Were we really that bad in 2015?

[yngwie1995 2,227]

I know our season record was bad, but after re-watching the last 3 (big) games (offense) of last season, we didn't look horrible.

Against UGA, we were driving, down 20-10, and we fumbled inside the 5 yard line. We end up losing 20-13.

Against bama, we were down 22-13 late in the fourth, went for it on 4th down, and the WR drops it (would have been a first down...hits him right in the hands)...ball game. Gives bama the short field, to go up 29-13.

Against Memphis, we looked pretty good, especially in the 2nd half.

The only blowout was to LSU.

Lost to Arky in 4 OTs, MSU by 8 and Ole Miss by 8. And of course, our JSU win was down to the wire.

Just saying, maybe we weren't as bad as our record showed? A few plays here or there, and we have a much better record than 7-6.

Maybe I just have a bad memory?

 

 

[aushrink 22]

I was thinking about this issue the other day and I tend to agree with you. 

We played bad in spurts but I never felt like Gus lost the team. 

 

The OL and DL should be solid. The LB should finally be improved. Hope we can stay injury free from this point. 

I think of we start off (1-0) strong, we can have a great season. 

[yngwie1995 2,227]

I think we have a good shot against Clemson.

Look at how we played bama last year. It was a close game (if you take away a meaningless late TD due to a short field). I feel like we had a good game plan. 

[AidiAU 1,270]

My biggest takeaway from last year was that (to me) the players never stopped fighting. It was no 2012 that's for sure. 

[AUFAN78 3,890]

That bad? Maybe not, but we were not good.

[WDEKC 187]

4 minutes ago, AidiAU said:

My biggest takeaway from last year was that (to me) the players never stopped fighting. It was no 2012 that's for sure. 

This. More consistent QB play (and WR) and that's at least a 9 win team last year. 

[AuburnSoldier 117]

10 minutes ago, yngwie1995 said:

I

Against bama, we were down 22-13 late in the fourth, went for it on 4th down, and the WR drops it (would have been a first down...hits him right in the hands)...ball game. Gives bama the short field, to go up 29-13.

Easily the most I've cussed at an Auburn player, ever. Sorry about that Melvin. 

I don't think we were that bad last year. It was just a combination of injuries (Lawson and White) mistakes (countless drops and dumb penalties), and questionable play-calling. I think some of that will get fixed this year, and it will equal a few more wins. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

I feel like maybe the main thrust of the OP is can we be much better with a tweaked roster this year. If I'm right about that, my opinion is yes. Even if QB play is similar, I see us being in better shape almost across the board at other positions.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't think we're a championship team this year. But 9-10 wins? Sure. Why not.

[TigerOne 1,140]

15 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

That bad? Maybe not, but we were not good.

this... poorly coached will lose games more than bad plays which are a result of that. No lack of effort but Auburn didn't improve through the season.

You can have the best players in the nation but you have to know what to do with them. We didn't

[WDEKC 187]

59 minutes ago, TigerOne said:

this... poorly coached will lose games more than bad plays which are a result of that. No lack of effort but Auburn didn't improve through the season.

You can have the best players in the nation but you have to know what to do with them. We didn't

The defense most definitely improved throughout the year. If White stays healthy, who knows maybe the offense would have as well.

[jskilgro 23]

yes. 

[gman87 398]

Yes, we were that bad. When you dread your offense taking a snap you are that bad. The defense, refreshingly, improved somewhat as the season went on.

Now we weren't 2012 bad by any means and the SEC by and large will regress except for maybe LSU and UT, so hopefully we can get over the problems from last year that kept us from sealing some games.

[tigerman1186 537]

Question some of the play calling....we weren't good enough to be in long situations....we needed to have positive yards on every play because we didn't have a lot of faith with our offense...I know during the GA game in the 3rd quarter, we ran 3 pass plays in a row and each pass was incomplete....I also wonder if teams have started to figure out our offense and play calling....also I don't think our offensive line really controlled the LOS against quality competition....BUT to make a long story short...but being so inconsistent at QB (and not blaming them), it spread to all factions of the team....let's hope this year we won't have this issue.... 

[doc4aday 1,887]

NO.

[Auhud08 596]

Im not stat, but statistically we were 8 points/game worse than 2014 and 12 points/game worse than 2013. 

In 2013 our RZ TD% was 72% (44/61)

in 2015 RZ TD% was 63% (32/51)

So we were about one TD/game worse than '12 & '13

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

That Memphis first half was pretty bad offensively, but we weren't terrible. We weren't good but we weren't terrible 

[FistyMcBeefpunch 28]

we were really that bad, but we got better, and the team stuck together.

[C'viewTiger 242]

8 hours ago, yngwie1995 said:

I know our season record was bad, but after re-watching the last 3 (big) games (offense) of last season, we didn't look horrible.

Against UGA, we were driving, down 20-10, and we fumbled inside the 5 yard line. We end up losing 20-13.

Against bama, we were down 22-13 late in the fourth, went for it on 4th down, and the WR drops it (would have been a first down...hits him right in the hands)...ball game. Gives bama the short field, to go up 29-13.

Bama ended scoring a TD with a short amount of time left. However, I get the point. A lot of folks have been saying this throughout the off season. We had some key injuries but we're in the games.. key drops by the receivers and questionable play calling seemed to plague us all year last year.

 

[Tiger 8,818]

We were also a little snakebit. All of our RBs got hurt in some capacity in the first game except for Peyton Barber. Tray Matthews also got hurt in that game. Carl Lawson was out for half the year in the first half. We started the season off awesome with an interception but it went downhill quickly.

 

In addition to that, our play was filled with marks of an inexperienced team. Our guys didn't know how to win, as many of them had little to no game experience. Inexperienced teams generally lose the close games. When they mature and grow those close Ls turn to close Ws or just Ws in general. But the positive is that even with our youth we were in close games as opposed to being overmatched minus one game.

[Mike4AU 1,739]

AU was in every game except LSU.  That said, some of the play calling and roster management were head scratchers.  We will see this year if Gus is worth $4.7 mil.

[NoALtiger 3,849]

As with most things in life, time gives a little perspective and things usually aren't as bad as they seemed at the time. Last season was no different. 

To me, it was more frustration more than anything because, as noted, we were in most games and had tons of adversity on a variety of levels- that's just the facts. No need to make it more complicated than needed, we simply must avoid the injury bug as much as possible and limit the bone headed crap that can derail a season. 

[gravejd 3,269]

The reason last year seemed so bad is that we started the season as a top 10 team. We weren't terrible last year but we were a middle of the road SEC team at best. Not where we expected to be. Also, I think the fact that we struggled so bad on offense has really shaken the AU faithful. Offense was the 1 thing since Gus got here that we could depend on. We just knew if our D kept them under 30 we had a chance and Malzahn would figure out a way to get the offense going. Now that notion is gone...i think people are just a little unsure of what direction the program is going. Are we trending down like our record seems to show. Or was last year just a blimp and the year before that just a bad ending to an otherwise good season? I think everyone is holding their breath waiting to find the answer as we head into this season. 

[Rednilla 5,383]

2 minutes ago, gravejd said:

The reason last year seemed so bad is that we started the season as a top 10 team. We weren't terrible last year but we were a middle of the road SEC team at best. Not where we expected to be. Also, I think the fact that we struggled so bad on offense has really shaken the AU faithful. Offense was the 1 thing since Gus got here that we could depend on. We just knew if our D kept them under 30 we had a chance and Malzahn would figure out a way to get the offense going. Now that notion is gone...i think people are just a little unsure of what direction the program is going. Are we trending down like our record seems to show. Or was last year just a blimp and the year before that just a bad ending to an otherwise good season? I think everyone is holding their breath waiting to find the answer as we head into this season. 

Spot on.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Good conversation in this thread.

It's just all about the roster for me. Gus didn't forget how to call plays last season.

As some of us have agreed before, if you told me in early August last year that Duke would fail to produce and then implode, that Jeremy would throw 5 picks in the first 2 games and then get benched, that Jovon and Roc would spend most of the season on the bench, that our center- our CENTER- would get 2 drive killing false start penalties in MSU territory in a close game with Sean White taking the snaps, and that Carl Lawson would get injured immediately and be gone for much of the season... yeah, I would've predicted worse than what happened. 

The question for me isn't about game day coaching. It's about roster management. No coach would've been successful with last year's roster. Nick Saban wouldn't have, nor would have Urban Meyer, nor would have Jim Harbaugh. Not with our schedule. Now, should we be concerned that it ever got to that point? Maybe, but I feel like we're starting the season with a lot fewer roster problems than we did last season. We're more experienced where it matters most, except at positions where we weren't that talented anyway. In those spots, we have almost certainly upgraded the talent (looking at you, WRs and LBs). We got rid of our superstar malcontent *before* the season started. Maybe Gus is already learning from his mistakes. 

[AUIH1 1,515]

17 minutes ago, gravejd said:

The reason last year seemed so bad is that we started the season as a top 10 team. We weren't terrible last year but we were a middle of the road SEC team at best. Not where we expected to be. Also, I think the fact that we struggled so bad on offense has really shaken the AU faithful. Offense was the 1 thing since Gus got here that we could depend on. We just knew if our D kept them under 30 we had a chance and Malzahn would figure out a way to get the offense going. Now that notion is gone...i think people are just a little unsure of what direction the program is going. Are we trending down like our record seems to show. Or was last year just a blimp and the year before that just a bad ending to an otherwise good season? I think everyone is holding their breath waiting to find the answer as we head into this season. 

Well done. Totally agree. 

wde