I guess the question is now how did Auburn beat these guys last year? It is obvious now that A&M simply owns Auburn. They crushed Bo Jackson in his final game as an Auburn Tiger in the Cotton Bowl, ran the Tigers out of their own stadium in 2012 and have now given one of the most well... excruciating losses in the long and storied history of Auburn football. A team that Bama beat 59-0 a few weeks ago just delivered the death blow to Auburn's championship chances. It is simply unfathomable what happened yesterday. I will admit, I took the Aggies lightly as a fan but it is simply unacceptable to see an entire team do it.
THE GOOD
This would be the Auburn offense apart from the huge mistakes they made. The Auburn offense rolled up almost 600 yards of offense (???) including close to 400 yards rushing and 200 yards passing. Quarterback Nick Marshall was brilliant other than helping to fumble the game winning score away on the goal line. Marshall was 15 of 21 for over 200 yards and a touchdown through the air and two touchdowns on the ground. Cameron Artis-Payne who continues to turn in a better and better game each week rushed for over 200 yards and two touchdowns but of course was the other person involved in fumbling the game winning score on the goal line as well as a big fumble to open the game.
Almost every receiver had a big play and appeared to block well. The line obviously blocked well to fuel all this offense but had several critical penalties that stopped drives and of course the final game losing snap. I just do not understand what happened on the goal line or on that ill-fated snap. We have not seen any of these types of mistakes the last two years and two pop up within minutes of each other to doom Auburn's season??? Unbelievable. I know we are a read-option team but the coaches should have been more conservative on the goal line and just called a straight hand-off or quarterback run. I still do not understand what happened on the botched snap.
It is simply inexcusable for a championship team to be as lazy as they were on a critical field goal in a conference game where they are behind. The special teams coach should be reprimanded for that awful play. You could argue that ten point swing doomed Auburn as much as anything. Another ugly part of the game was Duke William's knee injury. He has been by far our best receiver and it was a huge loss to the team that I think also temporarily stunned the offense.
It was also ugly what happened after the game as LSU once again choked another one away to Bama in OT. The Bama fans were in all their glory on social media rejoicing in Auburn's demise and their own lucky win. The waves have parted for them and they have their two biggest games late in the year and at home. Mississippi State has not looked near as good since upsetting Auburn and I am not liking their chances next week in Tuscaloosa. Things will get much uglier in this state if Bama takes down State next weekend.
THE UGLY PART 2
Simply put, that was the worst display of defense I have ever seen on an Auburn team ranked in the top ten or the top twenty five for that matter. What a complete disaster. What a sickening display of defense as Texas A&M, a team that had been dispatched easily by both Mississippi schools and then by Bama 59-0 pushed the Auburn defense all over their own field. Auburn could not get a stop. The only thing that ever stopped A&M was playing it a little conservative late. The Aggies rolled up almost 500 yards including almost 200 yards on the ground.
You have to know the Aggies to know how bad that is. They are not a running team at all however we made them look all-world. Every time they needed a big run they got it. The only thing worse than watching them run all over Auburn was watching the Tiger defense make their true freshman quarterback Kyle Allen who was in his first SEC road game look like Peyton Manning. Unbelievable. This 18 year old kid threw for almost 300 yards and four touchdowns against our soft awful defense.
It all started up front as Auburn's defensive line did absolutely nothing but get their butts kicked. They could not get any pressure on this kid and on top of that Auburn could not cover anybody. What the heck are the coaches doing??? Every team Auburn plays has guys wide open over the middle taking it to the house, run slant after slant after slant, use swing passes go for big yards, etc... At some point I do not understand why the coaches would not bring everyone up and make this green rookie quarterback hit the long pass. How many slants can one team allow?
This defense has now allowed 38 points to Mississippi State, 35 to South Carolina, 31 to Ole Miss and now 41 to Texas A&M. This defense is AWFUL. Gus Malzahn better start getting to work on the defensive side of the ball. It is obvious that coaching is a big part of this. Ellis Johnson is not getting it done. His job might on the line depending on how bad the defense is in Auburn's two upcoming rivalry games. I have not even mentioned the brain dead penalties including a potential game turning offsides penalty. What are these players thinking? You cannot make those mistakes.
THE LAST WORD
Auburn is finished as far as any kind of championship goes. The only thing left to play for is pride and playing spoiler to our biggest rivals. Georgia is still in the race for the East and Bama is headed for this playoff unless Mississippi State or Auburn do something about it. Georgia and Bama both have great running games and big play potential in the passing game. That does not bode well for this Auburn defense. However if the defense could just make a few plays and the players on both sides of the ball quit making dumb mistakes this could still be a very good team. They can beat Georgia or Bama but the question is how will they respond to this gut wrenching loss.
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