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.
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