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.