Game 2 Review: OFFENSIVE, PART 2

Clemson 14  Auburn 6.  I wrote the original "OFFENSIVE" post about Auburn's game against Clemson last season.  In honor of the worst offensive passing coach I have ever seen who just keeps doing the same stupid things over and over again I guess I will follow his lead and just write the same thing I wrote last season:

 

"Wow.  I mean WOW.  I had already come to the conclusion that Gus Malzahn can only coach one way and is incapable of change but last night he even surprised me in how bad the team looked offensively.  In fact I have chosen the word "offensive" to be the theme of this review because our offense is in a word... offensive.  Here is part of the dictionary definition:
OFFENSIVE:
1
:  of or relating to an attempt to score in a game or contest; also :  of or relating to a team in possession of the ball or puck
2
:  giving painful or unpleasant sensations :  nauseous, obnoxious
3
:  causing displeasure or resentment

I can say for sure that watching the Auburn offense flounder around last night was "giving a painful or unpleasant sensations".  It made me "nauseous" and it certainly caused "displeasure" and "resentment".  I have seen a LOT of bad offenses in my 40+ years of cheering for Auburn but I do not think I have ever seen..." a worse job coaching an offense. 

I mean the totals jump off the page at you:  117 YARDS TOTAL OFFENSE AND 11 SACKS.  Gus Malzahn is literally the worst passing game coach I have ever seen.  I have said it over and over and over again in this blog but I guess Auburn will continue to pay this guy FIVE MILLION dollars a year no matter how many time he embarrasses us.  The list just continues to grow: 

1.  The complete meltdown in 2014 after losing to Texas A&M at home which led into the huge conference losing streak at home in 2015 and into 2016.

2.  The complete embarrassment against Clemson last season where we had like five different people play quarterback including our fullback plus the idiotic trick plays and horrible blocking.

3.  The utter embarrassment at Georgia last season where they beat us with one defensive touchdown and only gaining 60 yards and one first down in the second half of that game and the first half against Bama.

4.  Losing to Georgia and Bama for three consecutive seasons but it is not just the losing but the extraordinary bad coaching in the games against Georgia where we were the better team the last two seasons and getting absolutely blown out in 2014 plus the absolute rollovers for Bama where we were not even competitive especially on the offensive side of the ball.

You can now add last night's performance to this list.  How long is this going to go on?  However now that I think about it, maybe it is better just to let Gus go on than to let that incompetent boob of an athletic director hire another coach.  Contrary to the popular cheer, it is not that great to be an Auburn Tiger right now during the seemingly interminable reign of Jay Jacobs and Gus Malzahn. I am so tired of watching Jay Jacobs and Gus Malzahn embarrass Auburn at every turn.  I am so tired of watching the Gus Malzahn offense.  I am so tired of having to write the same thing over and over.  This guy will never change no matter who is offensive coordinator or how many times he embarrasses himself.

Well let me stick to format and go to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" from last night (it is eerily similar to the "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" from the Clemson game last season)...

THE GOOD
Obviously this is the defense.  Wouldn't you know it?  Auburn fields" another good defense "and the offense hits rock bottom when we have a supposed offensive coach.  You cannot make this stuff up.  As I write this I am just shaking my head...  back to last night though.  Auburn played" a great defensive game holding Clemson to 14 points in their home stadium.  "Those guys played their guts out and they kept Auburn in the game till the end.  They continually got stops and gave it back to the offense in good field position.  

The defensive line got the best of Clemson's veteran offensive line most of the night" except for two drives.  "With that said though Auburn still held" a great offense "to way below their usual output in every phase of the game.  The Auburn defense held Clemson to" under 300 yards total offense "and most importantly they held Clemson to just" 14 points.

Auburn should win any game... with those defensive stats.  It is completely unacceptable to lose when the defense is playing that well.  Clemson" made some big plays "but overall the Auburn defense got the job done.  There is no way they were going to completely shut down Clemson.  It just makes Auburn's pathetic offense look that much worse.  I saw good defensive play from all of the Auburn defense last night... You can nit pick some details but the defense got it done, the offense on the other hand was...".

(Everything in quotes above I wrote last season in the post for this game)

THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Unlike the crazy stuff he did last season in this game with the quarterback rotation he just straight stunk last night.  He continued his numerous uncreative runs up the middle even when it was obvious it would not work against Clemson and that Pettway was not 100%.  He showed again that regardless who is offensive coordinator and who is at quarterback if they are not a real runner that he cannot even install a high school grade passing game.  I think most of the big high schools in the state do a better job. 

I mean it is every phase of the passing attack that stinks:  the blocking, the routes, the reads, etc...  Every phase of the passing attack is badly coached.  It is just incredible to me that it could be so bad but it is not really surprising at all, again back to this game last season...

"Again Gus Malzahn has averaged being a 7-5 as a head coach and coordinator at Auburn outside of 2010 and 2013.  He is looking to hit right on that from where I sit.  As for his long term viability as Auburn head coach, other than defending his awesome game plan he also made his favorite reference and that is to call Auburn a "run-based play-action offense".  It is obvious now in year four that being a "run-based play-action offense" is all we will ever be under Malzahn.  He has pretty much shown he is unwilling and incapable of changing his offensive philosophy at all.

The only way he can be successful is to have the personnel to run his shotgun Wing-T offense like he did in 2013.  He has proven he can NOT be successful any other way.  Therefore from this vantage point I do not think he will be very successful the rest of his career at Auburn because I do not see the stars aligning personnel-wise like they did in 2013 anytime soon.  Malzhan has the rest of this season to prove me wrong but after last night's offensive showing things do not look promising.  As I have written in this blog many times, the problems started in 2014 but his offense last season and now to start this season is simply offensive to anyone who believes in a balanced offense and a competent passing game."

THE LAST WORD
So to sum it up...  This season will be like every other Malzahn season other than 2013. His offense only looks good when Auburn is playing a team they can run on. It always has been that way especially on that big six game winning streak last season we had to hear about over and over. Lucky for Gus the SEC is terrible so we are about to go on a four game winning streak because we can run on all those teams and the same old people will be back positive.

We will probably finish 9-3 if we can run on Georgia or 8-4 if we cannot and get a decent bowl game and he will keep his job. We then will start this whole cycle again with everyone thinking we are almost there and that the offense is going to change. It will not and we will continue to lose to the 3 or 4 teams on our schedule that can stop the run but look great against the ones we can run on. I mean this is the fourth year of this! Nothing surprising happened last night. This all was also true in 2013 but we had a once-in-a-lifetime team who could run on anybody as the season progressed.

So lets get fired up about the upcoming four game winning streak over Mercer, Missouri and the Mississippi schools before the inevitable meltdown in Baton Rouge.