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.