The Auburn Tigers beat the Florida Gators 17-6 this last Saturday at Jordan Hare Stadium. The game was an ugly one matching two inept offenses. Those games are just hard to watch. However the weather and atmosphere sure helped. I attended my first Auburn game in person this year and enjoyed it immensely. My son and I rolled into Auburn around lunch and promptly headed to Tiger Rags and J&M to look for some gear and then headed to Guthries. We got to the stadium about an hour and half before the game and just soaked it all up. The weather literally could not have been any better. The temperature was perfect staying around 65 to 70 degrees with no wind to speak of. The band marching on, the eagle soaring, the intro videos, the team running onto the field, the fourth quarter team rush toward the student section and winning the game, another Saturday to remember on the Plains (even if the game itself was not quite one to remember).
There has been a lot of talk since the game defending the win despite the fact that Florida is just not very good (see the two previous weeks before this game). Let me say that yes, any win over Florida or any of the SEC's historically top tier teams is always a good one and like most of our other SEC wins this year, we did not know before the season started if we would be able to pull out a win in this game.
Also, this win coupled with a win over Ole Miss, the worst team in the SEC, and FCS opponent Samford will give Auburn a winning season. I will be the first to say how great that is. I predicted Auburn to go 6-6 and am frankly amazed the coaches were able to coax a winning season out of this team. So no matter what happens the coaches will be able to declare a victory for this season. Morale is high among most fans as Auburn is doing better than expected. I have seen bloggers comparing this team to anywhere from the 2001 team to the 1972 Amazin's. I would lean more toward the 2001 team but I do not think this team is even that good.
The defense has improved and I do see some real potential there. However slight improvement and potential still do not make this a good defense now. Of course, they are looking a lot better than the other side of the ball on which we are in a free fall scoring 17 or less points in every SEC game except State. Who would have ever thought our offense would be the one in worst shape after the Clemson game this season? However it is true, ever since the Clemson game the defense has shown improvement and the offense has sputtered to the point the passing game is nearly non-existent and the coaches are scared to death to even call a pass.
Yes we do have some injuries but that is just one small factor in the fall of our passing game. The line especially the tackles is again where it starts in my opinion. This line is just not that good especially in pass protection which dents their run blocking as everyone is now stacking the line. The quarterback position has also been a liability as Barrett Trotter has gotten worse every game since the Clemson game and has now lost the job. Clint Moseley threw a couple of good passes which enabled us to get the win against Florida but he has no other game experience. Kiehl Frazier, the future, continues to get shuffled in to run the ball and you see his potential but you can also see the constant shuffling is hurting the other quarterbacks. We then do have injuries to two of our starting wide receivers. You add all that up and you get an offense that is literally struggling to have any semblence of a passing game. It is sad to watch.
With that said, it is obvious we are not much different from what we were predicted to be before the season, the biggest reason Auburn is 5-2 right now is that the teams we have beat in the SEC were not as good as predicted. State's defense is almost as bad as ours and is not near as good as last year. South Carolina's offensive line is the worst I have seen this year and as I said in an earlier post has reduced their awesome skill players to very ordinary. Florida is just mediocre all-around. Even with their injuries, the lack of talent at Florida is startling. Urban Meyer did not just leave because of his family or his health, he also left because the Florida job looks like it will be a much bigger rebuilding job than anybody thought. Those top-ranked recruiting classes at Florida the last couple of years look to be WAY overrated.
The point I am trying to make is that I am happy we are 5-2 but I am concerned because I do not think we have improved as a team. I think the coaches decided to "Tub" there way through these games and get the win instead of trying to get better especially concerning the passing game. Good night we would not even throw the ball when the game was out of reach against Arkansas. This does not bode well for the rest of the season. We have already lost to the two proven good teams on our schedule and beaten the decent but overrated ones. In the coming weeks we will play the two of the best teams in the country and a good Georgia team. I do not see how we can win any of these games without a solid passing attack. I am dubious that we can plug in a guy that has never played much behind this line (with or without our injured starting wide receivers) and beat anybody any good.
Will Collier said it the best at his site... BREAKING: NCAA Formally Clears Auburn.
Let me repeat the best parts of his post:
"For nearly a year now, haters from coast to coast--but especially in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Starkville and Gainesville--have been predicting that Auburn would receive a letter from the NCAA. This afternoon, that prediction came true. Problem for them is, the letter exonerates AU...
Pete Thamel (hey Pete, NOW we know it's over), Thayer Evans, Joe Schad, Mark Schlabach, Chris Low, Spencer Hall, Matt Hinton, Danny Sheridan, Paul Finebaum, Dan Mullen, Megan Mullen, Urban Meyer, Jody Wright and a host of other goons who did their damnedest to do to Auburn off the field what Auburn did to their teams on the field in 2010 were not immediately available for comment.
So: despite the uncountable amounts of ink, pixels and bandwidth spent predicting doom upon the Plains, there will be no probation. There will be no vacations, no forfeits, no returned trophies, and no asterisks. The 2010 season will remain what it always was: glorious.
Boys, you can pick up your crow at Cam's house. He'll be glad to serve it to you... at high velocity. "
Back to my take... IN YOUR FACE ALL OF YOU. In fact, after being put under through the ringer like Auburn has with hundreds of people investigating for almost a year now desperate to find anything to hang us with, I would dare say AUBURN IS ONE OF THE CLEANEST NATIONAL CHAMPIONS especially compared to any school that has won it recently especially our SEC bretheren who have tried so desperately to throw us under the bus. There is no way any school that was dirty could stand up to the spotlight Auburn has endured (ASK OHIO STATE AND MIAMI). Yet we will continue to be insulted and disrespected while other schools and their fans who look down on us would never be able to stand up to the scrutiny Auburn has received. In fact I would dare say there are not many schools at all that could stand up to the scrutiny Auburn has been under without something being found.
I am not even saying Auburn is perfectly clean and even if we had been found guilty of some lesser things I would still say the same things. Auburn was completely mutilated in the media and in the court of public opinion without even a stitch of evidence that Auburn had done anything wrong. We were treated ridiculously unfairly. We were declared guilty after the first accusation and then every "theory" dreamed up by any loser was treated like biblical truth.
Well it does not sound like we are giving ANYTHING BACK. I heard and read so many smug people predicting that. Well one more time... YOU WERE WRONG. I think it might be time to go back and watch some of those highlights from last year and get that little bit of enjoyment that everyone tried to take away from us. Cam Newton was and will always be one of the greatest college players ever and the 2010 Auburn Tigers were and always will be champions (and I would still take them against the top two teams currently this year).
WAR DAMN EAGLE.
Arkansas 38 Auburn 14. The loss was not as hard to take as watching Auburn's passing game literally die on the table in front of us. Most people did not expect this young rebuilding Auburn team to sweep two tough SEC games on the road. As I said in my last post, getting one was huge. However having a passing game this bad while employing the highest paid assistant in the country to coach the quarterback position is completely unacceptable. I could say almost the same thing for the wide receiver position. Yes I know Emory Blake is out but as I have pointed out before we have PLENTY of other scholarship wide receivers that are not freshman. To the breakdown...
THE GOOD BAD #1
The defense did play well in spots getting some big stops. Arkansas scored several times off of hideous Auburn interceptions that were not the defense's fault. However I cannot give a passing grade to a unit that gave up a 92 yard run (the longest in Arkansas history) to a wide receiver and allowed the opposing quarterback to complete 18 passes in a row. It was also a sobering moment when ESPN flashed up the graphic that Auburn was dead last in the conference in every major defensive category. That is just hard to take. I will say the defensive effort might have still been enough to get a win behind a better offense.
THE BAD #2
Auburn would have lost this game even if the game had been called fair. Let me make that clear. However I will still point out that this game was horribly called. Auburn did commit the majority of the holds it was called for but Arkansas committed the same holds and was NOT called for them. There was a sickeningly obvious one not called on the big 92 yard run and several more just as obvious. Auburn was called for 11 penalties for 105 yards while Arkansas was only whistled 4 times for 26 yards. Yeh RIGHT. Give me a break. Auburn committed all of those holds while Arkansas played completely clean. I think all of Arkansas' penalties were also called in the first quarter till Petrino started taking the ref's heads off. No more calls on Arkansas were made after that. Pathetic job.
THE BAD #3
It got to be kind of funny when my buddy kept texting me when we got the ball "Dyer on first down". Talk about predictable. I know we could not pass but good night call something different. I mean we were beyond predictable. We also run the majority of our running plays to the right side. Arkansas obviously figured it out because the whole team would be on top of Dyer by the time he got to the line of scrimmage in the second half. However we still ground out almost 300 yards on the ground although I would not expect that number again except against Samford if our passing game does not improve which leads me to...
THE UGLY
Barrett Trotter is fourth year junior and has been in the Malzahn system for three years. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad. DeAngelo Benton, Q. Carr and Travante Stallworth are all upperclassmen and have had plenty of experience. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad. Both of these positions are again coached by some of the highest paid assistants in the country. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad.
Trotter started out looking pretty good this season but has since gotten worse every week bottoming out with this debacle. Kiehl Frazier, obviously the future, has shown flashes of brilliance running the ball but proved without a doubt that he is not close to ready by throwing two really ugly interceptions. Couple that with the abysmal receiving and you have, as a buddy of mine pointed out, the worst Auburn passing game since Gabe Gross in 1998 and THAT is saying something. I am most disgusted with Benton who we have heard about over and over for three years. He missed a pass that hit him in the gut and one in the hands (that was then intercepted) and was called twice for holding.
Where do we go from here? Do we make the same mistake we made in 2007 and throw the true freshman out there when he is not ready? Do we stick with Trotter? Do we give Clint Moseley a shot? I think Frazier should stay the change-of-pace of quarterback. He is doing fine in that role. I know the coaches do not want to have a quarterback controversy and get another quarterback involved but that is where we are at. We cannot shut down the passing game and Trotter is not getting the job done. Clint Moseley is the backup. If the race was sooo close as the coaches went on and on about during the spring and fall then Moseley should definitely get a shot. He has also spent several years under Malzahn. If he does not do anything put back in Trotter. At this point we cannot do any worse than we did last night. I do not think we can mess up Trotter anymore than he is right now.
My guess though is that the coaches will stick with Trotter and hope that he can pull himself out of his tailspin as Brandon Cox did in 2007. Cox though had a track record of success while Trotter has gotten worse each game he has started in. Again I understand that nobody wants to be in this situation but unfortunately we are and we have to be able to throw the ball a little bit to win football games. The coaches need to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
UP NEXT
A big big game. Florida comes limping in to Jordan Hare after back-to-back beatdowns from the top two teams in the country. They are having quarterback problems as well but their problems are because of injury. Auburn REALLY needs to get this win. It would give Auburn a winning season if they can beat Ole Miss and Samford as well. At this point I do not see Auburn beating LSU, Bama or Georgia. Georgia looks much improved. I am heading down to the plains for the first time this season for the game so I will have an eyewitness review for next week...
Well most of us knew this was coming. Actually I should say some of us knew this was coming because they were a LOT of sunshine pumpers talking about 8 or 9 wins this summer and would tolerate no talk otherwise. Unfortunately even if you know it is coming it never happens exactly like you think it will and it still hurts just as much. This is not a very good Auburn football team especially on defense and especially where it counts and that is in the trenches. It also does not appear this team has the scrap that a under talented team like the 1981 team had. Those two things equal tough times.
There are many reasons but unfortunately there is not much that can be done at this point but ride it out and hope we can grab a big win somewhere. It will take playing a lot better than they have played up till now to get bowl eligible. It can be done. All we have to do is beat Ole Miss, Samford and grab one other win somewhere. The only realistic chance looks to be at Georgia or hope we catch Florida napping. We will have to see how the team responds after a couple of beatdowns at South Carolina and Arkansas. We will also have to see how the coaching staff responds to their first real dose of harsh criticism. This staff has not gone through that yet.
AD Jay Jacobs quickly played his hand this week already blaming everything on Tub's last two recruiting classes. It is correct that Tub's last two classes are probably the biggest problem this season but the AD throwing him under the bus publicly is probably not the best move. Tuberville deserved a lot more credit than he received for the national championship which was won with an offensive line and defense he recruited. However it appears he will get his due for the abominations that were the 2007 and 2008 recruiting classes. It has to be said though that Chizik has had 3 recruiting classes to prepare for this and could have done more to strengthen our defensive front seven. It is not like you could not see some of this coming.
It is also hard to understand what the coaching staff's plans were for this year during spring and fall practice other than writing books and basking in the glow of the national championship like the fans. A coaching staff at this level should be able to see we cannot run the same old lay-back-in-loose-coverage Cover 2 defense with our current talent level on defense especially on the line. More disturbing is the fact that our offensive coaches who are top notch do not seem to have settled on a strategy for this offense and have been tinkering since the first game bottoming out with last night's underwhelming performance against FAU.
So that is where we are. I had marked the next two games as losses way before the season started. Revenge is usually overrated as a motivator but Auburn absolutely humiliated South Carolina last year in the SECCG and there are a lot of players back from that team as well as the coaches that are REALLY going to want some payback. I do not think we will catch them napping. Bobby Petrino always lights up our defense just like he always lays down for Nick $aban and Bama. Arkansas will look like world-beaters in two weeks.
Our team is just going to have to ride it out and the coaching staff has to use these tough games to try and get the team better and hopefully we will get one big win and get to a bowl. However before then you better fasten your seatbelts and put your food trays in their upright position because we are about to experience... turbulence.
Must come to an end and Auburn's 17 game winning streak finally did at "Death Valley" in South Carolina. Losing always stinks and everyone complains and usually wants to fire somebody. Then the self-righteous all-knowing "gods" of proper fan behavior in the media will then tell the fans how stupid they are for complaining (even though these people are able to earn a living off these very same fans). Fans overreact, it is part of it. I bring this up because I want to differentiate what most Auburn fans are upset about from normal fan behavior. Auburn fans, at least this one, are upset about a historically bad defense and a consistently weak defensive coordinator. As I have posted over and over again, the stats tell the story. Ted Roof coached the worst defense in Auburn history two years ago in 2009 and is now guaranteed to surpass that this season.
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)
Yes we won the national championship last year (although our defense still had the same problems but had just enough good players and a legendary great offense to mask it) but this is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE AND IT NEVER WILL BE. The next thing you hear is an offense like ours hurts the defense and that is true but NOT TO THIS EXTENT.
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."
