Clemson 19 Auburn 13. Wow. I mean WOW. I had already come to the conclusion that Gus Malzahn can only coach one way and is incapable of change but last night he even surprised me in how bad the team looked offensively. In fact I have chosen the word "offensive" to be the theme of this review because our offense is in a word... offensive. Here is part of the dictionary definition:
OFFENSIVE:
1
: of or relating to an attempt to score in a game or contest; also : of or relating to a team in possession of the ball or puck
2
: giving painful or unpleasant sensations : nauseous, obnoxious
3
: causing displeasure or resentment
I can say for sure that watching the Auburn offense flounder around last night was "giving painful or unpleasant sensations". It made me "nauseous" and it certainly caused "displeasure" and "resentment". I have seen a LOT of bad offenses in my 40+ years of cheering for Auburn but I do not think I have ever seen a worse game plan or worse play calling by a coach in all of that time. It sure looked like Gus Malzahn had lost his mind. I do not even know where to start. The quarterback rotation? Having our smallest wide receiver make 3 runs to open the game? Not using Kerryon Johnson in the first quarter? The idiotic trick plays? The awful blocking? Well I will stick with my usual format and start with...
THE GOOD
Obviously this is the defense. Wouldn't you know it? Auburn fields it's best defense in a decade and the offense hits rock bottom when we have a supposed offensive coach. You cannot make this stuff up. As I write this I am just shaking my head... back to last night though. Auburn played it's finest defensive game in a long time last night. Those guys played their guts out and they kept Auburn in the game till the end. They continually got stops and gave it back to the offense in good field position.
The defensive line got the best of Clemson's veteran offensive line most of the night except in the pass rushing department where Clemson was able to slow them down or Deshaun Watson was able to slip through. With that said though Auburn still held one of the best offenses in the country to way below their usual output in every phase of the game. The Auburn defense held Clemson to only 150 yards rushing on 44 attempts for only 3.4 yard average per carry. They held Clemson below 250 yards passing and most importantly they held Clemson to just 20 points (if they had made their last PAT).
Auburn should win any game at home with those defensive stats. It is completely unacceptable to lose when the defense is playing that well. Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams had 174 yards receiving and did seem to make the big catch every time Clemson needed it but overall the Auburn defense got the job done. There is no way they were going to completely shut down Clemson. It is just makes Auburn's pathetic offense look that much worse. If Auburn had any of the defenses from the last 8 years playing last night the score would have been 60-13.
I saw good defensive play from all of the Auburn defense last night. The defensive line was nasty and lived up to expectations outside of pass rushing but I believe that will improve. I saw more plays out of the linebackers last night than I have seen the previous 3 or 4 years. Props to Deshaun Davis, that guy was fired up! I thought the secondary hung in there and fought hard. Tray Matthews had that one really dumb personal foul penalty but played a great game otherwise. Carlton Davis lost a few battles but I still think he is one of the best. Rudy Ford had a bunch of plays as well but man I wish he would have held on to that interception early that hit him in the hands.
Again, you can nit pick some details but the defense got it done, the offense on the other hand was...
THE BAD AND THE UGLY
My constant question last night was wondering if Gus Malzahn had lost his mind. At times it was like he was trying to put Auburn in the worst position possible to lose the game. On top of calling one of the worst offensive games anybody has ever seen he had the temerity to get testy with reporters asking him about his ridiculous quarterback rotation. This guy is something else. He is paying paid over FOUR MILLION dollars to coach this team and has had a year to get ready for this game and THAT GAME PLAN is what he came up with??? Literally I do not think it is possible to do much worse. I think anybody who has watched football for more than five minutes could have done better. What in the heck was Malzahn thinking??????
I guess lets start with the ridiculous quarterback rotation. Gus can be as belligerent as he wants in the post-game presser but rotating quarterbacks like that has never worked and will never work and everyone knows it. It is not an opinion, it is a fact proven throughout a hundred years of football. The only question is why in the world one of the highest paid coaches in college football would think it would work? Auburn started with Sean White and the supposed "starter" played one series (a three and out) and threw one pass in the first quarter. The next drive saw John Franklin enter the game and run another three and out. Also these first two drives featured three runs from Stanton Truitt and none from Kerryon Johnson.
The next drive saw Jeremy Johnson enter the game as the third quarterback in as many series. Johnson completed three passes and led Auburn to a field goal. Johnson returned the next drive and went three and out and got sacked twice. White returned for Auburn's fifth possession of the night and presided over another three and out. Somewhere in there Chandler Cox took a turn as quarterback as well. What good could possibly come from putting Chandler Cox at quarterback? So by halftime Auburn had four three and outs in five possessions and 38 yards of total offense with Kerryon Johnson only getting five touches.
Auburn would open the second half with yet another three and out before moving into Clemson territory on the next drive behind a couple of big Kerryon Johnson runs and a penalty. Johnson would then throw an ugly interception that looked a lot like last year. The defense then intercepted Clemson and gave the offense the ball at the Clemson 35 yard line. Auburn would then get close on a big 16 yard completion from Sean White to Marcus Davis but would stall out in the red zone as the coaches decided to go for it on 4th and 1 at the five yard line (in the THIRD quarter) rather than get the points. This drive also featured some of the bizarre quarterback switching as they took White out after hitting the big pass and put in Johnson (???).
Also, as Gus Malzahn has always done, every single time Auburn completes a pass Malzahn calls a run up the middle the next play. Only one time last night outside the last desperation drive did Auburn throw another pass after a completed pass. The other team simply never has to worry about consecutive pass completions against Auburn and if I am writing it here then it is safe to say it is common knowledge among Auburn's opponents. Gus Malzahn has to be the most predictable coach I have ever seen. I no longer give Gus near as much credit for 2010, other coaches had to have been involved, he never would have run that offense like that as head coach.
Back to the game last night, after getting stopped near the goal line, the Auburn defense forced another three and out and the offense got the ball back inside Clemson territory near midfield. The offense would move into the red zone again on a big run by Kerryon Johnson and a Sean White pass to Ryan Davis (which was you guessed it followed by an inside run). The drive would stall and Auburn would kick a field goal. Clemson would then take it down for the winning touchdown. Auburn would get the ball back and go on their only long drive of the night when wide receiver Kyle Davis caught an under thrown prayer from White for 43 yards (which was you guessed it followed by an inside run).
White would then be intercepted at the goal line when the Auburn brain trust decided again to go for it on fourth and goal at the 8 yard line. So FYI the game would have been TIED after Clemson missed their PAT if Auburn had kicked chip shot field goals instead of going for it on 4th and goal twice. Again, it is proven football strategy (like not rotating quarterbacks) to always take the points when you are on your home field and your defense is playing well. Do not go for it till you have to. If Auburn had done this, the game might have gone to overtime.
After this latest failure, the defense would once again rise up and hold Clemson to three and out and give the offense the ball once again in good position at the Clemson 36 yard line. I have already read a lot of nonsense from these homer Auburn sites about how the offense picked it up in the second half. I guess they did somewhat but in my opinion it was mainly because the defense kept stopping Clemson and giving them awesome field position. So in other words, the little success on offense was basically a credit to the defense.
Back to the game, the offense would finally score a touchdown on a Kerryon Johnson run but only after a Clemson roughing-the-passer penalty after they had stopped Auburn on 3rd and 10. Clemson would get the ball back and grind out a 10 play 60 yard drive against the tiring Auburn offense aided by a clutch Deshaun Watson to Mike Williams completion on 3rd and long. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney then chose to give it up on downs with only a six point lead rather than kick a field goal to seal it when he has a great kicker. Clemson won the game but what a terrible call. This decision could have cost Clemson the game when they could have easily won it with a field goal. Obviously the ghosts of the "Kick Six" were swirling around in Dabo's head.
Auburn would then get the ball back with 40 seconds left. Sean White would then complete three passes to put Auburn in Clemson territory with 10 seconds left. White would then chuck two passes into the end zone and both were close. I mean it would have been one of the most ridiculous wins in college football history if Auburn had grabbed one of those passes. I mean winning a game against the #2 team in the country with maybe the worst offensive coaching I have ever seen??? It would have been unbelievable. Of course the next thought is what if Malzahn had just started Sean White or Jeremy Johnson and left him in the game and just had a vanilla somewhat balanced game plan?
I think Auburn might have won the game. Instead the Auburn nation is left to wonder what if about the game and wonder if Gus Malzahn will muster any common sense at all with his game planning and play calling. I mean I left it out in my description of the second half above that in those drives there were a bunch more quarterback switches. John Franklin came in to hand off the ball to Kerryon Johnson several times. Jeremy Johnson made a few more appearances as well as Chandler Cox and Kerryon Johnson at the quarterback position. It just does not make any sense. It is just bad coaching.
It was not just the quarterback rotation. Why in the world did we have Stanton Truitt running the ball to start the game? The guy is 5-9 and 185 pounds!?! Why did we wait so long to start using Kerryon? Where was Kamryn Pettway? What was the deal with all the stupid trick plays? Was our whole plan to try and trick our way to a win? It is all so dumb. Why waste valuable practice time on Chandler Cox at quarterback for a play that is never going to make much? Sean White can hand off to any of our running backs and make the same yardage? Again is Malzahn completely off his rocker?
Finally, I mentioned it in the preview and I think all knowledgeable Auburn fans were worried about our new tackles. It sure looks like that worry was well founded. Robert Leff and Austin Golson got their butts kicked most of the night. It was painful to watch early on. Of course like last year there was no tight end to help out most of the time and it appeared that Auburn tried to run out of a three-wide set most of the night against a stacked blitzing Clemson defense. Stupid! I did not see many good blocks by Cox or Pettway either. What is Malzahn doing? What the heck have these guys been working on in practice all year?
THE LAST WORD
This game obviously raises questions about the rest of the season for the team and especially the offense not to mention Malzahn's long term viability as head football coach. You have to wonder about Malzahn when he stubbornly states they might actually continue this quarterback revolving door. I mean really? Fortunately for Auburn the SEC is down this year as I thought in my preview and was proven this weekend. Auburn will get some wins and look better against some of these teams but will also have a loss or two more than I thought.
Again Gus Malzahn has averaged being a 7-5 as a head coach and coordinator at Auburn outside of 2010 and 2013. He is looking to hit right on that from where I sit. As for his long term viability as Auburn head coach, other than defending his awesome game plan he also made his favorite reference and that is to call Auburn a "run-based play-action offense". It is obvious now in year four that being a "run-based play-action offense" is all we will ever be under Malzahn. He has pretty much shown he is unwilling and incapable of changing his offensive philosophy at all.
The only way he can be successful is to have the personnel to run his shotgun Wing-T offense like he did in 2013. He has proven he can NOT be successful any other way. Therefore from this vantage point I do not think he will be very successful the rest of his career at Auburn because I do not see the stars aligning personnel-wise like they did in 2013 anytime soon. Malzhan has the rest of this season to prove me wrong but after last night's offensive showing things do not look promising. As I have written in this blog many times, the problems started in 2014 but his offense last season and now to start this season is simply offensive to anyone who believes in a balanced offense and a competent passing game.
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