Game 12 Review: Oh Henry

Bama 29  Auburn 13.  Well that pretty much went as expected, a tight game that Bama would break open at the end.  Auburn really had every thing go right they could reasonably expect other than a ridiculous penalty on Will Muschamp.  Auburn was able to hold Bama to 12 points in the first half and entered the fourth quarter with the ball and down less than a touchdown. 

 

Unfortunately other than a spectacular tip, catch and run by Jason Smith, Auburn could not make a big play on offense.  On the other side Bama's defense was very good and Derrick Henry and the Bama offensive line was better.  The monstrous back ran for what I would think would be the biggest day by an opposing running back in Auburn history.  Henry finished with a ridiculous 271 yards rushing.

 

THE GOOD

The Auburn defense finally enters this section although they gave up Henry's big day.  These guys played their guts out before tiring late and getting run over by Henry.  They gave Auburn a chance to win and that is about all you could ask of them.  Again they held Bama to 12 points at the half and under 20 after three quarters. 

 

The most disappointing plays were not being able to sack Bama quarterback Jake Coker when they seemingly had him.  He escaped twice from sure sacks to give Bama their first touchdown.  The other terrible play was Justin Garrett's penalty late push on Coker out of bounds.  It was pretty light but you just cannot do that in a big game.  I guess the only other gut punch was Blake Countess' drop of an almost sure "pick-six" from Coker late in the first half. 

 

THE BAD

Once again the Auburn offense could do little through the air outside Smith's miracle catch.  Auburn was able to move the ball early and had some decent success running the ball but could not make the key throw when it was needed.  Jeremy Johnson was terrible and his protection and receivers were not much better.  The offensive line did some good run-blocking but could not give Johnson much time to throw but the few times they did Johnson missed the throw or the receiver dropped the ball. 

 

Again as I have harped on all season, the Auburn passing game is a complete disaster.  I know some will lament Sean White's absence but I think he would have had a tough day as well.  The coaches did not do the offense any favors either as many times they waited till third and long to throw instead of a play-action pass on first down.  Bama would then always bring more than Auburn could block.

 

THE UGLY

The ugliest thing I saw during the game was calling that ridiculous penalty on Will Muschamp when he went off after Garrett's penalty push.  I have seen $aban go off as bad or worse than that and never seen that flag thrown.  I still think Bama would have won but that penalty gave them the field goal that put them up by two scores in the fourth quarter.  The right thing to do is call a sideline warning LIKE THEY DID FOR NICK $ABAN AS HE WENT OFF ON THE REFS EARLIER IN THE GAME.
 
I am sure it was also ugly for the Auburn fans at Jordan-Hare who stayed till the end and had to endure that classless cheer.  My MVP for this Auburn season are the Auburn season ticket holders and fans who bought all those tickets and kept showing up to cheer the Tigers on.  They spent their hard earned money and had to endure three 11am kickoffs and no SEC wins plus little to no offense.
 
THE LAST WORD
The only thing I am glad about now is that this season is basically over.  This team has not been very good from the first game to the last one.  Other than wins over two Kentucky teams and catching Texas A&M on a bad night there has been nothing to get excited about.  In fact this Iron Bowl is the season in a nutshell, a few big plays but mainly getting run over.  Things do not look a whole lot brighter next season but breaking that down is a job for another day.  The sun will come up tomorrow but it will look a little dimmer football-wise after this game and this season.

Game 11 Review: Vandalized

Auburn 56  Idaho 34.  The Auburn football Tigers tuned up for the Iron Bowl by dispatching the Idaho Vandals this last Saturday at Jordan Hare Stadium.  Of course the game did not inspire any upset thoughts of Bama from this vantage point.  I will say Auburn looked a bit better than they usually do in these games under Gus Malzahn but I saw few plays that will work against the Tide.  Also once again Malzahn chose not to work on the passing game.  Auburn had some big passing plays but most were single read plays against a sold-out-against-the-run Idaho defense.  I did not see many true drop-back pass plays and the Tigers ran the ball over 50 times.

Again it would just be nice to get any of Auburn's struggling quarterbacks some real work in the passing game against lesser competition.  However I guess it is clear that is just never going to happen under Malzahn.  We are a "run-based play-action" team and we can never be anything else under him.  I was just hoping for more balance coming into this season.  Auburn's personality still needs to be a strong running team but plenty of good Auburn teams in the past have shown you can have that along with a good passing game.  I hate to keep hammering this point but it is not going away in my opinion.  As I have said several times, I think it is the main reason this Auburn team with so many playmakers is 2-5 in the SEC and the reason Auburn will most likely lose the Iron Bowl this coming weekend.

Another passing question I had from the Idaho game is where was the read-option pass that Jeremy Johnson threw 2 or 3 times to Tony Stevens last week against Georgia?  The Georgia corners crashed the line many times on the read option and that play would have really helped.  I do not understand why the coaches did not call it last week?  Well I guess at least they did run it against Idaho and it resulted in a touchdown for Auburn and getting Tony Stevens involved in the game.  Ricardo Louis also had a good day receiving on some play-action bombs from Johnson.  He did have one big drop but still had almost 100 yards receiving and a touchdown.

On the running side, Auburn pounded Idaho into submission behind another great offensive line effort.  These guys are doing great work since Auburn is still trying to do a power running game from a three-wide set most of the time or a set that has only an additional young H-back to help.  Most teams are bringing more people than these guys can block.  However Jovon Robinson had almost exactly 100 yards and Peyton Barber plus Roc Thomas added over a hundred more.  It was great to see Roc Thomas actually used again.  The guy is an explosive playmaker and a great receiver out of the backfield.  He could be a huge asset to this offense.  Unfortunately the other two similar playmakers Kerryon Johnson and Jason Smith were basically not used against Idaho.  I sure hope the coaches decide to use these guys against Bama.

Elsewhere the fake punt was a good play and the defense did a decent job before letting everyone play in the fourth quarter.  It was great to finally get a game where the coaches could play a lot of guys.  The Apache helicopter flyover also looked very cool on TV.  I guess the final good point that everyone is talking about is that Auburn is now bowl-eligible.  I am not sure how good that is though.  Auburn might should just take their 6-6 record, stay home and work on recruiting.  I think bowl practice is overrated.  Auburn got bowl practice, spring practice and fall practice this year and still looked completely unprepared.  I also do not think getting beat by Tommy Tuberville and Cincy or Houston in a bowl Auburn cares nothing about is a good thing. 

First though is the Iron Bowl.  Obviously I do not think Auburn has much of a chance.  The old "you can throw the record books out" line is not true at all in this series.  The only true upset for Auburn in the series was in 1949 the year after the series was started back after forty years off.  Since then Auburn has NEVER beaten Bama with a losing conference record.  NEVER.  The only one close was Shug Jordan's first win over the Tide in 1954 when Auburn was 3-3 in the SEC.  The only mild upsets like 1972 and 2002 were by good Auburn teams that had winning records in conference.  In fact the 1972 "Punt Bama Punt" game that is considered such an upset was won by an Auburn team that was 8-1 and ranked in the top ten in the country. 

Combine that fact with the fact you have to be able to pass effectively to beat $aban and Bama (two of Auburn's touchdowns in the "Kick Six" game were through the air and Cam Newton needed three touchdown throws in 2010) and I just do not see how Auburn wins this game.  Bama is better at just about every position and I do not see how Auburn's "run-based play-action" team can score enough points to win.  The wildcard in the game is the Auburn defense.  How long can they keep it close?  Have they really improved against a big strong team since LSU?  Can they slow down Derrick Henry better than Leonard Fournette? 

Auburn will need turnovers and luck to stay close.  They will have one factor in their favor, $aban tends to tighten up in games like this where he has a decided talent advantage but the other team is still dangerous and playing at home.  Unlike previous slaughters in 2008, 2011 and 2012 Auburn has some playmakers on offense.  I see the game unfolding similar to 2009 but I do not see the end being that close.  It will most likely be another tough loss to take in a season full of them.  It is extremely frustrating to go into yet another Iron Bowl without a realistic chance to win the game.

Game 10 Review: Grounded Again

Georgia 20  Auburn 13.  I wrote a post titled "Grounded" in 2011 after a loss to Arkansas and stated how bad the Auburn passing game was.  I said "The loss was not as hard to take as watching Auburn's passing game literally die on the table in front of us".  I also stated that: "having a passing game this bad while employing the highest paid assistant in the country to coach the quarterback position is completely unacceptable."  I was talking about Gus Malzahn then and I am talking about Gus Malzahn now.  You can just change "highest paid assistant in the country" to "one of the highest paid head coaches (whose specialty is offense)".  I thought it was good Malzahn left after 2011 and now I am starting to think it will be good when he leaves as a head coach.

I also pointed out in that same post from four years ago how "Barrett Trotter is fourth year junior and has been in the Malzahn system for three years.  There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad."  I then pointed how we had a group of upper classman wide receivers and then said again THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE FOR AUBURN'S PASSING GAME BEING THIS BAD.  Well you can substitute Barrett Trotter's name with Jeremy Johnson and right now we also have a group of upper classman wide receivers.  We have enough tape now people, Gus Malzahn is simply not capable of coaching up a competent passing game at least without overwhelming talent.  He also seems incapable of developing quarterbacks as we now have two complete test cases in Barrett Trotter and Jeremy Johnson.

In 2009 Chris Todd set records using a great group of offensive linemen and players that would become Cam Newton's brilliant supporting cast the next season.  However Todd was only capable of good production against bad teams.  He was mediocre at best against anybody any good and Auburn lost to all those teams and finished the season 7-5.  I hear people talk fondly of that season, why?  The next season for Malzahn without Cam Newton was 2011 and we again went 7-5 losing to everyone that was any good and like this season had no passing game at all.  Malzahn returned in 2013 and he did coach up one of the most devastating running attacks in Auburn history behind a core group of NFL players.  With that rushing attack and super freak Sammie Coates Auburn could do enough passing to get it done although the passing numbers were abnormally low even then.

Of course Malzahn then lost the national championship game by not calling a few more play-action passes on first down.  Malzahn has proven he does not want to pass the ball unless absolutely necessary and by that time Auburn is usually not ready.  We then come to last season where we had lost the devastating blockers who paved the way for 2013 but returned the two most athletic wide receivers in Auburn history in Sammie Coates and Duke Williams plus Ricardo Louis, C.J. Uzomah, etc...  It was obvious that even with erratic Nick Marshall this offense would be better passing more.  Malzahn would not do it and one of the more talented Auburn teams ever finished 8-5.  Malzahn let them loose one time in desperation against Bama and they produced the greatest passing day in Auburn history just one year ago.  Surely that would convince Gus to run a more balanced offense?

The answer this season is a resounding NO.  We are now back to 2011 except this team has a ton more talent and much better blocking than the 2011 team.  Gus Malzahn has again failed to even put a semi-competent passing game on the field.  Good night forget high school there are middle school teams with a better passing attack than Auburn.  I am saying this about a team that has a TON OF SEC-CALIBER OFFENSIVE TALENT!!!  There is absolutely no excuse for this abomination of a passing game.  I am so sick of hearing about Malzahn's roots and the stupid "Wing-T" offense.  IT IS 2015.  The reason no one runs the Wing-T offense was this great advancement in football called THE FORWARD PASS.  What has changed over the years since the Wing-T was invented?  Legalized holding to help PASS THE BALL. 

That brings us to the present where Auburn is now 5-5 and 2-5 in the SEC.  I will say again I believe the main reason behind this awful season is the lack of a competent and consistent passing game.  We would not have gotten in the pickle against Jax State with it.  We could have beaten the Mississippi schools at home and we could have beaten Arkansas and this Georgia team.  We should have a quarterback coached up and capable of leading at least a competent passing attack whoever it is.  Yes we have a good rushing attack but you cannot win without being able to pass the ball.  We have one of the highest paid coaching staffs in the country and a supposed "offensive genius and innovator" as a head coach yet as I have just outlined he is consistently not able to field a competent passing game.

THE GOOD
The defense was not great and this was probably the worst Georgia team I have seen since Mark Richt took over 15 years ago but they did their job.  They held Georgia under 300 yards of offense and to basically ten points.  Georgia scored the back breaking touchdown on a punt return and a field goal off a Sean White fumble deep in Auburn territory.  Unfortunately the awful Auburn offense kept giving it back to Georgia thus giving Georgia a whopping 11 more minutes of possession time.  It is just unbelievable that we finally get some kind of production from the defense which has been killing Auburn for years and now we do not have the offense to get it done. 

THE BAD
I think I have covered Auburn's bad passing game already however I have few more paragraphs left in me...  I cannot believe that people's main gripe is not running Jovon Robinson more???  I mean yes he should have gotten the ball more but the reason the coaches finally started trying to pass some was the fact that the offense cannot take it all the way down the field WITHOUT THROWING THE BALL.  Also when I say throwing the ball I am talking about actually throwing it forward not sideways to the receiver.  I mean good grief how many times can the Auburn brain trust run that stupid play?

You can count on one hand the amount of throws we have made between the hash marks in the middle of the field this entire season.  When someone blitzes, a slant to the middle to the space those blitzers vacated is usually an option that might be open at least a few times during a game.  I will just continue to say it, you have to be balanced to beat anybody any good.  You cannot run the stupid WING-T run-the-whole-time offense against good SEC teams.  Gus Malzahn has proven this time and time again. 

Here is another tip for Gus to help with his passing game: you will have interceptions.  Tom Brady has them, Aaron Rogers has them Peyton Manning has them...  however teams keep throwing because the rewards of a good passing game far outweigh the interceptions.  Our coaches have both Jeremy Johnson and Sean White so scared that I truly believe both of them would rather not throw an interception than win the game.  They are both hesitant and know they will lose their job if they throw an interception.  You cannot be an SEC quarterback and play scared.

THE UGLY
This one is obvious, this year's Iron Bowl.  Everything I have just said certainly matters to this game as you do not even have a chance to beat Bama without throwing the ball.  We cannot do it and they are going to kill us.  However that is just the tip of the iceberg.  The ugly part is really our record since winning the national championship in 2010.  We have played five seasons since then.  In that time against teams we play every year we are 1-4 against LSU, Georgia and Bama and we are 2-3 against Arkansas and Mississippi State.  We are also not dominating anybody as we are only 3-2 against Ole Miss and 2-2 against Texas A&M in that time. Finally we are now 5-11 against Mark Richt, 3-8 against Les Miles  and 3-6 against Nick $aban. 

THE LAST WORD
We had miracles to boost our spirits in 2010 and 2013 but the bottom line is Auburn football is trending downward.  I think the athletic department will get the picture next season as season ticket sales plummet after selling out this season.  Jay Jacobs and Gus Malzahn owe the Auburn season ticket holders an apology and frankly a refund.  Jacobs allowed Auburn to be given THREE HOME 11AM KICKOFFS.  That is completely unacceptable.  Gus Malzahn then followed that up by coaching Auburn to an 0-4 SEC record at home including this loss to a bad Georgia team and a beatdown to Bama in two weeks. People have tried to be positive but facts are now facts and this season has been an unmitigated disaster. 

Game 9 Review: Davis and Company

Carlton Davis     Marcus Davis     Ryan Davis

(Editor's note: I apologize for the lateness of this post however the blame falls squarely on the release of Call of Duty Black Ops 3)

Auburn 26  Texas A&M 10.  Do NOT mess with Davis and Company.  The Auburn football team went to their secret weapons on Saturday for big plays against the home team Aggies.  Wide receiver Marcus Davis started things off in the first quarter with a touchdown catch that would give Auburn the lead which it did not relinquish.  Immediately following that cornerback Carlton Davis stopped an Aggie drive with a big interception in the end zone. 

Finally in the third quarter on a 1st and 25 coach Gus Malzahn called a trick play having smaller reserve wide receiver Ryan Davis squat right by the quarterback and then having everyone go one way while Davis after taking the handoff went the other way for 28 yards.  This set up a big field goal that put Auburn up by three scores.  Auburn fans with good memories will remember Gus Malzahn running the same play as the Arkansas offensive coordinator against Auburn in 2006.  It was a big play in the game which Auburn lost resulting in a touchdown or a big first down.  Auburn was undefeated and in the top five before the game.

Other than the Davis clan here is the rest of the good, the bad and the ugly from the game...

THE GOOD
First, as one of the last people in the I-think-Jeremy-Johnson-has-the-potential-to-be-far-and-away-our-best-quarterback club, it was satisfying to see him come out and play well.  I think he would have never lost the job if the coaches had called the plays like they did in this game.  I will continue to say I do not understand what the coaches were doing to begin this season.  Against the Aggies the coaches did the right thing and called a lot of short passes and attacked the edges with both the run and the pass.  They did not just run it up the middle repeatedly or at least not till it started raining.

Next it was great to see the other guy who was supposed to be great this season finally step up, i.e. running back Jovon Robinson.  Robinson finally got his opportunity and delivered with over 150 yards rushing.  This was the guy we expected to see and was rated the #1 JUCO running back in the country.  Robinson definitely looks like the best total running back Auburn has with all due respect to Peyton Barber.  In fact after watching Peyton Barber block on a Ricardo Louis jet sweep I think Barber would help the team a lot more playing H-back.

Robinson had help from Barber and just about everyone who runs the ball for Auburn as the Tigers rolled up over 300 yards rushing.  Auburn finally found a defense and weather conditions that favored running the football like Gus Malzahn always wants to.  However they sprinkled in just enough passing including an absolutely beautiful pass from Jeremy Johnson to Kerryon Johnson on the wheel route.  I am telling you Kerryon and Roc Thomas are great receivers out of the backfield and Auburn needs to use that.  Add Jason Smith to that and you have three very versatile playmakers.

Daniel Carlson was great again putting points on the board.  However if there is one negative from the game on offense it is not finishing on some of these drives.  On this night through it did not matter as Will Muschamp just completely undressed A&M true freshman quarterback Kyler Murray.  Muschamp called a great game and forced Murray to throw bad pass after bad pass.  He had three interceptions but should have had three more.  It was good to finally see some good coaching on the defensive side of the ball.  It also goes to show that you just cannot start a true freshman at quarterback in the SEC.  That jump is almost impossible and the rare exception is not worth mentioning. 

THE BAD
The worst thing I saw in this game was the unbelievable reversal of a brutal targeting play on Auburn cornerback Jeremiah Dinson by Aggie wide receiver Ricky Seals-Jones.  It was a textbook example of leading with the helmet.  I simply cannot believe that flag was picked up and on a review nonetheless.  It was vicious play that ended Dinson's season.  Can you imagine the uproar if an Auburn receiver had done that to a Bama cornerback and they picked up the flag?  It would be Armageddon but in this case every thing is just swept under the rug.  I have seen targeting calls made and upheld against Auburn for much less.  How are the powers-that-be training replay officials?  After this hit and the ridiculous game-winning Miami kickoff return you really have to wonder.

THE UGLY
The ugly here is the sea parting for Bama.  I knew they would beat LSU but I did not think Ole Miss would refuse to win the game against Arkansas.  I mean the Rebels had to work overtime (no pun intended) to give away the game to Arkansas.  Bret Bielema better thank his lucky stars for this overtime win and the one against Auburn, he could have easily lost them both.  On the other side of the state LSU came in and played right into Bama's hands.  They tried to run over the biggest strongest defense in the nation. 

You really have to wonder why these coaches are making millions of dollars.  It is pretty much an iron clad fact that you have to throw to beat Bama and of course there was no way young LSU quarterback Brandon Harris was up to that but you have to try more than LSU did.  Now it is cakewalk for Bama right into the playoffs.  They will be heavily favored in their remaining games against Mississippi State, Auburn and Florida and I do not see any of those teams being able to make enough plays to derail them.  So they will make the playoff again and of course every bandwagon hanger-on in the state has dug up their Bama apparel and are out in force. 

THE LAST WORD
So the smoke has cleared and things have pretty much been decided with Florida winning the East and Bama winning the West.  The only question left remaining for this Auburn team is can they beat Georgia?  Can the Tigers help send Richt out the door?  Or will Richt notch yet another win on his belt against Auburn?  The only Auburn teams to beat Georgia in the last 15 years are two of Auburn's best teams ever in 2004 and 2010 and three good Auburn teams (2001, 2005 and 2013) that basically pulled it out in the last seconds of the game.  That is it.  Auburn is 5-10 against Mark Richt, ten brutal losses.  This season will never be thought of as a great season but a win against Georgia would sure make it better.