Game 6 Review: Convincing Win

Auburn 38  Mississippi State 14.  I said in my post last week that Auburn needed a "convincing win" in this game.  Wow.  The Tigers sure got it.  Auburn absolutely destroyed State in the trenches in route to a 35-0 halftime lead.  I have not seen a much more thorough domination for a half of football. I knew State was not very good this season but they did not even show up for this game.  Auburn sure did.  Credit to the coaches and players for being ready to play especially for an 11am game.  Every Auburn fan has seen plenty of these early games where Auburn was the one who did not wake up. 

THE GOOD
As stated above, the offensive and defensive lines completely dominated the game.  Lets start with the offense... Auburn's bad tendencies on offense did not matter.  The coaches could pretty much call anything and it would work.  As always they called a lot more runs, 56 to be exact, and Kamryn Pettway who took over after Kerryon Johnson limped off led the way.  Pettway finished with an absurd 39 carries and ran for almost 170 yards and three touchdowns.  Nobody else ran more than four times.  That is a great game by Pettway but I think we could have handed the ball off for no gain to somebody else in the second half. 

Obviously when you can run that well, you can pretty much do whatever you want passing and Auburn did.  There were only 18 passes thrown (which is standard operating procedure for the Gus Malzahn offense regardless of who calls the plays) and Sean White plus the receivers made the most of them.  White finished 14 of 18 for 204 yards and a touchdown.  Tony Stevens was again the leading receiver with 64 of those yards.  White is a great passer in the 10 to 15 yard range but he definitely still struggles with the longer passes.  However they were not needed this day and he did a good job spreading the ball around.

Moving to the other side of the ball... Auburn finally has a really good defense.  My opinion is definitely influenced by nearly a decade of watching Auburn field some of the worst defenses in the history of the school but it is still true.  This defense is leading this team.  Carl Lawson and Montravius Adam are playing like the stars they were supposed to be.  State just could not stop them.  I also do not think I have ever seen a true freshman defensive end at Auburn play as well as Marlon Davidson.  I think all of these guys will play on Sundays along with cornerback Carlton Davis. 

Another big difference on defense is the linebackers.  It has been a weakness for so long at Auburn and was a big question mark coming into this season.  It is no longer.  Tre Williams and DeShaun Davis are difference makers.   It is a pleasure to watch them along with our veteran secondary.  I knew these guys could be really good if they could just stay healthy and so far they have.  Trey Matthews and Rudy Ford stuck out to me today along with Javaris Davis.  Javaris Davis' improved play is huge as every team has been throwing to his side and away from Carlton Davis.  There are not many soft spots on this defense.  I sure hope they can stay healthy so we can see how far this defense can take this team.

THE BAD
Sorry, even after a beatdown like that I have issues with the offensive play calling.  I will continue to point it out each week because it is what continues to get Auburn beat every time they play a good team.  Auburn still runs on first down nearly every time.  Auburn never uses games against lesser teams to work on the passing game.  Malzahn would rather run Kamryn Pettway nearly to death than throw a pass.  I just shake my head.  Auburn has precious little depth any more at running back but just continues to run instead of throwing short passes to the LARGE group of good young wide receivers Auburn has. 

It is just so dumb.  First, Sean White as I stated above is a great mid-range passer and the best down to throw those passes is... first down.  Auburn makes it hard when it does not have to be.  An example would be Auburn's first touchdown against State.  White throws a huge pass to Tony Stevens to put Auburn in business at the State seven yard line.  The smart play is to immediately throw again and get the touchdown.  Instead Auburn runs two up the middle and then throws on third down.  They get the touchdown but that play would not have worked against a good team.  That is why Auburn will still have red zone problems against good teams.  One way to help red zone problems is throwing on first down some of the time.

THE UGLY
Greed is strangling big time football.  As a fan the biggest example is basically having to watch almost two hours of commercials during a football game.  It has gotten completely out of control.  I love football but simply cannot stand to watch hours of commercials.  It is hard for me to even watch an Auburn game much less any other games.  The Tennessee vs. Texas A&M game yesterday was over FOUR AND HALF HOURS.  I know there was overtime and a serious injury during the game but that is still ridiculous.  I am not asking for an overhaul but they really need to make some small changes to keep the majority of games to three hours.

THE LAST WORD
Auburn goes into their bye week with a big win and whatever momentum was left after basically mailing in the second half rather than trying to get better.  I know Kamryn Pettway will sure need the break.  As stated above, the Auburn defense sure looks like it is for real.  The defense should give Auburn a chance in every game remaining.  I will just stop there and for this day just enjoy getting to see "Auburn 35 Mississippi State 0" at halftime of this game.  Those great days do not come around too often and at least the first half of this game was certainly a "Saturday to Remember".