Upon Further Review - Clemson Game

[StatTiger 3,188]

Upon Further Review:

• Auburn took 71 offensive snaps against Clemson with a quarterback change nearly 40% of the time from the previous play. This includes the snaps taken by Chandler Cox and Kerryon Johnson. The massive substitutions at the QB position did more to hurt the offense than help. It also prevented Auburn from achieving tempo or rhythm.
• Auburn's lack of offensive identity resulted in only 3 of 17 third down situations being converted. The average distance needed to convert against Clemson was 8.4 yards. During 10 of the 17 conversions, Auburn needed at least 7-yards to convert.
• Kerryon Johnson was Auburn's most consistent performer offense with 94-yards on 23 carries and 1 touchdown.
• Stanton Truitt finished the game with 4 rush attempts. Kamryn Pettway and Kam Martin totaled zero. Strange scheming for an offense that is built around a strong running game.
• Speaking of the running game, Auburn rushed for nearly 98% of their rushing totals during the second half.
• Regarding consistency, Auburn's offense produced 5-yards or more only 28.2 percent of the time. Last season the Auburn offense produced a 5-yard play or better 41.5 percent of the time. On defense, Auburn held Clemson to 37.2 percent, with last season's defense hitting at 44.4 percent for the season.
• The Auburn defense allowed 5.42 yards per play during the first half and 4.74 yards per play during the second half. Minus the 34-yard pass surrendered during the 4th quarter, Auburn's defense allowed 3.8 yards per play during the second half on the remaining 34 snaps defended.
• During the first half, 37.2 percent of Clemson's offensive snaps were held to 2-yards or less. During the second half, it increased to 45.7 percent. Another indicator Auburn's defense continued to improve as the game progressed.
• Last night against Clemson, 69.2 percent of Auburn's first down snaps resulted in 3-yards or less. During the 2015 season, Auburn's offense gained 3-yards or less on first down, 51.2 percent of the time.
• Auburn averaged 3.3 yards per rush on first down.
• Of Auburn's seven impact plays on offense, Marcus Davis was involved in three and Sean White was involved in five.
• Auburn attempted 4 passes on first down and 14 on third down against Clemson. This is not a winning formula for success, with too much pressure being placed on an already questionable quarterback situation.
• Once again, the Auburn pass offense consisted of screens, outs and deep balls. The middle of the field was left wide open by the Clemson defense. Sean White's 4th down interception came with no passing options over the middle. A drag or crossing route would have been a great option there as well as other moments during the contest.
• Ten different players were targeted in the Auburn pass-offense with Marcus Davis leading the way with 9 passes thrown his way. Will Hastings was the second most targeted receiver.
• One of the keys to success on defense was field position. Of Clemson's 12 possessions, 10 of them began at least 75-yards away from the Auburn end zone with their average field position beginning at the own 24-yard line.
• As bad as the offense was last night, there was improvement during the second half. Auburn gained 38-yards on 23 snaps during the first half  (1.7 YPP)and 224-yards on 48 snaps during the second half (4.7 YPP).
• Auburn's offense produced only 3 first downs during the first half and 14 during the second half.
• Auburn struggled in short-yardage situations last night, going 3 of 7 in situations requiring 2-yards or less to convert (42.9%). Last season Auburn converted 74.7 percent for the season.
• Clemson had 13 tackles for loss to Auburn, a strong indicator Clemson won the battle up front.
• Auburn's defense failed to register a sack but totaled 9 QB hurries.
   

War Eagle!

[japantiger 4,051]

Thanks Stat...I guess you put this out there since scoring a 0 on the offensive scorecard wasn't punishment enough.  Just when I didn't think I could feel worse about the season, I read these three stats:

• Auburn took 71 offensive snaps against Clemson with a quarterback change nearly 40% of the time from the previous play.  So it really was as big a cluster as it looked....
• Auburn attempted 4 passes on first down and 14 on third down against Clemson. This is not a winning formula for success, with too much pressure being placed on an already questionable quarterback situation. How do you spell predictable?  GUS
• Pick any offensive number above, it really was worse than last year...

 

[AUpreacherman22 3,885]

Thanks Stat!  

The good news is, 1. surely it can't be any worse than that on offense. 

And 2. Man that AU defense looked good!

[steeleagle 2,945]

The one thing I thought Gus' offense was key on was tempo and fast pacing. He always has talked about this during his coaching here as OC or as HC.

SO my question is, and i wish someone would ask him this, How can you keep tempo at a good pace or even a faster pace when you are changing out the QB 40% of the time? I remember one series where JJ had to call a time out after coming in, because their was confusion because the play was coming in late or just on who should be in on that play. THEN, on this same drive, again confusion on a play call, and JJ could not get a TO so we were penalized 5 yards. I'm not even going to mention the 5 yard penalty because we had too many players on the field, when they were trying to decide which WRs should be in on a play.

So Stat, how can any of the PTBs in AU, watch that game, and come away with a good positive understanding of what CGM is doing with his offense? To me, CGM thinks he HAS to make up a deficiency at QB by having PACKAGES for EACH QB, in order to have a succesful offense, but in the end, so far, he is making his offense worse than last years...Amazing...

[RunInRed 16,406]

Here's the thing I love about stats ... they are objective ... As they say: they are what they are ... the numbers don't lie.  

Opinions are like ... well ... 

Good stuff, Stuart, as usual.  Thanks!

[SumterAubie 3,031]

I long for the days when passes were thrown on first down. Passes that were quick hitters like slants, and button hooks. Where the offense had a TE and utilized him. 

And our fullback did not pirouette in the backfield.

[AUsince72 11,084]

8 minutes ago, SumterAubie said:

I long for the days when passes were thrown on first down. Passes that were quick hitters like slants, and button hooks. Where the offense had a TE and utilized him. 

And our fullback did not pirouette in the backfield.

Add to that, when 1 QB trotted onto the field, developed a repoir & rhythm, and played the whole game until he proved he couldn't handle it.

[Win4AU 4,052]

A team improves the most from week one to week two so lets see how much better we look against an inferior opponent. 

[api1957 1,783]

36 minutes ago, Win4AU said:

A team improves the most from week one to week two so lets see how much better we look against an inferior opponent. 

We said that last year too.

[japantiger 4,051]

I just had both the saddest and most comical conversation with my Mom on Saturdays game....my 86 year old Mom.  The conversation started with her  heaping praise on the defense.  Then it turned to a 15 minute takedown of everything that happened on offense...specific drives where momentum was killed...specific play calls that were baffling....

Now I admit, my Mom is a shrewd football analyst.  86 years.....A cheerleader in the 40s, raised 3 boys one of whom played at Auburn, 2 grandkids at D1 level college and one played in the NFL and when shes able shes even seen two of her grwat grandsons play PopWarner.  She has seen a lot of football over the years...but, I think you can understand both the funny and sad parts of this....if she could see the lunacy of our offense, why can't a bunch of guys who are paid collectively about $7m a year see it?

 

How does Gus face this team?  What is his boss saying to him today?  How do you recover from something this screwed up and amateurish?  Who's his replacement?  Can we finally get rid of Jacobs now?  Will Waffle House stock plummet?  Can Gus join CGC at NC?  Where is Tony Franklin?  I need a scotch. ...

[ACT1ger 8]

"Sean White earned the starting QB position." -CGM a little over a week ago

"Sean White started the game." -CGM on Sat. night after the game

What percentage of snaps did our "starting QB" receive?

Your stats show that rarely were any of our QBs put in a good position to succeed- throwing early in the downs and actually across the LOS, etc.

[ACT1ger 8]

Found information in another post. Knew it looked bad but didn't know how bad until in black and white.

Starting QB got 7 plays in the 1st half and never played more than 8 consecutive plays!  No way to establish any rhythm and forget about pace. 

[aucanucktiger 1,791]

Changing our name to stat&opiniontiger? That's cool, just don't hold yourself out as an "only the facts" poster if you're adding opinion without objective backup like how much alternating underachieving QBs "disrupts" the offense. You have no idea if that made bad execution worse or mitigated by variety what would otherwise have been a 4 interception night for a trio of tanking QBs. I got yer stat&opinion right here: unranked AU plays poorly on Oline & O execution in general but still loses to #2 by only 6 pts, throwing into the end zone to attempt the win as time expired.

Edited September 6, 2016 by aucanucktiger

[StatTiger 3,188]

8 hours ago, aucanucktiger said:

Changing our name to stat&opiniontiger? That's cool, just don't hold yourself out as an "only the facts" poster if you're adding opinion without objective backup like how much alternating underachieving QBs "disrupts" the offense. You have no idea if that made bad execution worse or mitigated by variety what would otherwise have been a 4 interception night for a trio of tanking QBs. I got yer stat&opinion right here: unranked AU plays poorly on Oline & O execution in general but still loses to #2 by only 6 pts, throwing into the end zone to attempt the win as time expired.

It is a message board which means it is all opinion. I guess everyone needs to add "opinion" to the names they post under.

[AUsince72 11,084]

10 minutes ago, StatTiger said:

It is a message board which means it is all opinion. I guess everyone needs to add "opinion" to the names they post under.

I have found that that actually does help sometimes....

[AuburnGrad97 37]

17 hours ago, Win4AU said:

A team improves the most from week one to week two so lets see how much better we look against an inferior opponent. 

After what I saw this weekend, we may not have too many "inferior" opponents this season. At least not offensively, that is!

[AuburnGrad97 37]

17 hours ago, api1957 said:

We said that last year too.

It's kind of become our mantra every season, lately!

[api1957 1,783]

12 minutes ago, AuburnGrad97 said:

It's kind of become our mantra every season, lately!

Yep. Fool me once (2014)...fool me twice (2015)...not fooling this guy this year. I've been hearing things but can't back them up and we don't do rumors here. All I know is the problem ain't Rhett. I used to think so but it ain't.

[Woodstock Tiger 131]

11 hours ago, aucanucktiger said:

Changing our name to stat&opiniontiger? That's cool, just don't hold yourself out as an "only the facts" poster if you're adding opinion without objective backup like how much alternating underachieving QBs "disrupts" the offense. You have no idea if that made bad execution worse or mitigated by variety what would otherwise have been a 4 interception night for a trio of tanking QBs. I got yer stat&opinion right here: unranked AU plays poorly on Oline & O execution in general but still loses to #2 by only 6 pts, throwing into the end zone to attempt the win as time expired.

That's another "almost" victory for AU.  How many of those does AU have in the last few years?  Gus doesn't get paid for moral victories (which he seems to be pointing to (see his comments after the Bama game last year where he said "AU shoulda hung 60 on them".)  The Wouldacouldashoulda is all fine and good, but bottom line, he's in charge of this team, and firmly in charge of the personnel decisions, and there is plenty of analysis outside of here that seem to agree with Stat's assertion with regard to the goofy QB rotation Saturday night.  And judging from the boo's in the crowd which were evident on TV as a certain QB kept coming into the game, many AU fans agree with this assertion as well.   

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/gus-malzahn-fired-hot-seat-fire-clemson-quarterback-rotation-score-coaches-replace-090416

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/auburnauthority/2016/09/04/malzahns-qb-roulette-flops-no-2-clemson-hangs-19-13/89859006/

http://sports.usatoday.com/2016/09/04/au-stop-the-qb-merrygoround-i-want-to-get-off/

Even former AU players were questioning it.  (See Ben Leard and Takeo Spikes twitter feeds during the game).  Popular analysts around the football universe were eviscerating Gus during the game.  It's easy to find, I've just given a sample of opinions from a quick google search. 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Woodstock Tiger

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 hour ago, AuburnGrad97 said:

After what I saw this weekend, we may not have too many "inferior" opponents this season. At least not offensively, that is!

The good news is, if our D can hold Clemson to 19, imagine what it can do to some of the offenses we saw in the SEC this week.  I wouldn't be surprised to see us pitch a couple of shutouts this season.  Then we can just let Legatron do the rest  

[StatTiger 3,188]

12 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

The good news is, if our D can hold Clemson to 19, imagine what it can do to some of the offenses we saw in the SEC this week.  I wouldn't be surprised to see us pitch a couple of shutouts this season.  Then we can just let Legatron do the rest  

Man it was nice to see the defense play the way they did against Clemson but I'm not completely sold. We could not get much pressure on the QB without blitzing and we only had 3 tackles for loss. With that being said, I do believe this could be the best defense Auburn has fielded since 2006.

[AUsince72 11,084]

27 minutes ago, StatTiger said:

Man it was nice to see the defense play the way they did against Clemson but I'm not completely sold. We could not get much pressure on the QB without blitzing and we only had 3 tackles for loss. With that being said, I do believe this could be the best defense Auburn has fielded since 2006.

I thought that initially as well, about the lack of pressure. However, I started wondering if maybe it was more of a "gameplan" to make sure the rush didn't over-pursue and let DW escape outside and kill them with his legs.  I know that in recent history mobile QB's have been a killer against AU's D...  He was not on Saturday night.  Aside from that one killer run near the end to get the first down (which was still only 8-9 yards vs 50 yards) he had to beat AU with his arm.

You would know more than me, for sure, but is that possible?  If so, I thought it rather genius because all in all, if it weren't for 175 yards gained on that danged back-shoulder throw to Williams, and Gallman was pretty good too, DW did nothing else that I would call "great" against Auburn's D.

Edited September 6, 2016 by AUsince72

[StatTiger 3,188]

17 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

I thought that initially as well, about the lack of pressure. However, I started wondering if maybe it was more of a "gameplan" to make sure the rush didn't over-pursue and let DW escape outside and kill them with his legs.  I know that in recent history mobile QB's have been a killer against AU's D...  He was not on Saturday night.  Aside from that one killer run near the end to get the first down (which was still only 8-9 yards vs 50 yards) he had to beat AU with his arm.

You would know more than me, for sure, but is that possible?  If so, I thought it rather genius because all in all, if it weren't for 175 yards gained on that danged back-shoulder throw to Williams, and Gallman was pretty good too, DW did nothing else that I would call "great" against Auburn's D.

Very astute observation regarding the containment.

[au_bsci_04 407]

Over pursue and get gashed by a mobile QB. Our gameplan is going to similar for aTm, Ole Miss, etc. Look at what Kelly did to FSU last night (1st half) and what Francois did to Ole Miss (2nd half).

I would expect our sack count to be down for the year.

Edited September 6, 2016 by au_bsci_04

[AUIH1 1,515]

1 hour ago, AUsince72 said:

I thought that initially as well, about the lack of pressure. However, I started wondering if maybe it was more of a "gameplan" to make sure the rush didn't over-pursue and let DW escape outside and kill them with his legs.  I know that in recent history mobile QB's have been a killer against AU's D...  He was not on Saturday night.  Aside from that one killer run near the end to get the first down (which was still only 8-9 yards vs 50 yards) he had to beat AU with his arm.

You would know more than me, for sure, but is that possible?  If so, I thought it rather genius because all in all, if it weren't for 175 yards gained on that danged back-shoulder throw to Williams, and Gallman was pretty good too, DW did nothing else that I would call "great" against Auburn's D.

Used up all of my "likes" but I liked this.

 

wde