Game 8 Review: Field Goals Not Touchdowns

Ole Miss 27  Auburn 19.  The 2015 Auburn Tiger football team fought hard again and came up short again.  It was one of the strangest games I have ever watched.  Auburn had a lot of big plays but just could not put it together except for one drive.  It is the exact opposite of most of Auburn's games this year where the Tigers could not buy a big play.  I think one of the biggest factors is apparently Peyton Barber was injured last week and he has been Auburn's bell cow in converting on 3rd and short and in the red zone.  Quarterback Sean White was also injured and that not only effected his play but effected the play calling.  Auburn basically just held up a sign saying they were going to run the ball whenever anybody named Johnson was playing quarterback.

Credit where credit is due though, Ole Miss was the better team.  They are a much better passing team than Auburn and have a better defense.  In the end that was the difference.  Quarterback Chad Kelly did throw two interceptions but also threw for over 400 yards (!!!).  The Rebels also had more yards rushing than Auburn.  Auburn's defense played better with Carl Lawson but still gave up nearly 30 points and almost 600 yards of offense.  Also for the second week in a row the Auburn defense let the other team drive down the field at the end of the game and chew up almost all the clock.  Finally on the Rebels side it was a day of redemption for receiver Laquon Treadwell who suffered that gruesome injury in a loss to Auburn last year.  He had the winning touchdown and a team-high 114 yards receiving.

THE GOOD
I guess for the second week in a row I will credit the special teams for doing their job well.  Auburn kicker Daniel Carlson hit all four of his field goal attempts including one for 52 yards.  Punter Kevin Phillips averaged almost 46 yards a punt and Ole Miss had no return yardage at all.  That is a pretty good day for the special teams.  Unfortunately when you start out talking about how great the special teams looked you know it was not a very good day for the other units.  I tell you though, as you see special team gaffes all over the country while watching the highlights you sure learn to not take it for granted.  Bad special teams play can and will lose any team any game.

Another good thing for Auburn today was the emergence of running back Jovon Robinson subbing in for Peyton Barber.  Kerryon Johnson is a good back but he is not ready to run 20 times between the tackles.  The jury is still out on Roc Thomas in that area as well so Robinson had to shoulder the load.  He had some great runs including four in a row for 47 yards and ended up with 91 yards on 18 carries.   It was good to see Robinson get to contribute and finally flash some of that talent that made him the best JUCO running back in the country.  The other big weapon for Auburn was again Ricardo Louis.  Auburn's best wide receiver had four catches for 137 yards and a touchdown.  

THE BAD
Even with Jovon Robinson's good day Auburn could not consistently run the football or throw short.  While that opened up some big plays it stunted Auburn's consistency.  The Ole Miss defense forced Auburn and quarterback Sean White to look for longer passes.  This allowed the Rebels to get a good rush on White as he tried to find receivers open downfield and get several hurries and sacks.  This was also evident on White's stat line as he did not even complete half of his attempted passes.  He still had 250 yards passing but missed on a lot of conversion plays (including two horrible passes on fourth down plays).  In fact, the Tigers were 2 of 15 on third down conversions and as Gus Malzahn said after the game, that is not going to beat anybody.  

Ole Miss also seemed to know when the Tigers were going to run and they stuffed a lot of Tigers runs for a loss or a short gain.  The Rebels gave up some big passing plays but for the most part shut down the Auburn rushing attack.  Of course Gus Malzahn and the Auburn brain trust seemed to make things easier for Ole Miss by again telegraphing run plays by putting a Johnson at quarterback.  It seems Auburn did that because Sean White was hurt but it looked like it backfired to me.  The "Wildcat" formation can still work against weaker teams but I cannot remember the last time it worked against anybody good.  All of this plus Auburn mistakes killed the Tigers in the red zone.  The Tigers kept settling for field goals instead of touchdowns.  The biggest mistake was a blatant hold when it appeared Marcus Davis had tied the game for Auburn.  

THE UGLY
This Auburn team has not quit like the 2012 bunch however things are still pretty bad on the plains.  The Tigers led by coach Gus Malzahn have lost seven out of their last eight conference games and that is ugly.  They are 4-4 and 1-4 this season and need two wins to just make a bowl game.  They will probably get one against Idaho but are down to either winning in College Station or beating Georgia at home to get the other.  From this perch, Georgia at home looks like Auburn's best chance at a meaningful win this season.  Gus Malzahn continues to talk like the coach of a team that everyone knew would be rebuilding instead of the contender Auburn was supposed to be.  I still think the root of Auburn's problems to start this season was awful offensive coaching by Malzahn and his staff.

He has improved due to desperation and has thrown the ball more but it still seems Auburn will never have a balanced offense under him.  These problems are not going to magically go away as Auburn still has nothing resembling a tight end and have a long way to go to have a decent SEC H-back.  As I have said all season, these two positions are absolutely essential to having a good rushing attack.  Beyond that SEC defenses seem to know all of Malzahn's tendencies including pass routes and have exploited that and will continue to.  It sure seems like Malzahn is going to continue run this same old playbook for the duration of his career at Auburn.  Even with better blocking I wonder how successful it can be?  And that is just the problems on offense...

THE LAST WORD
I have not really looked around the SEC while surveying the damage at Auburn the last month.  In that time things have pretty much come into focus especially in the East.  It sure looks like the Florida Gators will win the SEC East especially after the beatdown they put on Georgia today.  In the West I think it will once again be Bama coming out.  I hate to say it but I do not think LSU quarterback Brandon Harris is good enough to beat Bama in Tuscaloosa even with Leonard Fournette.  However I do think the Bayou Bengals will take down Ole Miss to open the way for Bama to get to Atlanta.  It is just turning out to be another awful season for Auburn fans as a battered Tiger team heads to College Station.

Game 7 Review: Overtime Marathon

Arkansas 54  Auburn 46.  In a game of escalating tension between two desperate teams Arkansas came out on top.  Auburn had every chance to steal this game and go ahead and guarantee at least a bowl invite.  Down three points, the Tigers flew down the field with barely a minute remaining and no timeouts to get within field goal range.  Daniel Carlson then nailed a pressure-packed 41 yard field goal from the left hash to send it to overtime.  The Tigers and Razorbacks then traded touchdowns till the 4th overtime when Arkansas prevailed.  The game was filled with a lot of good and bad plays on both sides. 
 
It was definitely the most tension filled game with Arkansas I have seen outside the 2010 game.  There was a lot on the line for two teams trying to avoid the SEC West cellar.  For Arkansas, the natives are growing restless with coach Bret Bielema's bluster and lack of results.  He loses this game and he has one foot out the door.  For Auburn it was likely the last shot at a winning season.  The road looks long and progressively hard now for the Tigers.  Both teams played like they wanted it bad.  Unfortunately the Auburn defense failed again.  It was excruciating to watch.  There were definitely quite a few mistakes or should I say drops by the offense but they rallied to put the team in a position to win.  The defense simply could not close it out. 
 
THE GOOD
I have definitely been remiss in my last few posts not mentioning the Auburn special teams in this section.  These guys have been awesome.  The kickoff returns have been a major weapon and Daniel Carlson might be the best kicker in the country.  His only glaring red mark was the really short miss at home against State.  He definitely came through Saturday.  That was one tough kick in a hostile environment that he hit in this game.  He is also the only kicker in the country with three field goals over 50 yards.  This guy is just a sophomore!  I guess the ultimate compliment to Carlson was from my son who asked me if he was going pro after next year (!!!). 
 
As much as I have criticized the decision to make Sean White the Tigers starting quarterback, I have to say the guy played a good game.  He still finished 19 of 32 for 254 yards even with TEN drops by the wide receivers.  White navigated the team down the field but once again it was Peyton Barber closing the drives out.  He had four touchdowns in the game, three of them in overtime.  I still think Malzahn runs Barber up the middle way too much but the guy is definitely Auburn's go-to guy in any short yardage situation.  Rounding out the good I am going with Jason Smith.  The guy was hyped a lot early and then disappeared but definitely broke out this game with a touchdown and two big play receptions.
 
THE BAD
(Insert weekly description of the defensive performance)...  The defense did get a few stops during the game but in the end Arkansas had over 450 yards of total offense including over 200 yards rushing and passing.  The Razorbacks also had over five minutes more of possession time than Auburn.  This included an excruciating five minute long drive at the end of the game where Arkansas almost put the game away.  Finally there were the numerous chances in overtime to win the game and the Auburn defense could not come up with a stop on one of them.  One stop, one play and Auburn wins the game. 
 
Next we have the Auburn wide receiving corps...  I hate to call out one of my favorite Auburn players ever in Dameyune Craig but what happened?  I have never seen that many bad drops in one game.  On top of that the defense dropped two sure interceptions as well.  Those drops cost Auburn another horrendous slow start and put them behind 14-0.  It sure looked like Ricardo Louis had been reading his press clippings from the Kentucky game because he was the prime culprit with five drops including a big one in the final overtime.  I know it is a lot harder than it looks but when you are the best receiver on the team you have to make the plays.
 
THE UGLY
The future does not look bright the rest of this season or frankly the next.  Auburn could and probably should upset somebody but the defense guarantees that it will not be easy.  Auburn has Ole Miss and Georgia at home for whatever that is worth and Texas A&M sure did not look good in Oxford this weekend.  Unfortunately Auburn's defense is simply the worst in the conference and is almost guaranteed to jump start anyone's offense.  Arkansas was the easiest of these teams.  The rest of the teams on Auburn's schedule all have winning records except for Idaho.  Also all of these teams have better defenses than most of the teams Auburn has played outside LSU. 

Starting to look forward to next season things just do not look a whole lot different, especially on defense.  There does not appear to be an upcoming dominant player like Nick Fairley or Dee Ford that will help turn around the defense.  There should be an improvement on offense but not enough to compete for a championship.  Finally, Auburn's brilliant AD has again made it basically impossible to compete in even years since Auburn has to play both Georgia and Bama on the road.  I guess nobody knew some of the 2013 stars were going to break out either but it sure does not seem like that is going to happen this time. 

THE LAST WORD
In years like this, a good win like Auburn could have had here sure do feel good.  I was in to this game like none of the others this season.  I really wanted it and man it would have felt good to put down Bielema and his bunch.  Unfortunately it was not to be this time but hopefully there is one more big win out there this season for this bunch.  While this team is very flawed, it has a chance to get that one big win, that one win that will make all of us feel a lot better, at least for a week.  This team is a lot more talented than the 2008 and 2012 train wrecks.  Hopefully their record at the end will reflect that.

Game 6 Review: Disaster Averted

Auburn 30  Kentucky 27.  The Auburn Tiger football team and its coaching staff finally accomplished something positive this season Thursday night in Lexington by winning their first conference game of the year and possibly avoiding disaster.  That is definitely a big deal and it is on the road in the SEC but it is still kind of hard to get excited about this game as I still see a poor Auburn team just hoping to get bowl eligible.  I also see more and more what Auburn is going to be under Gus Malzahn for the long term and that is also hard to get excited about.  Here is the good, the bad and the ugly in my opinion from game six for Auburn…

THE GOOD

One coach at least used this bye week to get his troops ready for this game and that was offensive line coach J.B. Grimes.  The Auburn offensive line simply dominated the line of scrimmage for most of the game especially the first half.  While Sean White did make a nice move and pass in the fourth quarter he owes all the credit to the offensive line for most of the rest of his completions as he had all day and more to throw.  I mean it was incredible how much time he had to throw early on.  They also cleared the way for a decent game running the ball against a defense totally committed to stopping run.
 

Another good thing was the offensive coaches finally decided to throw a few balls down the field and actually get the best receiver some touches.  What an idea!  I wish they would have thought of that earlier this season.  It paid off against Kentucky as Ricardo Louis had a career day with 154 yards receiving.  They also finally used Marcus Davis, a good possession wide receiver with a nose for the ball.  All of these receivers have been criminally unused but at least that changed a little last night.  However no matter how good Auburn passes the ball early on you can always count on Malzahn to tighten up and that brings us to…
 

THE BAD

Auburn had some success throwing the ball but when things got tight Malzahn put his head right back in the sand.  Auburn did throw it 27 times which is good for Malzahn but ran it 47 times for only 152 yards.  That is only a three yard average and shows a defense completely sold out to stop the run.  In that case you keep throwing the ball but Malzahn simply does not seem to have the stomach for it.  He also seems incapable of calling a simple drop back pass. 
 

I know, I know, Auburn is a “run-based play-action” team and the play-action is an integral part of the Tiger's passing game.  However it should not be used on ALL passes!  Late in the game Gus and the boys called another slow developing double play-action play and Sean White like in the State game got buried.  On top of that, on Sean White’s best play of the game, the deep throw to Louis late in the game, there was a play-action called on an obvious passing down and without a nifty side-step and a bad play by the defense White would have been sacked on that play.  I do not know how many times I have said it now but sometimes you just need to call a simple straight pass play.
 

THE UGLY

I have read this morning about the Auburn defense getting the big “stop” to end the game.  I mean I guess that is somewhat accurate although they are lucky a Kentucky wide receiver dropped a deep ball he had in his hands on the previous play.  The defense is just bad or I guess I should say ugly.  They gave up almost 500 yards of offense in this game and could have easily given up over 30 points.  They gave up another huge run to open the game which gave the other team points and momentum. They also gave up over 350 yards passing to the opposing quarterback.  I will say there was pretty good coverage on some of those plays and the Kentucky quarterback made some great throws but there were many more bad plays by the defense. 

You can see some talent like defensive back Carlton Davis.  That guy is good and is going to get better.  However there is just not enough.  This defense just looks like it is going to get humiliated in most or all of Auburn’s upcoming games.  On top of that the future does not looks bright either.  Auburn will lose several seniors on defense and while they are obviously not irreplaceable it does not appear there are enough good players to replace them much less establish any depth.  It is the understatement of the year but Auburn needs more good defensive players badly.

THE LAST WORD
Well all the Sean White fans are crowing today as he did play a pretty good game.  Of course he still has yet to throw a touchdown and almost threw another critical red zone interception but he did play a good game.  White can be a decent quarterback, my problem with Sean White is I do not think he will ever be a whole lot better than what we saw against Kentucky.  I do not think he can beat Bama or Georgia.  Jeremy Johnson has the tools to be a game changer.  However Johnson might as well get his transfer papers ready because he is done at Auburn.  I cannot believe that this guy's career at Auburn is done after only three games. 

Finally I guess I am the dumb one for expecting much out of a Gus Malzahn team that is not completely loaded.  As a friend told me this week, a season only slightly better than this is the mean for Malzahn as an offensive coordinator and now as a head coach.  We now have the 2009, 2011 and 2013 seasons plus this one.  In all three of those seasons Auburn went 8-5, did not have a winning season in conference and lost to Georgia and Bama.  One season is a blip, two seasons start to show something and three seasons is a trend.  I guess the good news for this season is that trend says Auburn will win a few more games I do not expect them to and finish 7-5.  Several of Auburn's upcoming opponents are good but not juggernauts as Toledo and now Memphis proved so hopefully Auburn will get some lucky bounces to get closer to that standard Malzahn season.

2015 Bye Week Thoughts

So I am flipping channels the other night and come across "Miracles on the Plains", one of the ESPN "SEC Storied" documentaries.  This one of course tells the story of the 2013 Auburn team but starts way back in 2011 when the Toomer trees were poisoned and kind of goes through the teams descent through the 2011 and 2012 seasons.  The biggest miracle obviously is a team that goes 0-8 in the SEC one year and then wins the conference and goes to the national championship game the next.  I am watching this thinking how in the world could that happen and we go right back down again?  It is simply unbelievable.  Auburn is now 3-2 and 0-2 in the SEC and will travel to Lexington this coming Thursday night to take on the Wildcats.

But here we are, looking at an 0-8 or 1-7 season straight in the face.  What happened?  Well my thoughts on this subject are well documented in my last few posts.  On defense, we simply do not have many All-SEC caliber football players.  On offense there has been a lot of bad coaching and bad luck.  Even watching "Miracles on the Plans" I was reminded of Malzahn's stubbornness and aversion to passing the ball.  As I documented in my post immediately following the national championship game, one of the big reasons Auburn lost was not throwing a few more play action passes on first down.  In that game Auburn had TEN first downs where they ran the ball for 2 yards or less.  Jeremy Pruitt knew every time Gus started rotating those hands we were going to run and with a run blitz he had the talent to stop us and he did just enough.

In my opinion, that has been our curse ever since other than one game, the 2014 Iron Bowl.  Only Nick $aban and the vaunted Bama run defense has been enough to make the most stubborn coach I have ever seen go to the air.  And look what happened when he did, Nick Marshall had the most prolific day passing in Auburn history going 27 of 43 for 456 yards and three touchdowns.  Other than that Gus Malzahn has stubbornly tried to run the ball the majority of the time since that night in Pasadena.  Yes Jeremy Johnson has problems and Sean White is a small freshman but it is obvious that the coaches have not done their job in the passing game either. 

Again, there was just no way Auburn was going to have a great running game this year.  It was never possible with freshman H-backs and tight ends plus a revamped offensive line.  It is up to these million dollar coaches to see this and devise a strategy to use what we have.  To me, it made a lot more sense to spread things out and run a much more balanced offense with a lot of short passes mixed with the some mid-range and deep shots.  We have plenty of wide receivers and at least two running backs, Roc Thomas and Kerryon Johnson, who are excellent receivers out of the back field. 

Instead from day one, we come out running the same old thing that all the defenses know very well now.  This team was not prepared correctly and bad luck tends to follow when you do that.  Even my small experience as a coach has taught me that.  On top of that the coaches panicked and put in Sean White who is obviously nowhere close to being ready.  Now they are talking about putting Jeremy Johnson back in.  I am happy about that, no matter how bad things get I want Johnson to get the experience so he can be ready next season. 

Unfortunately Gus has, in my opinion, done the dumbest thing he could have possibly done if puts Jeremy Johnson back in for the Kentucky game.  He took away the Mississippi State and San Jose State HOME games from Johnson that he desperately needed.  The coaches could have stripped down the playbook and Johnson could have done what Sean White did.  However he badly needed those home games.  Now he might get thrown back in on the road in the SEC.  I have a hard time believing that will turn out well.  The Kentucky game though is now the absolute last chance to turn this season of shame around even to a small degree. 

For those who have already given up on Johnson, I will use someone whose career is not what most people think it was, Stan White, as an example.  White had a promising freshman season in 1990 but then made dumb mistake after dumb mistake during his sophomore and junior years.  He had some good games but made many horrible decisions.  You want to talk about giving up?  I had certainly given up on Stan White by time his senior season rolled around.  However after two terrible seasons he was able to turn it around and lead the Tigers most of the way through an undefeated season in 1993.  I am hoping Jeremy Johnson can pull it together somewhat this season and then maybe come back to have a strong senior season.  He is our best hope at turning this thing around and trying to make it back up that hill one more time.

Game 5 Review: Better Enjoy This One

Auburn 35  San Jose State 21.  Yes Auburn fans better enjoy this one because there will not be too many more wins to enjoy this season.  It was another typical Gus Malzahn-coached game against a weaker non-conference opponent.  The team comes out sluggish and then finally pounds the lesser team into submission.  The team never gets any better, the team never works on anything like say the passing game.  It is always a boring ho-hum affair.  It is always the same with Malzahn.  This game was no exception.  Auburn checked all those boxes in this game.

THE GOOD
Kudos to Peyton Barber.  The guy has sat on the bench waiting for a couple of years and has finally gotten his chance this year.  He is one of the few people on this team playing to their potential.  He delivered again today with 147 yards rushing and five touchdowns.  That is a great day no matter who you are playing.  The offensive line did the work ahead of him especially late in the game.  You always have to credit them when a running back has a big day.  Roc Thomas and Kerryon Johnson also had a few nice plays as well but the star of the day was Barber.

THE BAD
The Auburn defense got the job done but the cracks are evident.  These guys are going to get absolutely pounded starting very soon.  It is not going to be pretty and I am already starting to feel bad for them.  The effort has been better since the LSU game and Montravious Adams is the real deal but unfortunately the talent is subpar most everywhere else.  This was evident as the Tigers gave up 160 yards rushing to San Jose State running back Tyler Ervin.  Ervin is pretty talented but no opposing back should be running for 160 yards in Jordan Hare.

THE UGLY
I am tired of talking and writing about this but Auburn has no passing game.  None.  Zero.  Nada.  Zilch.  I heard all week how great Sean White is yet the Auburn coaches certainly did not let him do anything against San Jose State.  He threw only 10 passes for a 100 yards and every single one of those yards was after the catch except for one underthrown ball caught by Ricardo Louis.  I was wrong in my post last week, I think Georgia Tech might have a better passing game than Auburn.  It is going to be truly sad watching Auburn try to pass against the better teams left on the schedule.  I do not know how any high school senior star wide receiver would ever consider playing for Gus Malzahn.

THE LAST WORD
There is really not much else to say.  This coaching staff has had plenty of time to have a quarterback ready for this season.  It is their fault they do not have one.  Everything else is a smoke screen.  This coaching staff was hired for their offensive prowess and they have miserably failed this season.  Everything that has happened and will happen is on them.  I do not want to hear about injuries or any other ridiculous excuses.  This team has the worst passing game in the country and that is absolutely inexcusable with one of the highest paid group of coaches in all of college football.  The only remaining question is just how bad this season is going to get.