I guess it is good the Auburn offense could take advantage late but the first three quarters are completely unacceptable in both games. We are paying an OFFENSIVE coach SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS, let me say that again, SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS. He is the SIXTH HIGHEST PAID COACH in the country and pretty much in the history of college football. He has one of the best defenses in college football this season and had a good one last season and he still cannot win a big game. He is not able to train up his starting quarterback through ten games to hit a short easy pass in critical situations. I cannot list one well-coached part of the Auburn offense. Can you?
THE GOOD
I mean here we go again, pretty much like every other post I have written this season, the defense is the good. I mean how hard is it for people who make their living writing about Auburn to do this week after week? I mean how do you make this entertaining? Everyone of us who write about Auburn have written the SAME THING FOR EVERY BIG GAME FOR SIX YEARS other than two games in 2017. I mean you can literally say the same thing about every single big game loss. I guess the difference this week is that this was a truly incredible effort by the defense that was undone by stupid clock management and once again NO SUPPORT FROM THE OFFENSE.
The defense forced NINE three-and-outs (!!!) by Georgia. On fourteen Georgia offensive possessions the defense forced ELEVEN punts. They gave up just 3-of-15 third-down conversions and only 251 yards of offense. Georgia burned the defense for their first touchdown but their second touchdown only came because of Gus Malzhan helping them by calling timeout. The third touchdown came because the offense only had 38 yards and barely five minutes of possession time in the third quarter. The defense made some mistakes but clearly played good enough to win the game if Auburn had anything resembling a decent offense but it was just the same old story.
THE BAD
And here we go again in this section... A Gus Malzahn offense was really bad for three quarters in a big game. Bo Nix was the leading rusher for Auburn in this game. An offensive "guru" on running the ball who is paid SEVEN MILLION dollars with an all SENIOR offensive line could not even scratch out one hundred total yards rushing. I have always wanted Auburn to pass more but the key is balance. Georgia made Auburn completely one dimensional as was their plan. Bo Nix put up a good stat line but averaged less than five yards a pass and missed critical easy passes. It was really hard to see the Auburn rally die on Nix missing bad on an easy short pass.
I love Bo Nix and his family connections are a great story however I do not see him developing under Gus Malzahn. Nix is not super accurate and it looks like he has regressed over the season which is par for the course for most quarterbacks under Malzahn. As expected the offensive line has not been great this season and there is no experience behind them or highly recruited talent ready to take their place. Nix will certainly have a hard time progressing regardless of the coaching without a good offensive line. Auburn could not run in big games this season, how is it going to be better next season? Seth Williams is the only legitimate All-SEC player I see on Auburn's offense.
THE UGLY
The sunshine pumpers were out this week on most Auburn sites spouting Malzahn's accomplishments and telling us that this is the best Auburn can expect and we should be happy with what we have got. We should look at Auburn's history and even though we play more games a season now Auburn simply does not have the right to expect to be better than what we are under Gus Malzahn. My first answer is that when I was in school at Auburn the team won three Southeastern Conference championships in a row and even though those teams lost some big games they also won plenty of big games. We did not take a back seat to Bama or anybody else. I expect us to strive for that.
The problem is that I believe Auburn has reached a point where holding on to Gus Malzahn much longer is going take the program down. We have thought that getting rid of Malzhan would allow an inept administration to make a bad choice at head coach that might lead Auburn down Tennessee's path and that could happen but a good hire could be made as well. I think Auburn has to risk it. I now believe that if Malzahn stays that recruiting will continue to go down (see both sides of the line of scrimmage) and fan apathy will hit an historic high. The bottom is most likely falling out next season with so many good players leaving the program. Now is the time to make a change.
THE LAST WORD
The problem with that idea is that Auburn can beat Bama in two weeks. I obviously understand there is no getting rid of Malzahn if that happens but I still believe everything I wrote is true. The program will just have to go through another mediocre-to-bad season watching this awful offense. In reality I think that is what is going to happen even if Bama wins. There is just no leadership at Auburn that can make a tough decision like that. Things will have to get really bad before they make a change. I also admit that you have to sometimes quit looking long term and consider the players. This team has worked their butts off and sacrificed so much. I hope Auburn beats Bama for them. They truly deserve something really good to celebrate. Oregon and Texas A&M wins are not enough.
Auburn always has a chance with this defense but now that Nick $aban was dumb enough to send the best quarterback ever to play at Bama back into a game with a 35-7 lead, Auburn has a better chance. I certainly do not want anybody to get hurt but am just stating a fact. Alabama quarterback Mac Jones will start on the road for the first time in the Iron Bowl. Bama will surround him with NFL-caliber players so I still think they are the favorite but obviously they are not as good without Tua. Bama will be desperate to stay in the playoff chase and Auburn desperately wants a big win. For me I might be watching my last Iron Bowl in person with my parents retiring their season tickets after 36 years. We have one week of scrimmages and then maybe just maybe another classic Iron Bowl.
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