Yes we are low on talent especially on the defensive line but you have to WORK to be this bad. Clemson ran up over 600 yards of offense, 600 YARDS!!! They held the ball almost 40 minutes, ran almost 100 plays and scored almost 40 points just like Mississippi State did last week. I have never seen more missed tackles but the worst part is allowing a team to convert 14 of 18 third downs including ten in a row. Being this bad on defense goes back to coaching. We do not have a ton of talent but you can do better than this.
Let's update our season totals our defense has given up in just THREE games:
- 110 POINTS (to Utah State, Mississippi State and Clemson)
- OVER ONE THOUSAND AND SIX HUNDRED YARDS TOTAL OFFENSE
- ALMOST TWO HOURS OF TIME OF POSSESSION
- 273 plays which is an average of over 90 PLAYS A GAME
- 39 OF 59 THIRD AND FOURTH DOWN COVERSION FOR A RATE OF 66%
- THE AUBURN DEFENSE IS NOW RANKED #117 IN THE FBS (OUT OF 120 TEAMS)
Frankly I am tired of writing the same thing. This is not a knee jerk reaction to a loss but something I have been writing for three years now. No one can accuse me of just criticizing our defense this season or just after losses. Our defensive philosophy is the biggest problem but add to it this year that we have not recruited enough defensive tackles. That is mostly Tommy Tuberville's fault but Chizik could have brought more in than he has. We need a lot of more bodies on the defensive line than wide receivers that sit the bench. For my thoughts on the game you can read my two previous posts or check out these quotes from my posts on games the last two seasons (especially Arkansas last season)...
WEST VIRGINIA 2009
"I know Auburn had to be careful in fall practice to not get anybody hurt but good grief I have not seen a much worse job at tackling and containing a QB than the first half. WVU was moving and scoring at will."
"This in no way though excuses the awful tackling and horrible angles our guys were taking last night. It does not excuse 10 of 15 third down conversions."
BALL STATE 2009
"It is very frustrating to watch our soft coverage..."
TENNESSEE 2009
"It is hard to say they played bad. However I will say they are showing BAD tendencies. I described this defense in the last post as "on-again/off-again" and they seem more like that after this game. They were on most of the first half and then suddenly let UT just fly down the field for a quick TD before halftime. They stone UT in the third quarter and let them score 16 points including the ridiculous last second TD in the fourth quarter. I am not a DC but playing so ridiculously loose in coverage allows just as many big plays as being overly aggressive."
KENTUCKY 2009
"Of course, we can't blame everything on Tub like missed tackles or our overall soft defensive philosophy."
GEORGIA 2009
" I am so sick and tired of watching our defensive line get pushed all over the field. I mean on seemingly every run our line gets pushed five yards back. I am sick of it! I would rather blitz every down and give up up throws over the top than get pushed all over the stupid field."
OUTBACK BOWL 2010
"We have done this stuff all year and thus we have THE worst defense statistically in Auburn history."
ARKANSAS STATE 2010
"The way Auburn plays their safeties is hard to watch. Most of the time they play them so far back that the other team just dinks us to death. I will never understand that philosophy. I think you should play the other team tight and make them throw over you and hit that lower percentage long pass. Yes you will give up some big plays but you will also get some three-and-outs. Between our current offensive and defensive philosophies I do not think we will ever have enough depth on defense."
CLEMSON 2010
"Defensively, Chizik and Roof have stated both in action and words that their philosophy is not to give up big plays and to keep everything in front of them and make other teams drive the length of the field. This usually involves playing way off the ball and giving up a lot of yardage on short passes. Auburn then usually makes adjustments, occasionally blitzes and gets a few stops. However, would it not help the team overall to play a more aggressive style of defense? The defense could then maybe get a few three-and-outs and let our offense do their thing and tire out the other defense. Now of course we would give up more big plays ala Will Muschamp. However that would get our offense back on the field and not subject our defense to staying out there so long getting dinked to death.
I just do not understand it. A more aggressive defense would fit in more with our supposed goals of being a more aggressive offense. Instead we seem to make it the worst of both worlds by keeping our offense on the bench longer and keeping our still thin defense on the field longer. This is also exacerbated by the fact our offense if played according to our supposed goals will keep the defense on the field more anyway. It just does not make sense to me. I would rather bring our guys up and let them play more aggressively and go for the three-and-out. They will give up a few but I think we would be more effective than we are now."
LOUISIANA MONROE 2010
"First, would this not have been a good game to work on covering receivers a little tighter??? I do not understand playing way off these guys and letting them drive three times into Auburn territory in the first half and letting them get a field goal. I think it would have been a good game to work on tighter more aggressive coverage. This confirms we will see this crap for the rest of the season."
KENTUCKY 2010
"Gene Chizik talks a lot about Auburn history and how important it is yet his teams seemingly ignore the tenets of good defense and special teams that Coach Jordan and Dye emphasized. With that said let us move to... Our defensive performance last night was ugly. There is no other way to say it. When your offense scores 31 points in the first half against KENTUCKY and you then have to win on a last second field goal YOU ARE PLAYING BAD DEFENSE. My gosh where do I start? I guess in the same place I start every week with our ridiculously extreme philosophy of playing soft coverage. I understand have an overall philosophy but you have to make adjustments based on the team you are playing. The Auburn defense has rose up several times but that is mainly because of the defensive line. Most teams will not throw short the entire night and that is how we finally stop them. That was not true of Kentucky. The three step drop and throw nullifies a defensive line. They were content to throw short to their play makers ALL NIGHT and it is not like that is a surprise. These guys have been around their forever. Their is plenty of film on Kentucky and their attack. Why did our defense not do more to take away Cobb and Locke??? Why did we never play tighter coverage? It is maddening to watch."
ARKANSAS 2010
"I find it comical that the post game reaction is that the defense "rose up" in the fourth quarter. I mean come on. The Arkansas guy was down on that fumble even though we deserved the call as I stated above. I do not think our defense can take a whole lot of credit for that. The Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson had all day to throw (as was the case the whole game) on both those interceptions. He just finally made some bad decisions. I do not think our defense can take much credit for that. If they pressure him and he makes a mistake I would give credit. The Auburn defensive performance was about the worst I have ever seen from an Auburn defense. It took much of my joy from the win. I can't think of the adjective to describe how bad they were. Bad, awful, terrible, disgusting, revolting, etc... do not seem to cover it..."
The basics of football are blocking and tackling. We are doing the blocking but I have never seen worse tackling in my 30 years of watching Auburn football. Case in point was our senior linebacker Craig Stevens who is a four year starter simply putting an arm out as an Arkansas running back or wide receiver ran straight past him. Arkansas receivers just ran wild after they caught the ball as Auburn defenders slipped off them or simply fell down as they ran past them. Auburn would not commit to pressuring the quarterback or jamming wide receivers so Bobby Petrino could empty his playbook and call whatever he wanted. WHAT IS THE POINT of playing conservative defense when the other team is scoring at will on big plays??? That is the only point of playing that kind of defense! Ted Roof is the worst defensive coordinator I have ever seen and he is being enabled by Chizik. Roof is also not even coaching his own position well as our linebackers miss more tackles than anyone.
Chizik was able to run this type of defense in 2004 when he had great pass rushers at both ends in Stanley McClover and Quentin Groves. All "Cover 2" defenses that have been hugely successful have a Dwight Freeney or a Charles Haley at defensive end and they can get pressure on the quarterback. WE DO NOT HAVE THAT. We do not have anyone even close. If you are an offensive team and you do not have great pass rushers YOU HAVE TO GAMBLE. Case in point would be the New Orleans Saints last year. They did not have great pass rushers so they gambled and blitzed a lot and were able to be good enough to win a Super Bowl. If tackling is the first fundamental of defense, pressuring the quarterback against a passing team has to be #2. You simply have to pressure the quarterback. You have to shorten the window the quarterback has to make a decision and in doing so he is more likely to miss the pass or make a mistake. The coach across the state has created his legend doing this. I understand picking the "Cover 2" as your defense but I do not understand adjusting your strategy when you are getting lit up like a Christmas tree by the other team's backup quarterback.
I do not see how these coaches justify what they are doing. The stats back it up. Last year's Auburn defense was one of the worst in Auburn history statistically. This year's version is right there with it as they gave up over 400 yards passing and almost 600 yards total (against mainly the back up quarterback). It is a complete embarrassment to play defense that bad. If we blitzed every play we would have gotten burned plenty but I firmly believe it would not have been near as bad. It also fires your defense up playing aggressive and not reacting all the time. It also shortens the other team's playbook. It was disgusting to me how many plays Arkansas called that had just about everyone going long because he knew the quarterback would have time."
LSU 2010
"On defense, we lose two starting linebackers, two defensive ends, two defensive tackles and will almost certainly lose Nick Fairley leaving us with only two true defensive tackles in Carter and Whitaker on the entire roster."
OLE MISS 2010
"They have a good defense, Auburn does not. We are still asking a lot of our offense to have to score 40+ points every game... Again I think we have to put more pressure on the quarterback. We cannot let.. the quarterback... stand back there all day. It does not matter how many men we drop back in coverage. We also HAVE TO TACKLE BETTER. There were a ton more missed tackles last night. Our guys have got to wrap up and bring the guy down."
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 2011
"Of course, just like the rest of the season, the pass defense was weak at times and Oregon rolled up almost 400 yards passing."
SPRING 2011
"My only big concern after getting this recruiting class is defensive tackle. I do not think many people understand how dire the situation is. We now have only two true defensive tackles ON THE ENTIRE TEAM before these freshmen come in the fall. Kenneth Carter and Jeffrey Whitaker are it. Coach Tracy Rocker did everything he could to get these guys ready giving them a lot of playing time however the jury is still out on them in my opinion. It is still unknown whether they are really true SEC-caliber starters but right now Auburn has no other options. Journeymen Derrick Lykes and Jamar Travis who "back them up" on the depth chart are certainly not SEC-caliber. Our DL coach will once again have to get true freshmen ready to back up his starters however this time his starters are not Nick Fairley and two seniors but two true sophomores. Just as I guessed from looking at the depth chart I heard the coaches will look at moving Nosa Egaue inside but defensive tackle still looks like a glaring weak spot for this Auburn team next season. The player Auburn will miss the most is not Cam Newton but Nick Fairley."
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