr then inexplicably decided not to call fair catch for the first time all season when he actually should have and subsequently fumbled the ball back to Bama in great field position.  I felt my heart being literally ripped out.  However we hold them to the field goal and then relentlessly march down the field and somehow someway Cam gets it to one of the new favorite players in Auburn's long football history, the guy with the maybe the longest last name in Auburn football history, Phillip Lutzenkirchen.  Auburn 28 Bama 27.  One of the greatest ever..."

I feel the same way a year later if not more impressed.  It was Bama 24 Auburn 0 with eight minutes left in the first half.  Bama did not throw an incompletion till just a minute before that.  Bama had over 300 yards passing at halftime.  They were humming on all cylinders.  Auburn on the other hand, facing basically the same defense we did yesterday, did not even have a first down till late in the second quarter.  It was the worst possible scenario.  As I said above, I could not even envision a comeback at 24-0.  However the comeback had started a few moments before and here is the recipe for one of the great all-time comebacks in college football...

• It all starts with "The Fumble" with Bama up 21-0.  Senior defensive end Antoine Carter goes almost 40 yards to run down running back Mark Ingram and punch the ball out which goes through the end zone and gives the ball back to Auburn.
• Auburn holds Bama to a field goal their next offensive trip and this year's superman Trent Richardson drops a sure touchdown pass to help us out.
• Late in the second quarter the Auburn offense finally starts driving aided by two critical Kodi Burns catches on third down.  These were some of the most important and overlooked parts of this comeback.  He exorcised the ghosts of 2008 by making these catches.
• Auburn finally scores when Cam Newton hits Emory Blake who holds on after initially juggling and as the Bama defender chops his arms. 



• Bama then drives right back down the field to inside the Auburn 10 yard line right before halftime but Nick Fairley makes an unbelievable play sacking the quarterback, causing a fumble and recovering the fumble.  Auburn goes into the half down 24-7 but with some momentum.
• Less than a minute into the third quarter, Cam Newton hits Terrell Zachery for a 70 yard touchdown play and closes the gap to 24-14. 



• The defense finally starts to get some stops and Auburn drives down and Newton crashes through the Bama defense to make it 24-21. 



• Then comes the horrible fumbled punt I mention above.  This would end just about any other comeback but not this one, the defense holds Bama to a field goal.  27-21.
• The offense gets the ball back but stalls out with a 4th and 3 near midfield.  Auburn pushes all their chips in and Cam Newton and Darvin Adams hook up on one of the biggest clutch passes I have ever seen.  First down Auburn. 



• Cam Newton then hits Philip Lutzenkirchen who dances into the Bama end zone with one of the biggest touchdowns in Auburn history to complete the comeback. Auburn 28 Bama 27.
• With over 10 minutes remaining the defense holds and knocks Bama quarterback Greg McElroy out the game. 



• Cam Newton goes "Bo over the top" to convert a late critical first down and the defense holds one more time. It finally ends... Auburn 28 Bama 27. 

The 2010 Auburn Tigers were truly great and played in some unbelievable games against other good teams that will never be forgotten.  They went 14-0 winning the SEC and national championships.  Only the 2002 Ohio State and 2009 Bama teams have accomplished that.  The 2002 Ohio State team did not play a championship game but just another out of conference cupcake so right now 2010 Auburn and 2009 Bama stand alone as the best teams record-wise in NCAA history.  The 2011 Bama team cannot match these teams or even win their own division or conference.  In fact, if they lose to LSU again they will not have won any type of title this season.  So congrats on the win Bama, you have the better team this year but lighten up on the hyperbole over the next month.  LSU has a chance to be great but you can only add another debatable number to an already mythical list of national championships.

As for Auburn I will not sugarcoat it, things are not good and they will not improve dramatically next season as many will try and tell you.  I have already read one blog saying "we had a chance to win" in the second half yesterday (???!!!???).  That is one sorely deluded person.  Bama may not be near as good as their fans think they are but they are way ahead of Auburn and the game was over as soon as it started.  On top of that I cannot remember a season where Auburn was completely annihilated by both Bama and Georgia.  Jay Tate again did a great job breaking it down first.  Please take a look at that and I will comment on his points...

THE OFFENSE
I have not seen many game plans worse than the one used on Saturday.  In fact, for a coordinator labeled "one of the best in the country" and paid over a million dollars I have not seen a worse job done than this season.  Bama's defense is good but 44 yards total offense in the third quarter?  Anybody off the street could coach that good.  It was a complete embarrassment.  Auburn finished the regular season ranked 104th in total offense out of 120 teams.  That is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE when you consider what we are paying these coaches.  They have had three recruiting classes and they cannot do any better than that?  The quarterbacks except for Frazier, many of the wide receivers and the offensive tackles have also been here two or three years and the coaches cannot get them ready any better than that?  Again, completely unacceptable.  These highly paid "top notch" offensive coaches have to do better and if some leave then we better find somebody who can do a much better job than this year. 

Here are the rest of the issues as I see them...  First, we better find some good offensive tackles.  If not the rest of this paragraph is moot.  Second, we better get Kiehl Frazier ready to play NOW.  Trotter and Moseley had their chance and they are simply not good enough to play in the SEC plus it is obvious this offense needs a running quarterback (we went 7-5 with Chris Todd in 2009 as well).  Third, I think we need to tweak our offense because this offense does not work in the top levels of the SEC without a Cam Newton or Tim Tebow.  I personally like an offense like Georgia but since that is not going to happen I think we need to shoot for a hybrid-type offense like Oklahoma runs that mixes the hurry-up no-huddle with more conventional sets.  We showed flashes of that getting under center our last few games. 

Finally, if we address those issues above to some degree, then we need to then work on the passing game.  No matter what we run we have to be balanced.  We have to have a passing game.  One of my biggest complaints this year is that we did not use the Florida Atlantic or Samford games to really work on our passing game like we did last year.  You cannot just give up like it seems we did. 

THE DEFENSE
Tate pretty much sums it up: "Auburn has set another record for defensive futility. This team has conceded 4,869 yards, which is six more than the 2009 team. The biggest difference there? That 2009 number is based on 13 games. This current team has played only 12 game — and also is on pace to allow more yards per game than any Auburn team in history (405.8). "  Tate then goes on to state that he does not think Roof is the problem.  I completely disagree, I think he is a huge part of the problem but agree that Chizik is part of the problem as well.  Again like I always say when this discussion starts, the linebackers are one of the most poorly coached units on the field and that shows me that Roof is not that good a coach or recruiter.

The defense has been HISTORICALLY bad for two out of three years now and had many bad moments last year as well.  Coaching changes at defensive coordinator and in the secondary are badly needed.  Next up would obviously be recruiting.  We have some great talent in the secondary if we can find someone to coach them but need a lot of help at linebacker and a lot more beef up front.  Things are not quite as bad as the offensive line but we do not have much at linebacker and are very thin up front and that is if these young guys progress like some hope they do. 

OVERALL
Tate has some interesting observations on staff changes and if Auburn is in trouble.  He expects staff changes.  I think some are needed as I said above but the fate of Gus Malzahn is the biggest one.  Right now after that Iron Bowl performance I cannot believe his stock is still high.  I would be surprised if he gets any kind of top job.  I agree with Tate that a Conference USA gig makes more sense.  We shall see what happens.

I disagree with Tate that Auburn has not fallen far.  As I have said all season these coaches have not addressed the obvious problems in the trenches including linebackers the last three years.  It is also obvious that as Tate says, our recruiting classes have been overrated.  We do have talent but without the guys in the trenches or right now a quarterback, it does not matter. 

Tate finishes stating that Chizik "sounded like a man at a crossroads; a man in the middle of a sandstorm who isn’t sure which way to turn."  I think that is probably right on.  The next steps and choices Chizik makes will be the most important of his career and will probably in the long run decide his fate at Auburn.  Choose well coach, choose well...