GAME 5 REVIEW: Thank goodness for the mrs

Auburn 35  Ole Miss 28.  Since the SEC went to divisions in 1992 Ole Miss has more often than not been a solid win by good Auburn teams or a needed win by average Auburn teams.  The Rebels have gotten a few wins along with way mostly over really bad Auburn teams but for the most part it has been all Auburn in this series.  There have been a lot of close ones with the winning score a touchdown or less like this past Saturday but again Auburn has snagged most of those as well.  This one was sorely needed as a loss would have really heated up Gus Malzahn's perpetually warm seat on the plains.  It did come very close to happening but Bo Nix and Seth Williams, seen arguing last week on the bench, patched things up and made the play of the day to bring home the win for the Tigers.

THE GOOD

Auburn got more balanced on offense by running the ball more and it made a big difference.  Although it was probably Ole Miss' awful defense that helped the most but for whatever reason Auburn was much better on offense this week.  Tank Bigsby led the way with 130 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns plus a kickoff return for a touchdown that called back on a very iffy penalty.  Bo Nix finally had a good game on the road going 23 of 30 for 238 yards and the winning touchdown to Seth Williams who caught 8 passes for 150 yards.  That is good balanced football.  Now there were some bad series and another terrible job at the end of the first half but overall things were better.  Also offensive lineman Brandon Council was injured and is out for the season.  That is really bad news.

Again I think the good this week is balance.  The goal on offense is balance with the play calling slanted slightly toward your strength.  I got really sick of hearing on different Auburn sites this week how terrible it was that Auburn passed so much against South Carolina.  Yes I want to use Tank Bigsby but again the goal is balance.  One of the main reasons Gus has had problems at Auburn is his unbalanced offense where he ran the ball too much and did not have a competent passing game ready to go against better teams.  Auburn MUST have a better passing game.  Auburn MUST be more balanced.  They have NOT been the last decade.  I do not think running Tank Bigsby till he is hurt like he did with Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon Johnson is the way to go.

THE BAD

I have heard a lot about the defense doing well in this game because they did not give up the outrageous yardage Bama gave up.  I do think they slowed Ole Miss down and used some good tactics but giving up almost 300 yards on the ground and over 400 total is not good.  I do not care what Bama did, again I understand Ole Miss has a good offense but they pretty much went up and down the field on Auburn.  They drove all the way down and were knocking on the door on their second possession but then threw a dumb pass that got intercepted.  They then had four touchdown drives that were 75 yards or more and a couple of other chances to score off Auburn mistakes.  Finally they had a wide open receiver that might have scored at the end of game if he could have caught a ball that hit him in the numbers.

The defensive line continues to struggle and after overusing Truesdell and Newkirk against South Carolina the coaches finally had to bite the bullet and play some of the younger guys more.  That is smart and they have to do it.  Auburn is so thin on the defensive line any injury is going to be devastating and I will be very surprised if the Tigers make it through this season unscathed.  One of these young guys could be a starter very soon and they need some experience.  However getting that experience is going to come at a cost.  The defense also obviously continues to miss K.J. Britt but I am not sure how much it would matter unless Auburn can hold the line.  I will continue to say it probably every post this season but Auburn better be out there recruiting defensive tackles hard.

THE UGLY

The ugly is this ridiculous narrative that Auburn has won all these games on ball calls.  I mean are you kidding me?  I will not replay the other games this season but I will definitely talk about this one.  This week everyone is saying the call that Shaun Shivers did not touch a ball when it looked like he touched it being called a touchback cost Ole Miss the game.  Again, are you kidding me?  There were enough bad calls in this game to make that opinion laughable.  That probably was a bad call but what about the phantom holding call that cost Auburn a kickoff return for a touchdown?  What about the absolutely clear blatant holding on several of Ole Miss' big plays?  I am not talking tic-tac holding, I am talking clear and egregious holding.  You do not call that and you call Auburn for it on that kickoff?

GIVE ME A BREAK.  Lane Kiffin and his pathetic conduct was basically just to hide his gutless calls late in the game where he could have won the game like Sam Pittman and Arkansas.  He did the same thing Pittman did.  He had the lead and he had the ball with less than five minutes in the game.  This is the time to be aggressive and go for the kill.  All I have heard this season is how great the Ole Miss offense is and how fearless Kiffin is calling plays.  Well big bad Lane Kiffin turned into Gene Stallings at this point and tried to waste some clock running the ball rather than being aggressive.  He blinked, he tightenened up and he choked.  Like Pittman, he had to have known he would probably lose if he gave the ball back to Auburn but he still played it conservative and he lost.  He lost the game for Ole Miss.

THE LAST WORD

The two upper echelon SEC West programs outside Bama meet this Saturday when the Tigers from Auburn and LSU collide.  Both programs are desperately trying to pull out a winning record for this season so they can declare victory and hopefully help recruiting.  I have thought all along LSU would be very dangerous.  They lost a lot but they have a lot of young talent.  You make them the favorite and they are very beatable but you make them the underdog and it is a different story.  They rebounded from the awful loss to Missouri by beating South Carolina soundly.  I think Auburn will get their best shot on Saturday.  It will once again be two flawed but talented teams tangling like most of the SEC this season but I really believe a win in this game will be huge for whichever team gets it.

It would be huge for LSU with really tough games and potential losses to Bama and Texas A&M plus maybe Arkansas coming up.  It would be huge for Auburn with potential wins coming up in Mississippi State and Tennessee.  I really think this game is that big combined with Auburn winning this past game against Ole Miss.  Auburn and Gus Malzahn have the real goal for this season right out there in front of them for the taking and that is a winning season.  They could accomplish that goal before the inevitable Iron Bowl beatdown by beating LSU at home, a struggling State team and then a beatable Tennessee team at home.  This might be the toughest step.

GAME 4 REVIEW: INT + TD x 3 = LOSS

South Carolina 30  Auburn 22.  I am not sure if I have ever seen a game quite like this one.  I know I have but nothing comparable comes right to mind.  Auburn comes out looking great and has great field position while nothing is going right for South Carolina.  Bo Nix then throws one of the worst interceptions I have ever seen, South Carolina scores and the game starts to turn around.  Nix does it again, South Carolina scores again and the momentum clearly shifts.  Nix then does it one more time and it is the difference in the game.  It is not all Nix's fault on the last two but whatever, Auburn threw three interceptions which South Carolina turned into three touchdowns and like the title of this posts says, that equaled one horrendous game and possible program changing loss.

Auburn is not a very good football team but could have very easily still won this game and made the best out of this season.  The Tigers did not and there is now a pretty high probability this season could really take a turn for the worse.  The only thing standing between Auburn and an abysmal season are the Mississippi schools.  It really comes down to that.  The Tigers pull it together and beat Ole Miss and Mississippi State and then pull out one or two out of three against LSU, Tennessee and Texas A&M and they pretty much make the best of this terrible season in this terrible year.  They lose one or both to the Magnolia State schools and I think the bottom falls out.

THE GOOD

There is just not a lot to put in this section for this game but there are a couple of things.  First Auburn actually came out looking great on offense.  For the first time maybe ever at Auburn under any coach the ball was thrown to six different receivers in the first quarter.  It is even more incredible under Malzahn.  Auburn actually spread the ball around!  I was completely awestruck.  It, of course, did not last long but regardless of the bad things that happened in this game, Auburn needs to go back to that and stick with it.  You cannot keep trying to force the ball to Seth Williams and Anthony Schwartz.  You have to spread the ball around to have an effective pass offense.  Of course you cannot throw back-breaking interceptions either...

The other good thing that everyone agrees on is Tank Bigsby.  He was great again this week with over 100 yards on just 16 carries.  The guy has vision, toughness and his legs never stop churning.  I think Auburn should have thrown to him out of the backfield a few more times in this game as well.  Whether Auburn is ahead or behind you have to keep this guy involved in the game.  He is a playmaker.  I also have to mention the offensive line.  They got beat bad at times but they also pass blocked well at times.  Bo Nix had time on many passes but unfortunately most of those times especially in the second half he could not find an open receiver or made a bad decision.  Auburn had nearly 500 yards of offense against a decent South Carolina defense and you have to give the line some credit there.

THE BAD

Auburn's biggest long term problem is the defensive line.  Again I know these are probably good men who have worked their butts off for Auburn and are trying hard but they are just not SEC quality.  They are absolutely getting killed every week.  South Carolina only had 300 yards of offense but it was effective and they won the time of possession.  They made the runs and the throws every time they needed too although again even with Auburn's defensive problems they should have won this game.  Auburn lost because of turnovers, period.  However Auburn is going to have a hard time winning many games this year and next and so on until they are able to bring in good SEC quality defensive linemen.  It is scary watching Auburn play now, how bad will it be next year?

Auburn senior defensive tackles, Tyrone Truesdell and Daquan Newkirk, were like I said last week good subs last year and at least look like defensive tackles.  Redshirt freshman Colby Wooden looks barely big enough to be a linebacker as do anyone else I have seen out there for Auburn.  Right now Auburn barely looks like it can fill out the position next season.  Barring a recruiting miracle, Auburn's defensive line could be worse next season.  Again Auburn simply will not win another big game till they fix this problem and how long will that take?  The Auburn coaches have FAILED on the recruiting trail.  It sure seems like recruiting legend Rodney Garner has finally lost his touch and nobody else is getting it done either.  Name me a great Auburn team or great Auburn win and I guarantee you there were great defensive linemen involved.

THE UGLY

I wrote last week how much I liked Bo Nix and how I did not think he was the problem with Auburn's offense.  I still believe that over the long term but there is no doubt about it, he was the problem in this game and was the biggest factor in losing this game.  He started well but his first interception was simply inexcusable.  It was as bad a throw as I have ever seen.  You cannot throw that pass and he should have gotten lit up by the coaches after that unbelievably stupid throw.  It turned a game that looked like it would be an Auburn blowout into a game that Auburn would eventually lose.  The other two interceptions might not have been all Nix's fault but he still had a hand in them and plain and simple all of them added up to Auburn losing the game.  You simply cannot do that and win games.

It was not just the interceptions either.  Nix looked out-of-sorts all day.  I am not sure what happened after that great start but Nix made some bad throws and too many times could find no one open.  Nix's weakness I commented on last season popped up again as well and that is his inaccuracy.  He had some open receivers but he either missed them a little or a lot.  It also appeared him and Seth Williams got into it.  They both appeared to act like immature prima donna babies on the sidelines.  Where is Chad Morris or Malzahn?  Forget play calling for a minute, it is time to bring some discipline back to this team.  That also extends to all the trash talking on both sides of the ball.  I know it is part of the game but it appeared to get out of control today and hurt the team.  I did not see any positive leadership out of players today and that is always an ugly sight.

THE LAST WORD

I guess that last point might be the worst of all when it comes to this season.  This is certainly not a great team but they are good enough to pull together and with some half decent coaching at least finish 5-5 or maybe even 6-4 with a few lucky breaks.  However it could go the other way as well and right now the odds look better on that happening.  The lack of discipline and immature act on the sidelines makes me think this team is about to fall apart and might not win another game this season.  Your record shows how good your team is but the way you play and handle adversity shows your team's character.  The 2020 Auburn Tiger football teams now stands at a crossroad.  Which way will they go?

GAME 3 REVIEW: 'Tis More Blessed to Win Than to Lose

Auburn 30  Arkansas 28.  In a mistake filled game that went back and forth with a crazy ending on a sloppy rain-filled day the Auburn football Tigers came out on top.  You can certainly find plenty of areas to criticize for Auburn, in fact pretty much all of them but as a coach famously said: "You play to WIN the game!".  Auburn looked nothing like a championship contender but won the game Saturday.  LSU and Florida would have loved to have said that.  Auburn and Arkansas both wanted this game bad and both had chances to win.  I think by the end of this ten game all-conference game gauntlet every win will be precious, no matter how ugly it looked when it was played.  That is especially true as the schedule just gets harder from here for the Tigers.

The game, the pain, the grit of the Auburn team was summed up in one moment for me.  Late in the game, the camera zoomed in on senior defensive tackle Daquan Newkirk.  Newkirk has been a career backup thrust into the starting lineup trying to help replace maybe Auburn's greatest defensive tackle.  He has struggled and at this point in the game, he was on the ground and hurt.  He looked like a boxer that had just been knocked down.  You could tell he was hurt and probably needed to stay down.  He did not.  He struggled to his feet with determination before any trainers could come out and half jogged, half limped to the huddle.  He was not going to quit, he was determined to keep going.  I think that is a picture of this Auburn team.  They have been and will continue to get hit but will keep getting up.

THE GOOD

The first good is the grit of the team I just talked about especially in the trenches.  These guys are obviously not the most talented as plenty of people including myself have pointed out.  However I cannot question their effort and perseverance.  Tank Bigsby would be next on the list.  He established himself as Auburn's clear starter at running back with 146 yards on 20 carries plus four catches as well.  He truly was a "tank" continually bulling forward for more yards.  He has really impressed me since my initial disappointment in his size.  The kind of effort he is giving is what inspires those linemen to block harder for him.  The Auburn running game needed that badly.  

The Auburn receivers do have the talent and I think the coaches are just scraping the surface on these guys.  They did at least get Anthony Schwartz plenty of targets this game and he responded with ten catches for 100 yards and a clutch touchdown run after the catch.  Auburn has to continue getting better at using the awesome talent of Schwartz and Seth Williams when they are in the game together either getting the ball to them or using them as decoys.  We have the trigger man as well.  Bo Nix made plenty of mistakes Saturday but when it came time to win the game I sure felt confident seeing #10 jog onto the field.  Auburn is extremely lucky to have Nix at quarterback.  

Finally the Auburn special teams came up huge in this game.  They were the difference.  They had one big miss in Anders Carlson missing a late kick for the lead and giving Arkansas a chance to win but on a tough rainy day that is going to happen along with some kickoffs out of bounds.  As I said about Nix though there is nobody else I want to see running out there to kick that clutch field goal than #26.  Other than that miss though the special teams were awesome with Jordyn Peters making an unbelievable play blocking an Arkansas punt in the end zone that was recovered for Auburn's first touchdown.  Tank Bigsby then ran for over 100 return yards on kickoffs while Christian Tutt added 30 yards on punt returns.  It is always bigger than you think to have good returners.

THE BAD

The defense is trying, they are playing hard but whew they just cannot get off the field.  On the positive side they did hold Arkansas to a little over 100 yards rushing and less than 3 yards a carry.  Unfortunately they got absolutely shredded through the air against maybe the worst passing team Auburn will play this season outside of Kentucky.  Arkansas and quarterback Feleipe Franks passed for over 300 yards and four touchdowns plus they converted several clutch third down conversions.  It was tough to watch at times.  Obviously the line is having a tough time but there are two sides to that.  First holding the line against the run and rushing the passer.  I did think Auburn would be a little bit better rushing the passer.  Looking at the schedule they have to get better in this area to have a chance to win.

THE UGLY

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman has obviously done a great job with the Razorbacks.  They were a complete disaster the past two years that did not even compete in many games.  They are competing now and that is the sign of a good coach.  However when it came down to time to make the calls to beat a higher echelon SEC team like Auburn Pittman plain and simple choked.  Auburn missed a chip shot field goal and Arkansas got the ball back with a one point lead on their 20 yard line with two and half minutes left in the game.  You had to know if you gave Auburn the ball back they would probably win.  You know you have to get at least one first down to have a better chance and two to win.  You have a senior quarterback who had again thrown for over 300 yards and four touchdowns...

This is 2020 and I think it is pretty obvious that college football is much more offensive.  The days of getting the ball late and running it three times in a row and punting it back to the other team and hoping your defense pulls it out are gone for the most part.  Auburn was extremely fortunate in the Iron Bowl last year that Bama did not make them pay for basically doing this.  However Coach Pittman decided to do this and he indeed lost the game.  He can complain about calls but this is where he could have won the game.  The simplest way to say it is: no guts, no glory.  He did not have the guts and he did not get the glory.  I think you put the game in the hands of your senior quarterback and go for that first down and do not let up.  Have confidence in your team and it is better even if you still lose.

THE LAST WORD

There were a lot of crazy games Saturday but it really still just boils down to Bama, Georgia and Florida.  We get another "game of the century" this weekend with Georgia at Bama and that will be an interesting game but the only thing I think this game might effect is the SEC East race between the Dawgs and Gators.  It will really not make much difference otherwise.  The jury is still out on the Gators but I think they have a chance and according to head coach Dan Mullen their chances would increase if their fans would pack out their stadium for their next game.  I do not want to start an argument over whether fans should or should not have the choice to go to a game but I do think Mullen's comments were in poor taste and showed little concern for other people outside giving him a better chance to win.

I personally cannot stand Mullen who I think is constantly disingenuous and shoots off his mouth not caring if his words will hurt somebody else.  The last example being last season when he accused Auburn defensive end Marlon Davidson of malice against his quarterback in a halftime interview without having seen a replay and of course playing innocent during the whole Cam Newton saga when it was his team and not Auburn that was trying to pay Newton.   As for the Auburn Tigers, they will travel to South Carolina.  This looks like a tougher game than many people think to me.  I know a lot of people have kind of written off the Gamecocks and coach Will Muschamp but this team was a few plays away from beating Tennessee and Florida.  I think Auburn will get their best shot, I hope the Tigers are ready.

GAME 2 REVIEW: Grounded and Pounded

Georgia 27  Auburn 6.  Anyone who has read this blog knows that I am not a huge fan of Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn.  He has led the Tigers to some big wins but has continually taken away from the legacy of those games by following them up with really bad losses.  However those losses have to be put into two categories.  The first one is that we had the talent to compete a lot better or win the game and we lost because of bad coaching.  The second one is that we did not have the talent to compete and lost because of recruiting.  The game Saturday was definitely the latter.  This game was lost before it was ever played.  It was lost over the last few years on the recruiting trail. 

Auburn had no chance Saturday.  Georgia just has better players especially in the trenches.  It is that simple.  That is not a slight on the Auburn players.  These players are good guys who have worked their butts off for Auburn University to be the best they can be.  Unfortunately sports are unforgiving.  Things rarely work out like in the movies.  Miracles are far and few in between and that is why we celebrate them so much.  Most of the time the team with the best players wins, period.  That is what happened Saturday.  Again I have written a lot of posts criticizing Gus Malzahn's coaching.  I do not think the coaching was great in this one but it just did not matter.  

THE GOOD

There will still be good in this crazy season even after this humiliating loss.  It is clear now that the championship contenders in the SEC are Bama, Georgia and Florida.  These teams appear better than the rest and while injuries and COVID might bring one or more of these teams down, right now they are the best.  Auburn is in that next tier and still has a chance to be the best of that bunch as all the tier two teams have problems just like Auburn.  Auburn could also watch this season completely go down the drain but not for the same reasons as this past weekend.  Auburn's fate now lies with injury/COVID luck and coaching.  NOW the onus is on Gus Malzahn and his staff.

Auburn at it's current talent level if again it is not decimated by injuries and COVID can beat Arkansas, South Carolina, the Mississippi schools, LSU, Tennessee and Texas A&M.  The Tigers unfortunately have absolutely no chance in the Iron Bowl the way things are now but again have a chance in the rest.  It will start this week against a rejuvenated Arkansas team that ended Mike Leach's honeymoon after just a week.  Even with that said I still think Arkansas is one of the worst teams in the conference talent-wise and frankly is the best team Auburn could play after this loss.  We will see a lot about this Auburn football team in how they respond to the loss to Georgia against the Razorbacks.

THE BAD

I guess I will start with exactly what I wrote in this section last week: "I have continued to voice along with other Auburn people the fact that Auburn's recruiting in the trenches has faded in recent years.  Auburn and Gus Malzahn have recruited other positions well and done pretty good overall however they have just not got it done on the lines the last two or three years and it shows.  Auburn does not appear to have any All-SEC talent on either line."  I was hoping that maybe somehow I was overstating it but I was not.  This game unfortunately proved that every word of that is spot on and in fact I might have understated the problem.  

Auburn was absolutely destroyed on both sides of the line of scrimmage Saturday.  It was hard to watch and also hard to write about.  Georgia grounded Auburn's offense holding the Tigers to just 39 yards rushing and barely over 200 yards of total offense.  Georgia pounded Auburn's defense running the ball for over 200 yards and gaining almost 450 yards total.  It was a complete beat down.  It is also bad this rivalry, the best in college football statistically a few years ago, has now turned into Bama vs. Tennessee.  It is simply not much of a rivalry when one team wins all the time.  Auburn has now only beaten Georgia three times in the last fifteen years. 

THE UGLY

Auburn has always had a lot of positives going for it including it's geographic location.  It is right in the middle of arguably the best recruiting area in the country and Auburn has gotten it's fair share of great players over the years.  Unfortunately this recruiting area is hotly contested by Auburn's two biggest rivals and at this point in time they are winning big in this most critical of battlefields.  The ugly truth for Auburn is that a dominant Georgia program hurts a lot more than Bama and $aban.  Bama has always recruited well and while Auburn must win some battles in state they actually have done pretty well there for the most part.  There is no doubt Bama takes players Auburn wants but Auburn has found ways around that and one of those ways was recruiting in Georgia.

Auburn is right on that border with Georgia and has gotten so many good players from that state.  Georgia has always recruited well for the most part but Auburn has still been able to get their fair share of great players.  Unfortunately Bama and Georgia have pushed each other to unprecedented heights and Auburn appears to be the loser in this clash of these recruiting titans.  Again Auburn has still gotten some good players but they have not been able to get many elite linemen at all the last few years.  I hate to keep repeating myself but it really is that simple.  Auburn is not going to win many games in either of these rivalries until it turns things around in the trenches.

THE LAST WORD

Where does Auburn go from here?  Is Gus Malzahn on the hot seat again?  It appears Auburn people have pretty much settled into two groups.  Group one thinks there is no reason Auburn cannot make the same jump as Clemson and Georgia did, i.e. from good football school to perennial championship contender and the current level is unacceptable.  There are degrees in this group as well.  For example I will always grade Auburn on that scale but know Auburn will have rebuilding years.  My biggest problem with Auburn coaches over the years is when they have that elite talent and waste it.  This group also favors replacing the coach when recruiting clearly starts to drop.

Group two thinks Auburn is not not in that class and we just need to be happy with our big wins and history.  They look at Gus Malzahn's one conference title and wins over Bama and think that is the best we can expect and we should stay with him.  Again there are degrees but that is the basic sentiment.  Of course the wildcard is still Gus' huge buyout.  That pretty much says he is not going anywhere no matter how bad things get especially in tough COVID financial times.  The time is coming though in my opinion where Auburn will have to change coaches.  As Steve Spurrier said a coach these days can really only stay at a school for a decade or so and then regardless of records, fatigue sets in.

We will see over the rest of this season what this coaching staff can do and it starts NOW.