Game 4 Review: Monsoon

LSU 35 Auburn 21.  I apologize for the late post, I was at my son's soccer tournament this weekend.  In fact, I was unfortunately able to see most of the first half live while I had to wait till Sunday to review the second half on my DVR.  It definitely was a tale of two halves under the pouring rain Saturday night in Baton Rouge.  I guess I cannot be too upset at anything that happened since I did say last week: "Basically, anything outside a super-embarrassing blow out or crucial injuries happening next week should not ruin Auburn's season."  I still believe that is true but I did also say that Auburn had to compete for FOUR quarters, not two.  That did not happen.  Auburn fought in the second half but they did not show up in the first half. 

THE GOOD
This would be mostly reserved for the offense in the second half.  Nick Marshall was able to shake off a horrific first half to play a pretty good second half including two beautiful deep passes to Sammie Coates.  He led Auburn on three touchdown drives in the second half and it actually should have been four.  Tre Mason came alive as well as the offensive line and went for 132 yards on 26 carries.  Auburn finished with over 200 rushing yards.  Sammie Coates has stepped up to be Auburn's big play guy at wide receiver and finished with four catches for 139 yards.  Two of those catches set up two Auburn touchdowns. 

THE BAD
This would be mostly reserved for the offense in the first half.  Nick Marshall showed the national audience nearly every conceivable way to miss a receiver and threw an interception as well.  Cameron Artis Payne coughed up a critical fumble on Auburn's first drive to give LSU good field position.  Auburn was an embarrassing mess on offense.  The special teams specifically Steven Clark dip into this section this week with a fumbled punt near the goal line pretty much giving LSU a touchdown.  I have not seen too many starts that looked worse than this one. 

I would also like to give a shout out to Coach Malzahn who quickly responded to a question about playing in the rain this week by saying the team works with wet balls all the time to  prepare.  Well it sure did not look like they prepared at all on Saturday night.  The game was pretty much over in the first five minutes because Auburn could not handle a wet ball.  Nick Marshall also intimated after the game that he was having trouble throwing a wet ball.

THE UGLY
The Auburn defense failed at every really important point in this game.  People can point to stops in the second half when LSU went more conservative and such but again the game was pretty much over at that point.  Auburn fumbled the ball on the opening drive but they did fumble on the LSU side of the field.  That did not matter as Jeremy Hill went 50 yards straight up the gut through a gargantuan hole in the Auburn defensive front seven to set up LSU's first touchdown.

After LSU scored off the fumbled punt snap, which was not their fault, the Auburn defense allowed LSU to drive 72 yards down the field.  That drive ended in a fumble but LSU rectified that on their next drive slicing through the Auburn defense quickly going 72 yards on just four plays.  Auburn finally stopped the Bayou Tigers on their last three drives of the half but the damage had been done. 

The defense made a play to start the second half with a Jermaine Whitehead interception.  The offense capitalized immediately and THIS WAS THE CRITICAL POINT OF THIS GAME.  Auburn got it together at halftime and then made this big play on defense and then scored on offense.  The score is 21-7 with basically the entire second half still left to play.  This was the time for the Auburn defense to make a stand.  The halftime adjustments were in.  The momentum had switched to Auburn and... LSU goes straight through the Auburn defense on an 85 yard touchdown drive, 28-7.

Auburn loses the momentum, gets stuffed on their next drive and gives it back to LSU.  LSU then once again drives it down the field.  Auburn does get the stop but LSU has a pretty each field goal attempt to make it 31-7.  Les Miles then dumbs it up and fakes the field goal and does not make it.  The Auburn offense then in their most clutch drive of the night takes the ball 94 yards to make it 28-14 with the whole fourth quarter to go.  WE NOW HAVE THE SECOND MOST CRITICAL POINT IN THE GAME.  This is once again THE TIME Auburn needs the defense to make a stand.  LSU then goes 80 yards through the Auburn defense for basically the game winning touchdown, 35-14.

Auburn got a few stops after that and the offense threatened to make it a much closer game but I don't think anybody really thought Auburn had a chance to win it once it went to 35-14.  The other stops don't matter much when you give up touchdowns at every crucial point in the game.  The Auburn defense also gave up, just like the first three games, another 450 yards of total offense and 16 first downs.  They made Jeremy Hill look like Bo Jackson as he rushed for nearly 200 yards himself.

I have read that Auburn is much closer to being a good team that many believe.  That might be true on offense but it is not true on defense.  The Auburn defenses in 2009, 2011 and 2012 are the three worst defenses in Auburn history.  The 2010 defense was a mediocre defense statistically and had a lot of problems outside a handful of very good players.  This year's edition is improved over the train wrecks I mention above but will end this season giving up 400 yards and nearly 20 first downs a game.  Outside a few players and freshman hopefuls Auburn does not have many SEC caliber players.  As a friend of mine said, it is going to take years to fix this defense, not games.

Looking forward, now that Auburn has beaten State, the Ole Miss game is now the biggest of the season.  This is Auburn's last realistic chance of getting a big win at Jordan Hare with only Georgia and Bama remaining at home in the SEC after this game.  It is also a huge game to show that Auburn is still improving and really is a decent team.  Make no mistake though, this will be a very tough game.  Ole Miss is better than State.  They have a very good quarterback who knows how to run their system which is almost identical to ours.  Bo Wallace has a years more experience than Nick Marshall.  I believe they have the advantage there.

Ole Miss also has a talented group of young players and the team as a whole is hungry.  They have already won some big games on the road at Vanderbilt and Texas.  Texas may be reeling but going into Austin and beating them down is still an accomplishment.  I don't think Auburn could do it right now.  I think this game is going to be a shootout.  There will be some points scored in this one.  It should be another nail-biter as well.  Hopefully the rain will be gone and the sun will shine once again the Saturday after next in Auburn.

Game 3 Review: A Big Step Forward

Auburn 24 Mississippi State 20.  I am not sure when I started saying it.  It might have started this summer or sometime during fall practice.  However this week I repeated it many times... This was the biggest game of the season for the 2013 Auburn Tiger football team.  You break down the schedule and there was no way around it.  There was no "New Day" without a win in this game.  The season could go completely off the tracks like last year without a win in this game.  Simple version: there was no way for Auburn to have any kind of good season without winning this game. 

The preseason was over, as important as it was.  This was the game and it was the first one I have been truly excited about in awhile.  Auburn started out on fire and took that early 11-0 lead.  Everyone including me started thinking that there was no way State was taking us down tonight.  Maybe all the sunshine pumpers who had already counted wins over the Mississippi schools plus Arkansas and Tennessee were right... or not.  State stormed back and showed a lot of mettle on the road down double-figures.  The rout quickly turned into an SEC slugfest with Auburn up 14-13 at halftime.  It should have been 14-14 but Dan Mullen's ego overcame his good sense when he tried to match Auburn's two-point conversion with one of his own.  Bad call coach.

State came out in the second half ready to go and drove down for a touchdown to give them a 20-14 lead.  Auburn then took it right down the field but had to settle for a field goal and State stayed on top 20-17.  The two teams then combined for nine consecutive possessions that ended with a punt, fumble or interception till the final drive of the game.  It was excruciating to watch especially for Auburn who had the fumble and the interception.  The hour was growing late and things were looking a lot like last year especially after State ran another four minutes off the clock and pinned us on our 12 yard line with less than two minutes left in the game.

I will admit it, I did not think these guys and especially Nick Marshall could do it.  I pretty much gave up earlier in the quarter after Marshall missed a wide open Sammie Coates for a sure touchdown off the fake reverse.  I thought maybe they could get in position for a field goal try but did not have a lot of confidence in that either.  The stage was set...  the "New Day" would truly dawn or last season would rear it's ugly head.  The Auburn offense led by Nick Marshall then went the length of the field and scored the winning touchdown with seconds left in the game.  Marshall was brilliant as was true freshman Marcus Davis and of course junior tight end C.J. Uzomah.  This one might not go up there with many of the famous game-winning drives in Auburn history but it might be as significant.

It was significant for Marshall who overcame his early mistakes to join the 300-yards-in-a-game passing club at Auburn and lead a big-time game winning drive.  Marshall has improved leaps and bounds from the season opener.  He still has a long way to go but again accomplished something significant last night.  It was big for true freshman Marcus Davis who out of nowhere has become Auburn's leader in receptions after three games.  It appears Marshall and Davis are developing a connection.  It was also nice to see the coaches get Quan Bray involved more this week.

Finally, it was great to see C.J. Uzomah back making plays.  It was especially satisfying after somebody wrote last week: "I am also hoping that Malzahn is waiting to spring C.J. Uzomah on one of these upcoming big game opponents.  Uzomah was another one of the only bright spots from last season.  He is a very good receiver and playmaker that has not been used at all.  Auburn was even throwing to Jay Prosch last night but Uzomah was nowhere to be seen.  The coaches need to get him involved."  I was hoping Malzahn would not let a playmaker like Uzomah go to waste and he did not.  Great pass by Marshall, great catch by Uzomah.  Touchdown Auburn.

This is a day to enjoy for Auburn fans but with a trip to LSU looming this week it is not a time for expectations to get out of hand.  Auburn still does not have a good defense.  Again, they are an improvement over the train wreck last year and 2011 but they have a long way to go to be a good defense.  Auburn gave up another 400+ yards and another 20 first downs (19 to be exact) last night.  Auburn could get no pass rush with four guys and let State shred them early with the read-option.  I said last week Chris Davis was the biggest positive on defense and that sure looked true because Auburn missed him badly last night.  I sure hope he will be back for LSU.  State picked on his backup Ryan White a lot last night.

Auburn hit more of those dry periods on offense as well and while Marshall ended up with good stats for the night the Auburn rushing attack did not.  The three-headed monster everyone including myself had been lauding got shut down.  Auburn did not have one running back with even 50 yards rushing.  State's big defensive line dominated the line-of-scrimmage much of the night.  That does not bode well for LSU.  There were also some crucial drops by Sammie Coates and Ricardo Louis that Auburn cannot afford in big games.

Auburn likely has little chance at LSU this coming weekend.  LSU is not quite as strong as recent seasons but they still appear to have more talent than Auburn and a more experienced quarterback.  Also Gus Malzahn's visits as an offensive coordinator to LSU in 2009 and 2011 were brutal beatdowns, 34-10 and 45-10.  This will be another test for this team.  Last year's team did fight in the few close games they had but absolutely quit as soon as a better team got rolling against them.  Auburn has to reverse that trend as well and compete for four quarters even when they are outmanned.  Hopefully this win has released Auburn to go down and play fast and loose in Baton Rouge.

Basically, anything outside a super-embarrassing blow out or crucial injuries happening next week should not ruin Auburn's season.  The Tigers then have an open week to get ready for a more important game with Ole Miss at home.  For now though, the streak is over and Auburn is 3-0 and 1-0 in the SEC.  It has not been pretty but Gus Malzahn, his staff and the players finally proved it was a "New Day" in Auburn.  The worst season ever has been laid to rest.  It is a painful memory but not a relevant one anymore.  Auburn will hit some serious roadblocks during this season but will also now hopefully grab a few more big wins.

It reminds me of the start of the book this blog is dedicated to.  David Housel starts the book "Saturdays To Remember" with Shug Jordan's first game as head coach at Auburn against Vanderbilt in 1951.  Like last year, Auburn had gone winless in the SEC (and overall) the year before Jordan got there.  Like this game, Auburn's game against Vanderbilt was a tough but winnable game.  Like this year, Auburn desperately needed an SEC win to stop a vicious losing streak and restore confidence.  In very similar fashion Auburn won that game 24-14.  Housel wrote "The famine was over" and then quoted a reporter from the Birmingham News, Zipp Newman, who said "you can call them Tigers again - and mean it."

I think that sums it up after this game as well.  Auburn took a big step forward last night, the famine is over and now you can call them Tigers again - and mean it.

Game 2 Review: Wolf Hunt

Auburn Tigers 38 Arkansas State Red Wolves 9.  Auburn wore down the Red Wolves and then ran through them to put up some pretty good numbers but this game was a bit closer than it looked at the end.  Auburn's passing game put up some big plays and that was all the three-headed monster at running back needed.  The Tiger defense bent plenty allowing another night of 20+ first downs and 400+ yards but stiffened near the red zone and held Arkansas State to only three field goals.  Auburn did improve from their uneven week one performance but there are still some good reasons for concern heading into the SEC opener next week.

First here are two good commentaries on the game and specifically Nick Marshall to get the conversation started...

As Marshall improves, so will Auburn

Marshall makes enough plays 

Nick Marshall did improve this week to go 10 for 17 for 147 yards and two touchdowns.  He finally hit one of those bombs Auburn missed out on last week and hit the other touchdown on an actual real drop back and make-a-read pass.  Marshall added another 50 yards rushing on top of that.  Unfortunately he also missed on some easy throws and inexplicably fumbled the ball without anyone else touching it.  As Mr. Rankin points out in the second article above, that is what it is going to be like with Nick Marshall.  He won't be a high percentage passer and is the starter because he can make those explosive plays.  He is also right that with that inconsistency Auburn will hit several three-and-out dry periods during games when he gets off track.  We saw that last night as Auburn went three-and-out two times in a row in the first half.  The question is will the explosive plays more than make up for these dry periods?

The biggest positive Auburn has going at the moment is the three-headed monster of Grant, Mason and Payne.  I thought this would be a solid group but after two games they look a little better than I thought.  The coaches have done a great job so far of spreading the work load and getting them all involved.  On defense the biggest positive appears to be the overall more aggressive play and Chris Davis.  I hate it that Kris Frost will be out the first half against State but that is the biggest play I have seen an Auburn middle linebacker make since Josh Bynes in the Clemson game in 2010.  I know the coaches are going to crush the guy but I will take that any day over what we have seen the last two seasons.

Unfortunately while the defense has improved over the complete train wreck it has been the last two seasons it is still a below average SEC defense in my opinion.  These guys just cannot get off the field.  Arkansas State like Washington State converted on almost half of their third downs.  The time of possession difference before the fourth quarter was alarming.  Games can be lost when Auburn hits one of those dry spells on offense and the defense has to stay out on the field awhile.  Ellis Johnson is more aggressive than Auburn's last two horrible defenses but it sure seems like he needs to be even more aggressive.  Auburn has to take some chances to get some stops and give the offense more time.  Just like 2011, the worst thing is to let the other team take some long double-figure play drive down the field with our offense going to sleep on the bench.

Another cause for concern would be the nearly 100 yards in penalties last night including THREE holding calls against left tackle Greg Robinson.  Auburn is not going to win too many games in the SEC with almost 100 yards in penalties.  I am also hoping that Malzahn is waiting to spring C.J. Uzomah on one of these upcoming big game opponents.  Uzomah was another one of the only bright spots from last season.  He is a very good receiver and playmaker that has not been used at all.  Auburn was even throwing to Jay Prosch last night but Uzomah was nowhere to be seen.  The coaches need to get him involved.

I was also a little disturbed to see Auburn and Malzahn emulating 2011 in the passing game against overmatched opponents.  In 2011 Auburn was trying to rebuild it's passing game as well but would only throw the ball about 15 times and simply run over the few overmatched opponents they played.  Then, of course, Auburn was not able to pass the ball against the big boys.  I contend that games like last night are the place to get your young quarterback some extra reps in the passing game to get him ready.  However Marshall threw only 17 passes last night when the coaches could easily get him 5 to 10 more passes just for the practice.  All of Auburn's upcoming opponents are going to stack the box and dare Auburn to throw.  It is an absolute certainty. 

Well the preseason is over.  Auburn got two decent wins over teams that are better than your usual cupcakes and that is a good start.  Auburn's win last week looked a little better as Washington State won at Southern Cal last night.  Southern Cal is definitely overrated but that is still a big win.  Things get a bit tougher this week as Mississippi State comes to town.  This game is definitely one of the biggest games of the year and will go a long way toward showing what kind of season Auburn will have.  It is absolutely a must-win for Auburn with it being at home and looking at the rest of the schedule.  This is also the first real opportunity for Auburn to show things are different than last year as the train went off the tracks at State last season.  We will know a whole lot more about this team and this season around 10:00pm next Saturday night.

Game 1 Review: At least it was a win...

Auburn 31 Washington State 24.  The "new day" for Auburn football started out looking a lot like the old one.  The Auburn defense came out giving up yardage in huge chunks and the offense was out of sync.  However Auburn was opportunistic and rallied to nip Washington State to open the season.  It was not pretty and the question is how good is Washington State?  The Cougars looked strong at times but I do not think they are close top-to-bottom to any of the SEC teams Auburn will play this year.  They say that sometimes the biggest improvement a team makes is between game one and game two.  Let us hope that is true for the 2013 Auburn Tigers.  For now let's look at the good, the bad and the ugly from last night's game...

 

THE GOOD

Well first I guess it was the Auburn special teams and running game.  These guys came to play.  Cody Parkey kicked three big field goals.  Tre Mason had a 100 yard kick off return and added another 75 yards rushing.  He had a critical fumble late but fortunately it did not come back to haunt Auburn.  Corey Grant made the most of his opportunities and definitely shared offensive MVP honors with Mason on the strength of a 75 yard touchdown run and 146 total rushing yards for the game.  Cameron Artis-Payne added another 50 yards and some glimpses of his strength.  These guys are a solid stable of running backs and it appears that Auburn will go as these guys go.

 

With that said about the running backs, I guess you also have to give some kudos to the guys up front.  However I was disappointed at the lack of push the line got in some critical situations.  I expected a little more but when you rush for almost 300 yards you have to credit the offensive line.  The only receiver to make a real impact on the game was Sammie Coates.  His great catch on one of the only long completions of the night was a huge play and kept the Auburn passing game from being a total disaster in this game.

 

The defense was not in the good category most of the night but improved late to save the game for Auburn.  Washington State was in position to tie the game up three times in the second half but had to settle for a field goal, threw an interception and then gave up the ball on the downs.  Kudos have to go to the defense for that.  The heroes on defense were the emergency subs.  Robenson Therezie subbed in for Justin Garrett and had two picks while Montavius Adams subbed in for Jeffrey Whitaker and did more in one night than some of these older defensive linemen have done in their whole career at Auburn. 

 

THE BAD

The Auburn defense came on late but floundered early.  Washington State rolled down the field repeatedly slicing up the Auburn defense and putting up 21 points in the first half.  Auburn got no pass rush while Wazzou wide receivers were open all over the field.  The worst rushing team in the country last season also tacked on 100+ yards rushing against Auburn.  The Tigers also continued another disturbing trend from last year giving up an astounding 28 first downs to the Cougars.  Washington State also converted on 3rd and 4th down about half the time.  The Auburn defense rose up late and that is an improvement over last year but again how good is Washington State?  

 

The Auburn special teams were good and helped win the game but there was a missed field goal, a botched kick off and a muffed punt last night.  Also there was a blatant holding penalty that sprung Tre Mason on his kickoff return.  I am pretty surprised the refs missed that.  Auburn also appeared to commit a few obvious pass interference penalties that were not called.  I know Washington State got away with a few as well including an obvious late hit out of bounds but Auburn still has to clean it up.  Penalties like that will be called when Auburn goes on the road in the SEC and could cost the Tigers dearly.

 

THE UGLY

I am accused of being negative at times but even I expected Nick Marshall to come out and look pretty good.  I was shocked at how bad he was last night.  Auburn had 20 yards passing at halftime.  Marshall appeared to have absolutely no touch on his balls and overthrew many balls badly.  He did have a couple of drops and did not turn the ball over but it was still a pretty ugly night.  The coaches made it pretty obvious that they were scared to have him throw a regular mid-range pass.  This resulted in Auburn only putting up two field goals in the second half when they had a dominating running game.

 

Marshall showed some scrambling ability late and hit a few short passes but again he did not show the ability to be able to drop back in the pocket and hit a decent pass.  His inability to do this completely hamstrung the offense.  As good as Auburn was running the football, there should have been a touchdown in the second half.  Auburn should have pulled away in this game.  Instead Auburn had to score critical touchdowns off a turnover and a kickoff return.  That worked last night but it is not going to work in any of Auburn's SEC games this season.

 

THE FINAL WORD

Auburn beat a team from a BCS conference which is more than it did all of last season.  That is something to build on.  Auburn has one more week to get it together before the real season begins.  Nick Marshall has to improve a whole lot or nothing else is going to matter much.  He has to be able to pass good enough to at least keep teams honest so that Auburn can run the football. 

 

The biggest game of the season may be in two weeks.  Auburn must win against Mississippi State to have a chance at a good season.  After that a trip to Baton Rouge looms along with another huge game against Ole Miss.  I believe the measuring stick on how good this season is starts with Auburn winning against the Mississippi schools at home.

 

State did not look great yesterday but played a pretty good team.  Ole Miss has it's share of problems as well but they have a senior quarterback who is good at running their system and some talented freshmen already making big plays.  All of these teams are looking at taking that next step and having good seasons.  Auburn is going to have play a lot better than last night if they are going to take that next step.