Game 4 Review: The Gus Bus has Broken Down

Mississippi State 17  Auburn 9.  Another game, another disappointing night for Auburn.  The only good thing I have heard from some Auburn fans is that the team did some good things and did a little better.  I guess that is correct but as a friend texted me this morning: "We just lost at home to an average Dan Mullen team and failed to put the ball in the end zone one single time."  That is a huge indictment on this team and especially this coaching staff.  The "Gus Bus" certainly looks completely broken down. 

This was no juggernaut Auburn was facing Saturday night.  It is a rebuilding State team outside Dak Prescott.  Wow he was heads and tails the best player on the field last night.  State had no running game and had several drops by their wide receivers.  Prescott was still able to pass for almost 300 yards.  Even with a mediocre offensive line Auburn was not able to get much pressure on Prescott.  I think this State team like Auburn will also lose to every other SEC West team they play this season except for maybe Arkansas. 

THE GOOD
Auburn finally found somebody it could run a little bit on.  The Tigers finally got to 200 yards rushing in a game this season although it took them 50 rushing attempts to do it.  Kerryon Johnson showed a spark again running and catching the ball.  Peyton Barber was back this week with another 100 yard rushing performance and hey Duke Williams was actually spotted catching a few passes.  On top of that, the defense was also able to hold State to just 56 yards rushing.  I am searching for something else to say good...

I guess some would point to a decent first start by Sean White and I guess he did OK but he was largely ineffective and threw a critical momentum-changing interception on Auburn's first drive.  He should have had two more passes picked off as well.  I have yet to hear anybody killing White for those throws like they did to Jeremy Johnson.  Also I would like to remind everyone that while evidently Johnson was the worst quarterback any Auburn fan has ever seen, he did actually make a few important touchdown throws as well against Louisville and Jax State.  The same cannot be said for White.

Again I have nothing against White.  The problem is that if White was an experienced senior he would win that game last night but probably will still not be able to beat Georgia and Bama and other top tier teams on Auburn's schedule.  I just do not see him ever being that much better than what he was last night which was a guy who throws a lot of short balls.  In my opinion, he just does not have the vision or the arm to have much of a vertical passing game.  He did exactly what I thought and wrote he would do in my post earlier this week except he did have a critical interception.

THE BAD
The defensive effort was better and frankly when you hold a team under 20 points in this day and age your team should win the game.  It is hard to criticize the defense a whole lot last night but at times Prescott seemed to be able to pass at will.  Most of the time Auburn was not able to generate any kind of rush and I do not think the Tigers ever did just rushing four.  Again they were able to make some plays and hold the Bulldogs under 20 points but State played pretty conservative as time went on and everyone can still see this defense has big problems.

This defense is going to get absolutely destroyed several more times this season and I do not think any coach on earth could change that.  I did appreciate Will Muschamp's candid and sincere press conference this week.  It was much more sincere than anything I have ever heard from Gus Malzahn.  Unfortunately for Muschamp he just does not have the horses.  The best thing he can do for himself and for Auburn is get better players.  If Auburn is not able to recruit better on a larger scale on defense then things are not going to change any time soon.

It was great seeing the Tigers get big-time recruits Byron Cowart and Jeffery Holland plus a couple of other guys like Carlton Davis this last season but there has to be more.  Auburn has had some defensive stars here and there like Nick Fairley and Dee Ford and a few others but has not fielded a good defensive unit overall in a long time.  If Auburn is ever going to do this it would seem like now would be the best chance.  Auburn probably has the best defensive recruiting staff in place it has ever had in Muschamp, Rodney Garner, Lance Thompson and Travarius Robinson.  These guys have to turn things around on the defensive recruiting trail before they can turn it around on the field.

THE UGLY
Regardless of whether it is Johnson or White, the problem is still Auburn's complete lack of anything resembling a decent passing game and the offensive coaching overall.  Illegal Procedure calls, illegal shifts, bad snaps, kickoffs out of bounds... that is coaching.  Those are drive killers.  They put the offense in a hole or in the case of the bad snap ruin Auburn's best chance at a touchdown.  The play calling is also atrocious.  Late in the game as State was blitzing almost every down Malzahn calls that fake run handoff/fake reverse handoff play action pass play???  White barely finished the second fake before he was buried.  First Auburn has ran that play since 2009, everyone sees it coming, and second it is slow developing and about the worst thing you could call against a blitzing team.

Again I just do not understand what Malzahn and Lashlee's plan was for this season???  They knew they did not have a running quarterback in either Johnson or White.  They knew they had freshmen two-deep at H-back and tight end.  They knew they had some talented receivers yet it seems they just expected to run over everybody and still only need the occasional pass.  Yes, neither Johnson or White have been able to consistently make that occasional pass but that still does not excuse the awful coaching done by Malzahn and Lashlee.

I think both quarterbacks and especially Johnson would have looked much better if Malzahn was as determined to field a top tier passing game as he is the running game.  Frankly as I have heard more than one Auburn fan say, we are basically Georgia Tech.  In fact Auburn has only thrown 40 more passes this season than the Yellow Jackets (and those 40 passes were basically swing passes that are basically running plays).  Gus Malzahn is not an offensive innovator.  In fact, more and more Pat Dye looks more innovative than Malzahn.  Malzahn really does much more closely resemble Johnson at Georgia Tech than other HUNH spread coaches. 

THE LAST WORD
The rest of the football world and especially the defensive coaches have caught up with Malzahn and know all of his tendencies.  It started to show up last season but has been made very clear this season.  I guess if Malzahn is ever able to assemble talent like the 2013 team had on offense he will be successful again.  Short of that I do not think he will ever field a top offense again at Auburn if he is unwilling to change.  It sure looks now like he will continue to pound his head against a brick wall no matter what happens on the field.

This is now a complete rebuilding project.  I will continue to say in this spot that I think Jeremy Johnson should be the guy Auburn rebuilds around.  He still has a much higher ceiling than Sean White.  Malzahn is going to compound his problems wasting an entire season of experience on White who in my opinion will just never be good enough.  Johnson on the other hand has the tools to beat top tier teams.  Auburn is going to lose the majority of its remaining games regardless of who is quarterback but one guy is going to get that valuable experience going through it to use for this coaching staff or another one.

Auburn now enters the eye of the storm, that brief time of calm before the storm really hits (I also used this illustration back in...  2012).  Auburn gets San Jose State, a bye week and then Kentucky.  I actually think Auburn is going to win both of those games.  Malzahn was not perfect in his best season as a head coach in 2013 and I do not think he will go 0-8 this season.  Unlike Bowden and Chizik in their closing seasons Malzahn still has some offensive talent.  I think Auburn will regroup to some extent and will be able to run on the Wildcats.  If Auburn can run they can still win.  Unfortunately I do not think there will be many wins after that as the Tigers hit the big part of that storm.

Malzahn Blows It Again

It was announced today that Auburn coach Gus Malzahn has named Sean White the starter for Saturday and benched Jeremy Johnson.  The lynch mob of fans that always blame everything on the quarterback are overjoyed.  It is almost unanimous on all the Auburn boards but not quite, you can count me out of the "the only way things get better is through Sean White" club.  I think this is another huge mistake by Malzahn and it reeks of desperation.  Anybody who thinks it is a good thing to throw a freshman who has never played a down before into a huge make-or-break conference game is sorely deluded in my opinion. 

This move also has future ramifications as Auburn is now also building for next season.  It is very clear Auburn will not be a championship contender this season even with significant improvement.  This is now a rebuilding year and the quarterback with the highest ceiling is Jeremy Johnson.  Johnson still stands 6'5'' and weighs 240 lbs and has a good arm and has show good touch and accuracy.  That is a hard combination to find and something you do not just throw away when the fans turn on you.  I believe the best thing for Auburn for this year and next is to get Johnson back on track.

Johnson still played well in appearances in 2013 and last season.  He has made some huge mistakes this season but anyone who thinks he is the main problem with Auburn right now is wrong in my opinion.  Auburn has the worst run defense in the entire country and a coach who has run almost 70% of the time on standard downs (1st and 10, 2nd and 7 or shorter, or 3rd and 5 or shorter).  The offense especially the passing game shows no signs at all of adequate coaching.  The line is lackluster and the receivers make a lot of mistakes.  All of those things are not Johnson's fault but lets blame the quarterback and not our multi-millionaire coaches.

Enter Sean White to take the heat off the coaches.  I have nothing against White, he is wearing my favorite number and has some impressive credentials.  Unfortunately I do not believe he can be anywhere near as good as Johnson.  He is shorter than Nick Marshall who could not see over the line and looks like a guy who always takes the short pass.  I watched him on A-day with no bias at all and saw a guy throw short nearly every time.  He does not look like he has the arm to throw the deep ball but of course it is hard to know.  Add to that observation that his playing time rests on not throwing any interceptions and you have a guy that will not take any risks.  He will take the checkdown every time.  I bet I will be able to count on one hand the number of throws he attempts over 15 yards.

Overreaction to interceptions is not conducive to a good passing game.  A good passing game is going to have them and while you want to avoid turnovers you have to balance that with making plays.  I think Sean White will probably not have any interceptions and will complete a lot of passes but I think they will mostly be short passes.  He will do just good enough to continue to hang on to the job including getting the confidence builder Johnson so desperately needs in San Jose State, a team that will not play nearly as well as Jacksonville State.

Will that be enough to beat Mississippi State?  Maybe but it won't be enough to beat many of the teams on our schedule this year or next.  Sean White is just not the answer right now in my opinion.  I just do not believe he will get a whole lot better than a guy that throws a lot of short high-percentage passes.  If I was Mississippi State I would press our receivers and bring those safeties up, make White throw over you.  You can guarantee Georgia and Bama and probably most of the rest of the tough teams on our schedule will.

I think #13 means bad luck for Auburn right now...

Game 3 Review: 2012 Part Deux

LSU 45  Auburn 21.  As coach Gus Malzahn said: "Bottom line is we got our rear kicked".  I pretty much could stop there because that is definitely the bottom line.  Unfortunately when you play in the SEC and are supposed to be a big time program a horrid loss and a start to a season this bad have much bigger ramifications than just getting your rear kicked in a single game.  Auburn now looks to have major problems all over its roster and all these million dollar coaches do not appear to be making it any better.  The 2015 season now looks like a disaster and a lot like the 2012 season.

THE GOOD
There is not much to write here.  There was not much good in the game yesterday.  I guess it is good that Jeremy Johnson finally ran the ball some and had the nice touchdown run even if the game was already over.  I guess it is good that Kerryon Johnson got in the game and made some plays.  It was also nice to see Stanton Truitt make a couple of catches but unfortunately it reminds me of how much different things might be if Auburn had a coaching staff that could put even a half decent passing attack on the field.

THE BAD (THE UGLY PART ONE)
Good grief.  I mean how much worse can Auburn get on defense???  Last week Jacksonville State wore us down and went on two double-digit play drives consuming almost ten minutes of the game in the fourth quarter in Jordan-Hare and then this week LSU literally runs Auburn out of Tiger Stadium.  I guess the bottom line is regardless of the coaching staff Auburn cannot recruit enough good defensive players.  The Tigers are now going on eight years of bad defenses, generating the top five worst defenses in the history of Auburn University and now it looks like this one might supplant one of those awful units.

I have simply run out of adjectives to describe how bad these defenses are.  Will Muschamp has made absolutely no difference.  This defense simply took up where it left off last year and in fact reached new lows yesterday giving up over 400 yards rushing.  As I have said when Auburn did it to other teams, when a team rushes for 400 yards on you they have taken your manhood.  There is not much need for a breakdown.  The line was awful, the linebackers were worse and the secondary was terrible as well.  I do not see any hope in sight especially with Carl Lawson possibly out of the season although he would not have made a difference yesterday.

THE UGLY PART TWO
Auburn simply does not have a passing game.  Everyone can blame Jeremy Johnson and he has definitely made some bad plays but it is just as evident that these coaches did not work on the passing game near as much as they should have in spring and fall practices.  In fact I remember us wasting an entire fall scrimmage on just running the ball.  How is that working out?  I will continue to say it, this offense was never going to be a power running unit with only freshmen at H-back and tight end.  However it sure seems these coaches prepared for this season planning to be just that.

It was also nice to read Acid Reign over at Track'em Tigers finally say what I have been saying over and over again:
"Offensively, Auburn has been figured out. The Tigers like to put 3 or 4 receivers out there that they have no intention of throwing to, and instead try to run power plays against a strong, stacked front. The bottom line is that we don’t really have SEC caliber lead blockers. Everyone in the playing rotation at tight end or H-back is a freshman and are not ready to win confrontations with a nasty linebacker corps like LSU’s. Auburn’s only hope against defenses like LSU’s are to learn to pitch and catch a lot better! - See more at: http://trackemtigers.com/lsu-abuses-auburn/#more-35835".

THE LAST WORD
Things look really bad.  I cannot believe people are still trying to compare this season to 2013, give me a break.  Again I think the better comparison is with the disastrous 2012 season.  Will this season turn into that disaster epic where Auburn loses all its conference games?  The next game against Mississippi State will go a long way toward determining that.  Gene Chizik was in nearly the same spot in 2012 against Arkansas (the Arkansas team coached by interim coach John L. Smith who had just lost to Bama 52-0).  It was a winnable game even for that Auburn team and a win could have restored a little confidence and probably enabled Auburn to also beat Vandy that year.  It would still have been a really bad season but not the worst season ever that it turned out to be.

Auburn is in almost the exact same situation this week.  Mississippi State is a lot better than that Arkansas team but they are still one of the few conference teams Auburn has a chance to beat.  I think it is now the biggest game of the year for the Tigers.  An Auburn win restores a little confidence and could enable Auburn to get wins at Kentucky and Arkansas which combined with the two wins the Tigers already have and hopefully wins over San Jose State and Idaho would make Auburn bowl-eligible.  That is pretty much the best case scenario for the Tigers at this point.

Right now it does not appear Auburn has any chance in their other games.  Ole Miss and Texas A&M will outscore the Tigers while Bama and Georgia will do the exact same thing LSU did yesterday. Long term Gus Malzahn looks like another one-hit wonder like Terry Bowden and Chizik.  Malzahn and his all-star staff are able to get some very high-rated recruits but also seem to bet wrong on more than they get right.  Couple that with his stubborn refusal to change his offensive philosophy in any way and the future does not look bright.

Game 2 Review: Season Ending Victory?

Auburn 27  Jacksonville State 20.  It is being called the worst or most embarrassing win in Auburn history.  Well I guess that is better than the worst or most embarrassing loss in Auburn history which it would have been.  The Auburn Tiger football team, rated #6 in the country, were barely able to beat FCS opponent Jacksonville State and avoid the stigma of one of the worst losses ever.  The Tigers were very lucky that Jacksonville State head coach John Grass choked as many before him have.  These football coaches do not seem to understand the saying "no guts, no glory".

Jacksonville State had it all there for the taking.  As Kevin Scarbinsky put it: "With barely 2 minutes left, JSU had the lead and the ball and a chance to put the game away. Up seven, facing third-and-4 at his own 13-yard line, JSU coach John Grass had the opportunity of a lifetime to stamp himself as the best (former) high school coach on the field."  Jax State and quarterback Eli Jenkins had been killing Auburn's defense all day.  Call a gutsy play, you know Auburn will probably score if you punt it back to them.  One play for five yards and Jax State has the biggest win in their history...

Thank goodness they did not and Auburn was able to pull it out at the end.  Unfortunately for the Tigers that is the only good news out of that game.  What a complete embarrassment.  There is still an argument to be made that Jax State was the best team on the field.  They had more passing and total yards of offense than Auburn and basically just as many rushing yards.  They had more first downs and dominated Auburn in time of possession.  Auburn also had more turnovers and penalty yards as well.  What a complete abomination from beginning to nearly the end by Auburn.

Every single bit of this lies at the feet of Gus Malzahn.  After doing a bad job last season he has opened this season doing a worst job.  I saw someone write on an Auburn board this morning that history is repeating itself.  Gene Chizik went to the national championship game, went 8-5 and then disaster struck.  Gus Malzahn appears to be doing the exact same thing.  After watching the game yesterday, this season is starting to look a lot like 2012.  Auburn will not beat one SEC team on their schedule playing even remotely close to the way they did yesterday.

THE GOOD
There has only been one good thing so far that has come out in the first two games of this season and it is Peyton Barber (also similar to Tre Mason in 2012).  The guy has almost singlehandedly won both games.  His effort at the end of the game yesterday was definitely the only good thing I saw.  The play of the game was Barber taking a short swing pass on 3rd and nine on the late game-tying drive and then faking, spinning and lunging to get the first down.  Melvin Ray also made a great catch on the tying touchdown.

THE BAD
Auburn's list of injuries and Blake Countess' ridiculous ejection from the game would be legitimate reasons for the bad defensive performance yesterday if Auburn was playing an SEC team but not against Jax State.  Auburn let an FCS formerly Division 1-AA team push them all over their own field.  First Jax State had TWO receivers with over 100 yards and then at times Jax State seemed to run at will. 

Jax State went on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter with both of them over 10 plays consuming almost TEN minutes.  Auburn, the #6 team in the country predicted by many to win the Southeastern Conference got their defense worn down and then beat down by Jax State in their own stadium in the fourth quarter.  The defense just looked awful as Jax State completed slant after slant and at times just shredded Auburn with the read option. 

The future looks bleak indeed for Auburn on defense.  Even though I became a ridiculous sunshine pumper in my season preview I knew the interior defensive line was suspect and after two games they have looked pretty bad other than a few highlights by Montravious Adams.  Unfortunately the defensive ends do not look any better.  I saw the Jax State quarterback just own senior defensive end DeVonte Lambert and so far freshman superstars Byron Cowart and Jeffrey Holland have made no impact. 

The linebacking corps just does not seem much different.  They make plays here and there but are just not good enough to be a strength.  I hoped that might change with Muschamp but I guess not.  The secondary had depth concerns coming into the season as everyone knew and now with Tray Matthews and Josh Holsey out, there are a LOT of freshman getting playing time which is bad news.  Now Auburn is travelling to Baton Rouge to take on LSU and monster tailback Leonard Fournette.  I do not see how a defense that got pushed all over its own field against Jax State will be able to slow down that guy.

THE UGLY
This would be the Auburn offense led by quarterback Jeremy Johnson.  I am now starting to wonder who exactly was responsible for Cam Newton's development as a passer at Auburn in 2010.  It sure seems now that Gus Malzahn is simply incapable of developing a balanced offense that has the passing part as the strength.  People can pile on Jeremy Johnson but we know that he is a better player than this and that is on the coaches.  What have Malzahn and quarterbacks COACH Rhett Lashlee been doing for the last nine months?  There is no evidence of even a hint of good coaching around Johnson.

In addition to that it appears as though Malzahn's plan for the season was to continue to be a run-based play-action team when it is obvious for the second year in a row Auburn has more assets on the passing side.  It is simply inconceivable to me that these coaches who are paid so much money and do this for a living would not open things up on offense.  Is it against the law to now ever have an offense that is better at passing the ball than running at Auburn?  It sure seems like it.  We open it up once last season and score 44 points on Nick $aban and Bama and then we go right back to being a run-based play-action team???  It simply boggles the mind.

Malzahn is the most stubborn coach I have ever seen and it seems that will be his downfall at Auburn.  He seems unwilling or incapable of changing or adapting his system to his players and THAT is the mark of a good coach.  Take the guy who Auburn's stadium is named after, Shug Jordan.  Back in the dark ages before legalized holding and high flying passing attacks, Jordan realized what he had in quarterback Pat Sullivan and receiver Terry Beasley.  Jordan changed his offense to a balanced passing attack.  Auburn still ran the ball and was balanced but featured Sullivan and the passing attack.

For three years, Auburn had the most prolific offense in the Southeastern Conference and went 25-4 in the regular season.  After Sullivan and Beasley left, Jordan transitioned back to a "three yards and a cloud of dust" team led by tailback Terry Henley and went 10-1.  After that Jordan implemented the "veer" offense and produced a 10-2 season in 1974.  He adapted his offense to his personnel and won big.  Pat Dye did the same thing transitioning from his run heavy early years to a more balanced offense and won three straight SEC titles in the late 1980s.

Also for the record Pat Sullivan threw five interceptions in his first game but Shug Jordan did not shut it down and coach "scared" after that.  There are going to be ups and downs to a pass heavy attack but just like a good running attack, sooner or later the plays will come.  You have to keep throwing it and work it out.  Again, Auburn doesn't have a dominant run blocking line and again has nothing but freshmen at H-back and tight end.  However Auburn does have a quarterback with a ton of passing potential and a stable of wide receivers. 

All over the country, there are good passing attacks with less weapons than Auburn has.  This is on the coaches.  They have not prepared Johnson and now they have him so scared to make a mistake that he can barely make a throw and when he does it is usually short.  I am not sure how much worse a job Malzahn and Lashlee could have done up to this point.  I cannot believe the people blaming Johnson and wanting Sean White?  Are you kidding me?  So since the coaches did a horrible job with a guy that has shown he can be a good quarterback, we want to replace him with someone completely inferior coached by the same guys?

THE LAST WORD
I have never had a game take the wind out of my sails like the one yesterday.  It sure seemed like a season-ender for me.  Auburn does not have much of a chance at a winning record much less competing for the SEC West unless they play miles and miles better than they have shown so far this season.  At this point that does not seem that likely.  The defense was never going to be that good and its only chance to be decent was predicated on having a good offense.

It looks like the offense will be much worse than last season as Malzahn tries to run basically the same offense he ran with Nick Marshall except for less quarterback runs and a few more short passes.  I will say it again and again, a run-based play-action offense with this personnel is never going to be that successful.  Unfortunately the only way I see Malzahn attempting to change that is complete desperation and that means the season is over any way.

The rule is not to take too much out of one game but how can this team that looks so badly prepared especially on offense these first two games against meager opponents possibly turn it around?  How can this team get wins against LSU, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas A&M on the road?  Well maybe Auburn has a shot against Arkansas.  Take that Bielemma, at least Auburn and even Malzahn have done something.  You go 7-6 and act like you won the national championship and then brag and crow the whole offseason about how great you and your program is... and then you lose to Toledo at home.

How can Auburn stay with Georgia and Bama at the end?  Heck how can Auburn beat the Mississippi schools at home?  It all starts at Baton Rouge next week.  Auburn coaches, players and fans will try to quickly forget what happened this last Saturday but I think this embarrassment will continue to cast a long shadow over this entire season.

Game 1 Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Auburn 31  Louisville 24.  Wow, I usually use "the good the bad and the ugly" as my game review format but it really seemed applicable to the game this weekend.  There were some very good moments on both sides of the ball for Auburn and then there were unfortunately some bad and ugly moments plus injuries as well.  This one was definitely closer than I thought it would be especially after such a good start for the Tigers.  I saw Auburn as the better team coming in and did not think this one would be close.  

I definitely did not see such a bad performance by Jeremy Johnson coming.  I did worry as I wrote in my season preview about him reading his press clippings but still did not see him playing that bad.  However it was a lot better for him to do it yesterday than down in Baton Rouge.  I have read several recaps and instant analysis on the game and one thing I think they are all missing is that Todd Grantham is a good defensive coordinator.  Bobby Petrino has stated more than once that they had spent the entire off-season focusing on Auburn and they were also able to get pressure on Johnson.  

I think the continuing theme from everyone is that at least Auburn grabbed the win and hopefully a lot of the things that went wrong yesterday are correctable.  In fact, the biggest issues from yesterday will not be coaching ones but injury ones.  Auburn saw some of its best players go down and the condition of those players will be the biggest questions marks this week.  But of course Malzahn and company will give the press vague answers bordering on outright lies and we will probably not know the true answers till Auburn tees it up against LSU in two weeks.

But for now back to the game yesterday...

THE GOOD

It was December 31st, the last day of 2007.  Auburn was playing Clemson in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.  The Auburn defense led by Coach Will Muschamp and soon-to-be NFL defensive tackle Pat Sims held an explosive Clemson offense to 20 points after getting put in some bad spots.  The Auburn defense were the obvious heroes that night but many Auburn fans were excited about Tommy Tuberville's new offensive coordinator hire, Tony Franklin, and gave the offense all the glory even though Franklin was just calling Al Borges' shotgun plays and Auburn only scored 20 points in regulation.  Muschamp left Auburn shortly after that and defense at Auburn overall went with him.

Over eight years later Muschamp returned with Auburn in another Chick-Fil-A event at the Georgia Dome and for at least a quarter or two, the Tiger defense seemed to return with him.  Auburn was getting after it led once again by another soon-to-be NFL lineman in Carl Lawson.  The defense shut out the Cardinals for over two and half quarters and everything seemed to be going according to plan.  Unfortunately Lawson got hurt and Louisville went to plan B and finally got something going against the Tigers.

Louisville ended up with 24 points and over 400 yards of offense led by true freshman quarterback Lamar Jackson who had over 200 yards of offense himself.  His speed and quickness really seemed to hurt a tiring Auburn defense plus the kid threw some good passes as well.  The end result looked a lot like the bad box scores of the last few years for Auburn on defense but the early spark and overall aggressiveness is definitely one of the good things about this game.  

Outside of Lawson, I saw some good things from Auburn's young defensive tackles and the secondary looked really good at times as well.  I still did not see a whole lot of plays from Auburn's linebacking corps outside of a few outstanding ones from Justin Garrett but hopefully they will be coming.  It was nice to Garrett contribute on the field after being out with injuries for so long.  It was also good to see a lot of Auburn's young guys get some playing time as well.  Auburn will need production out of those guys before this season is over.

Also on the good side of the ledger on Saturday was kicker Daniel Carlson.  He kicked all of his kickoffs for touchbacks and nailed a 56 yard field goal.  Carlson could end up being one of Auburn's most valuable players by the end of this season.  

THE BAD

Jeremy Johnson.  After an avalanche of preseason buzz, Auburn's star quarterback played maybe his worst game ever.  I think everyone agrees, it wasn't that he threw three interceptions, it was how bad the interceptions were.  I mean those were three ugly picks.  I am just not sure what Johnson was thinking.  He has got to play smarter than that especially after getting the lead early.  Everything was going Auburn's way after getting the interception on the first play of game and making a textbook drive down for the game's first touchdown.

The offense just bogged down after that for the rest of the half.  Auburn would get a first down and then do something dumb.  There were lots of drive-killing penalties mostly holds.  Auburn ended up with 80 yards of penalties for the day and that is on the coaches, it has to be cleaned up.  Also most of that is on the offense as I saw several defensive players pull up and not make the stupid penalty that was made so many times last year.  I have some complaints about the officiating but not the calls made against Auburn, more on that later.

Luckily, even having his worst day, Johnson was still able to hit some critical passes including a big one to Ricardo Louis to give Auburn a 24-0 lead early in the third quarter.  Louis also made a great run on Auburn's last touchdown.  That was what I have been wanting from Louis since they started putting him on that jet sweep.  So many times in the past couple of years he would get the ball and hesitate looking for a hole but on his game-winning touchdown run this weekend he never hesitated and looked he had been shot out of a cannon taking it around the end.

Louis was good but the hero of the day on offense was running back Peyton Barber.  Barber got hurt on A-Day last year and never seemed to recover as Cameron Artis-Payne took the job.  This year he put up another good fight but Roc Thomas got the start and Javon Robinson was inserted early as well.  It looked like another disappointing opener for Barber till both Thomas and Robinson went down with injuries and with Johnson throwing interceptions the offense sat squarely on Barber's shoulders.  He was ready and rushed for 115 yards on 24 carries for almost 5 yards a carry.  He definitely put Auburn on his shoulders several times during that game.

The line did a good job blocking for him.  However I did not see much out of Auburn's young tight ends and H-backs.  I saw the H-backs a lot more but it looks like they have a long way to go to me.  The final big question that was on every Auburn fan's mind is why we did not throw more to Duke Williams.  I do not think any of Johnson's interceptions were to Williams.  He had only a quiet 40 yards on three receptions although all of those were clutch plays.  It did not seem Louisville was doubling him.  The guy is so good and is so obviously Auburn's best wide receiver.  The coaches have got to game plan better and get him a lot more targets.

THE UGLY

First on the list, again I do not have a problem with penalties called on Auburn.  Most of them looked like clear holds to me.  Those are big penalties too.  A ten yard holding penalty is usually a drive-killer.  The refs called five or six holding calls on Auburn.  The problem is I do not think they called ONE holding call on Louisville.  I saw numerous blatant holds from Louisville's wide receivers and like a friend of mine remarked there is no way that little quarterback did as much scrambling as he did without a few blatant holds.  All of that and no holds called.

Nothing gets me more upset that this subject.  Auburn lost a national championship because of this same thing and there is no way Louisville makes it that close this weekend with a few holding penalties called on them.  For the record, yes Florida State thew the ball 35 times two years ago and was not called for holding one time even with an NFL first round draft pick pass rusher going for Auburn.  Call the penalties but call it both ways.

Next and probably the ugliest side of this game was the injuries.  Everyone agrees Carl Lawson is by far Auburn's best defensive player and he was pulled from the game with a hip flexor injury.  I doubt he plays against Jacksonville State.  Will he be ready to go for LSU?  Will he continue to have injuries nag him the whole season?  Auburn's season will be greatly impacted by these questions.  

Safety and playmaker Tray Matthews went down with what looked like a shoulder separation to me. How long will he be out?  I thought he played a very good game Saturday and would also be greatly missed.  The coaches are saying Roc Thomas and Jovon Robinson are not seriously injured but again I do think we will know that for sure till we see if they play against Jacksonville State.  It looks like super frosh Kerryon Johnson might get to see a lot of action against the Gamecocks this weekend.  Auburn has a lot of good players but is so thin in spots that injures will continue to be the biggest issue each week.

THE FINAL WORD

Auburn did not play well but got a tough win in a big neutral site game against a Power Five opponent.  That is a very good thing.  Now again I did not and still do not think Louisville is a great team.  I still think they end up middle of the pack in the ACC however again Grantham is a very good defensive coordinator and they did get to spend a lot of time concentrating on Auburn in the preseason.  Hopefully Jeremy Johnson will not have another game like that and will get back on track.

Auburn's future SEC opponents looked pretty good this weekend.  Texas A&M got a huge win blowing out Arizona State and Bama looked their usual big strong selves against Wisconsin.  Everyone else in the conference also won except for poor Vandy who dropped their opener to Western Kentucky.  I think the Derek Mason era is already over in Nashville.  The big ones next week will be Oklahoma visiting Tennessee and LSU heading to Starkville after having their opener stormed out.

I think the key for Auburn this next weekend is of course not getting anybody hurt, getting all these young guys a lot of playing time and getting ready for a huge game in two weeks down in Baton Rouge.  I think everyone already had the LSU game circled but it is looking bigger and bigger as it gets closer...