Week 2 Review - Hanging Tough

The Auburn Tigers, decided underdogs, hung tough and pulled out another last second win 41-34 against Mississippi State.  After the smoke cleared a couple of things were evident.  First, the Auburn offensive line played a much better game this week and Auburn was able to run the ball.  Next, State while a good solid team was a bit overrated coming into the game.  While Auburn's deficiencies and losses have been talked about ad nauseum you would have thought State was Oklahoma or something coming in after routing Memphis.  Memphis used to be one of those tough minor conference teams like Southern Miss that would always give you a tough game but they are no longer.  They are one of the worst football programs in the country now so State winning that game was not near as big a deal as it was made out to be this last week.  State lost some players as well from last year and their defensive coordinator and coincidentally they were not near as good on defense as they were last year.  Now to the good, the bad and the ugly from Saturday...

THE GOOD
That would be Auburn's offense and State's offense as well to be fair.  As I said above, Auburn's offensive line was much better this week and Mike Dyer came alive with 150 yards and two touchdowns.  Quarterback Barrett Trotter, except for a horrid pick-six, put up an efficient 16 for 23 for 146 yards and two touchdowns.  Hopefully Trotter learned his lesson about absolutely staring down his receivers.  My wife even noticed Trotter staring down his receiver the play before and that means it was REALLY obvious.  Emory Blake put up maybe his best game-to-date with over 100 yards receiving including holding on to a crucial catch before the half where he took a vicious cheap shot from a State player that came in helmet first.  Of course the State player got his just desserts when he knocked himself out on the hit.  State was also flagged for spearing Mike Dyer in the back as well.

Auburn is still looking for more receivers to step up.  I thought Travante Stallworth would be the next best but did not do much this game and neither did any other wide receiver.  Of course everyone's favorite tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen was steady and added a crucial touchdown but Auburn really needs one of its MANY scholarship wide receivers to contribute.  Also in the good category for a second straight week is the Auburn special teams.  Kicker Cody Parkey has come out of the gate strong booting kickoffs out of the endzone and this week hitting two crucial field goals.  Kickoff returner Tre Mason is everyone's new favorite player and I feel that Trovon Reed is going to make something happen on punt returns.

So all-in-all though a much better performance by the offense and another good performance from the Auburn special teams.  However Auburn has had to score 40 points to win these two games.  That will be impossible to maintain and Auburn has to get better on defense which brings us to...

THE BAD
The Auburn defense played better than they did against Utah State but the stats do not lie, it was still a horrible game defensively.  The early stops were good, the pick-six was great and the end-of-the-game stop on the goalline was legendary and it was enough to win Saturday.  However it will not be enough to win many more games this season.  The stats do not like.  Mississppi State ran almost ONE HUNDRED PLAYS and ground out over 500 yards of offense that included two one hundred yard rushers. 

Some people think it is "stupid and ungrateful" to dare criticize Ted Roof after we won the national championship however I have seen a lot of good defensive coordinators at Auburn and Ted Roof is not one of them.  I think we can do better.  I thought that two years ago as we had the worst defense in Auburn history and I thought it last year when we had maybe the most dominating defensive lineman in Auburn history yet still had a mediocre-to-good defense.  Again just look at the national championship game where Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage like few ever have and still gave up 400 yards passing to a non-passing quarterback.  This year we are on track to eclipse the defensive unit from two years ago and have the worst defense in Auburn history.  That will mean the top two worst defenses in Auburn history would have come in Ted Roof's three years on the plains.  Yes even if it means I am "stupid and ungrateful" I think we can do better.

I have also heard the various reasons for our defensive strategy for not giving up the big play and making the opponent earn it.  That strategy has yielded ONE THOUSAND YARDS OF OFFENSE , 72 POINTS and 73 MINUTES TIME OF POSSESSION for the teams we have played against.  I am sorry I do not think our strategy is working and I think we can do better gambling occasionally to get a stop.  Yes I understand we are winning but I think our defense would still be better mixing it up occasionally.

THE UGLY
The "ugly" this week is unbalancing the Southeastern Conference just to bring in Texas A&M.  I know somehow this is supposed to make more money and that is the only thing that matters anymore but it sure looks like the SEC is playing with fire.  Why mess with a good thing?  Who even knows if the "super-conference" idea will work?  You mess up the geography, competitive balance and good division splits the SEC has and you will be the ACC.  I just do not think gaining a mediocre program like Texas A&M is worth it and I cannot wait how they try to equal things out with 13 members.  This is a bad move.