This entire game after all the offensive fireworks on both sides came down to two plays actually. Auburn was clinging to a 33-29 lead with eight minutes left in the game. Ole Miss just had a great kickoff return and that plus a dumb Auburn personal foul penalty put them in business at the Auburn 41 yard line. On second down Kelly delivered a strike to Ole Miss wide receiver Evan Engram just a little low and out in front of him. It was catchable but Engram missed it. It would have been a touchdown or close to it if he would have caught it. It might have been the one play that got Ole Miss the win...
The next play Kelly made his only big mistake of the night. He had been picking on Josh Holsey relentlessly the whole game and Holsey finally made him pay. Holsey anticipated and stepped in and picked off Kelly's third down pass and returned it almost 50 yards. Kamryn Pettway would then take it down to the Ole Miss three yard line and Kerryon Johnson would put it in for the clinching touchdown. It is definitely the kind of defensive and offensive plays a good team makes to win a tight game. I thought the series of events really fit this Auburn team. The defensive leaders though abused all night finally made a play and then the offense finished it off.
THE GOOD
As I stated last week, I just do not get all the blathering on about Rhett Lashlee. Auburn is calling the same plays they have since 2013 other than the unexplainable Clemson game. The difference is the defenses not being as good and the Auburn offensive line coming alive along with Kamryn Pettway. I will continue to say offensive line coach Herb Hand is the one who deserves the accolades because his guys are the biggest difference on the team. They got their butts kicked against Clemson and Texas A&M and have improved a whole lot since.
In a weird way, injuries have also been one of the catalysts for this team. Austin Golson getting hurt put Darius James in the lineup and though he struggled at times last night, he has made a huge difference. The same goes for Kerryon, his injury allowed Pettway the chance to be the main back. Pettway put up another monster game last night going for over 230 yards on 30 carries. Pettway had one touchdown as well but it was good to have "The Closer" Kerryon Johnson back who punched in two touchdowns. Again though it all starts with the offensive line and Chandler Cox. Those guys are rolling people.
MORE GOOD AND THE BAD
Sean White had a good night going 15 of 22 for almost 250 yards and one touchdown. His main targets were Darius Slayton, Eli Stove and Kerryon. I will say though that most of those were great runs after short passes. White is great at distributing short passes but continues to struggle on the long ball and intermediate passes that require arm strength. He was seen falling down trying to throw a hard medium length pass up the middle. White continues to shine when Auburn is running the ball well but I just do not believe he is good enough to lead us to a win in Tuscaloosa.
I hope I am wrong but while he is a gamer, he is still very limited. It is not all his fault though as the coaching staff only has one game plan... run the ball. It works against teams we are better than but sooner or later you have to beat one that is as good or better than you. Nobody knew Gus' tendencies in 2013 (till the national championship game) but they do now. They are set in stone... #1 Auburn will run the ball almost 70% of the time and #2 Auburn will always and I mean always run up the middle after a big pass play. I don't see any change in those two tendencies with Rhett Lashlee!
THE UGLY
Chad Kelly is a good quarterback but not that good. It was an ugly performance by the Auburn defense most of the night. I think they might need to quit reading their "press clippings". They gave up almost 600 yards of total offense. It is time to come back down to earth and get focused on Vanderbilt and Georgia. The good thing is that they will probably not see a quarterback as good as Kelly the rest of the season. Another positive is they did get better as the game went on and did not wilt as many Auburn defenses have in the last few years.
THE LAST WORD
Auburn is now into November and a solid Vanderbilt team will come to town next week. I am hoping for another good performance and not a "slog through" performance that many previous Malzahn teams have done in games like this. This team has not done any of that and has not let down in lesser games. I hope they keep it up against the Commodores. I hope Auburn is able to play a lot of guys and as always I would love to see us work on the passing game and even give John Franklin a couple of passes in a real game but that will not happen. It should be another great running day though.
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