Things I Think I Saw.....

[JMR 2,118]

Things I Think I Saw…..

About three years ago, I started doing this little “column” after each Auburn football game. The idea was to just write down “observations” based on seeing a game once, whether live or on tape/DVR. I’ve always been a little surprised at how we can see something different each time we watch something over and over. I’ve watched a fair amount of football film/tape/DVR recordings over the years, and sometimes it’s hard to believe how I “thought” I saw something happen, but after looking at it again, I changed my mind. It isn’t practical for me to do that anymore, so I just write down my first impressions, and because of that, I decided to call this “Things I Think I Saw.”

On last night’s game vs Clemson….The Auburn defense was even better than I expected, especially the DL and linebackers. There were some mistakes for sure, including a few missed tackles, guys getting pushed out of their rush lanes, and so on. But overall, the defense was pleasantly solid against one of the better offenses around in terms of skill position talent.

The offense was almost as big a disappointment as the defense was a surprise. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more disorganized, poorly planned game at any level, be it middle school, high school, or college.

It’s almost foolish to try to critique the performance of the AU quarterbacks, as none were given an opportunity to get into the flow of the game, or establish any kind of rhythm or continuity. With all that preamble, here are some things I “think” I saw….
 

• DeShaun Davis was possibly the biggest surprise of the game. He played more downhill than any Auburn linebacker I’ve seen since at least Josh Bynes. And he brought the wood whenever he had a chance. He missed a couple of tackles, but I thought for a guy getting his first game action, he was outstanding.

• I saw flashes of the things I’ve heard about Darrell Williams. He is surprisingly athletic, and is much better in coverage than I expected from his body type. A very intelligent player.

• The Auburn offensive line, both individually and collectively, was as bad as I can remember it being in several years. IMO, nobody on the OL played well. Robert Leff did not play like a legitimate starter in this conference. His inability to pass protect was a huge factor in the game. Austin Golson looked very passive and passed up more opportunities to hit a defender than I could count without spending hours studying the tape. Alex Kozan was awkward on his pulls, and Braden Smith was awkward, period. Xavier Dampeer got man-handled most of the night. Kozan, Smith and Dampeer are three players I was expecting big things from this season. I think most of us had questions about Golson and Leff, and some of those questions were unfortunately answered.How an OL coach with Herb Hand’s reputation could put that group out on the field in a big game is a question I’ve asked myself since early in the game.

• For having had an entire off season to prepare and plan, the early offensive plays in the game were extremely disappointing. We have Kerryon Johnson, Bubba Pettway, and Chandler Cox available, and our early plays are designed to get the ball to Stanton Truitt?

• The seemingly haphazard shuffling of quarterbacks will always be a mystery for me. The old expression, “If you have more than one QB, you don’t have any” has never seemed more accurate. It seemed that Malzahn was drawing numbers out of a jar like a bingo caller on Saturday night at The Home….whatever number comes up, that’s who’s playing. Even if one of the three had some momentum going, out he came, and in went someone else. In that vein, the presence of JFIII in the game seemed to sort of “freeze” the Clemson defense. But he was replaced for no apparent reason, and Jeremy Johnson promptly threw an interception.

• I liked the aggressiveness our secondary played with vs Clemson’s passing game. On the other hand, some of the things DBs get away with in the NFL, officials don’t let slide in college. Some teams are allowed to get away with holding onto a receiver, but Auburn is not one of those, and will not be.

• Clemson’s Mike Williams was a physical mismatch for pretty much all of our defensive backs. He’s also very talented, and Deshaun Watson is exceptionally accurate. All things considered, I thought Auburn did a pretty decent job of coverage, other than vs Williams. Limiting Tight End Jordan Leggett was a solid accomplishment IMO.

• Daniel Carlson was even sharper than usual. I’d heard throughout fall practice that he was missing more kicks than usual, but it appears he got back into his form in time for the game.

• I was disappointed in the blocking of the wide receivers on the perimeter. I frankly expected better execution of that task from Kodi Burns’ group.

• I am impressed with WR Will Hastings. He was not used a great deal, with the quarterback management and the poor pass protection, but he is one of those guys who “just gets open” and catches the ball. Hopefully someone will get the offense in general ironed out, and Hastings will be a factor going forward.

• We lined up a few times with a tight end, in Jalen Harris. I don’t know what kind of receiver he is, but he’s got a long way to go in the blocking department. He didn’t exactly overwhelm my definition of “physical."

• I thought there was an excess of “cuteness” in the AU offense, and at least one “trick play” was actually so silly as to be embarrassing. The one where all the offensive linemen kind of run to the middle of the formation and some kind of play action pass goes to the running back behind the line of scrimmage. I apologize for not describing it better, but I don’t know how. I have no problem at all with trick plays, but they need to be well-designed and called at just the right time. Coming off your own goal line is not that time IMO. Ours resulted in a loss, by the way.

• Much like last season, the “coordination” of Auburn’s offense from the sideline seemed awkward and clumsy. Numerous times we were either called for delay of game or rushed to get lined up and run the play before the clock ran down.

• I don’t know if having Herb Hand in the press box helped or not, but if it did indeed help, the results were apparently minuscule enough to be mostly indiscernible. Our running game never looked sharp to me.

• It was extremely gratifying to see the AU defense stuff Clemson multiple times in short yardage situations. And despite the poor offensive performance, the AU offense was more successful on short yardage plays (the JJ run on 4th and two at the goal line notwithstanding) than last year.

• The sugar huddle breaking with an unbalanced line would seem to be something opposing defenses would have figured out by now, but it worked again as far as getting Clemson misaligned. Unfortunately, the OL didn’t block well enough to get the ball into the end zone.

Where we go from here is up to the players and coaches. It looks like our defense may be good enough to keep us in games. If our offensive staff can figure out what they want to do/be, we have a chance to get through these next three games and be on our way to improving over the season. But, if there is more of what we saw on the offensive side last night, it’s going to be a long season, and there will likely be a new play-caller next year.

For the most part, the effort was there against a very talented Clemson team. My feeling is that the players deserved better than they got from “management.”  Let’s hope everyone is on the same page by next week.

[tombigbeetiger 223]

very well written and very true

[doug3020 842]

Solid post  

[cole256 17,039]

Great stuff, makes me feel better as far as I'm not crazy

[EagleFlight34 101]

Very good analysis that seems to affirm what most all of us thought we saw. Thanks, Coach!

[mikeholiday 132]

Wr blocking for some reason has not been a strength the past 2 years. Sucks especially with how many screens gus loves to run. Liked the work Slayton did on that one screen pass to Marcus though. Here is to hoping some of younger bigger guys like Kyle Davis and NCM step up in that regard. 

[AUBwins 10,064]

@JMR thank you for joining this board.  I have enjoyed your posts and insight thus far

[AUTIGERinSC 69]

perfect. I have to agree, I have never seen such a clown show we called an offense. I used past tense in hopes that Gus has enough sense to that crap and get back to playing football. I also think having so many trick plays has to hurt chemistry. It would be nice just to line up and run or pass the ball without all the smoke and mirrors and just good execution. 

[mikeholiday 132]

Do you go back and watch the games? I can't imagine picking up so many details live lol

Definitely impressed at the level of detail 

[CR 2,427]

No sugar coating in that report. Thanks for an excellent summary. It really was as bad as most of us thought.   

[RunInRed 16,360]

49 minutes ago, JMR said:

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more disorganized, poorly planned game at any level, be it middle school, high school, or college.

Could not have summed it up better.

[AU-24 3,063]

Couldn't agree more with your quote below. I was surprised it hasn't been discussed more. In a six point game, these questionable calls were huge!

"On the other hand, some of the things DB’s get away with in the NFL, officials don’t let slide in college. Some teams are allowed to get away with holding onto a receiver, but Auburn is not one of those, and will not be"

Why is Auburn not one of these, and will probably never be?

[Tigermike 3,007]

I'm not blaming the refs for the loss but I think I saw Carl Lawson being held several time and no flag was thrown.

[ScottsboroAuburnFan 462]

I swear the Clemson WR's pushed off on 99% of the catches. That's why I was pissed but don't let us effin touch them or its a PI!!

[RunInRed 16,360]

Also, I need to go back and watch but the comments regarding Braden Smith surprises me.  Again, just knee-jerk w/o closely looking at film.

[AU64 10,122]

6 minutes ago, AU-24 said:

Couldn't agree more with your quote below. I was surprised it hasn't been discussed more. In a six point game, these questionable calls were huge!

"On the other hand, some of the things DB’s get away with in the NFL, officials don’t let slide in college. Some teams are allowed to get away with holding onto a receiver, but Auburn is not one of those, and will not be"

Why is Auburn not one of these, and will probably never be?

Not sure why we don't get away with it but seems that Williams was quite adept at making a little push at the end to keep separation between himself and the defender....and Renfrew put his hand on the helmet of the AU defender just before that TD pass arrived.   Seems we might be missing something.

[EagleFlight34 101]

3 minutes ago, ScottsboroAuburnFan said:

I swear the Clemson WR's pushed off on 99% of the catches. That's why I was pissed but don't let us effin touch them or its a PI!!

I made the same comment during the game. Wide receivers are going to push off, and I don't blame them for hand fighting and whatnot. We certainly don't want the nitpicking calls, but a few times the push offs were just blatant.

[dilligas 581]

I think I saw what you thought you saw.  Wish we both saw better offensive strategy, play calling and execution.  Glad we saw better defense than we've seen in awhile. Something we can build on for sure.

[chimesAU 89]

On your point regarding Jalen Harris' blocking: He is not and will not be a blocking TE. I've been saying this since watching him numerous times in HS. He routinely gets man handled by guys much smaller than him. Just not a very physical guy.

[AU-24 3,063]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Not sure why we don't get away with it but seems that Williams was quite adept at making a little push at the end to keep separation between himself and the defender....and Renfrew put his hand on the helmet of the AU defender just before that TD pass arrived.   Seems we might be missing something.

Exactly! In a six point game, those are huge calls/no-calls!

[creed 1,629]

7 minutes ago, RunInRed said:

Also, I need to go back and watch but the comments regarding Braden Smith surprises me.  Again, just knee-jerk w/o closely looking at film.

He did not have a good game. But it was a collective effort on the oline. 

[AUIH1 1,515]

Great post and I agree will all of it.

wde

[AUsince72 11,084]

To @JMR, I just want to say thank you for your even-handed and professional analysis.  I look forward to the next podcast sir. 

War Eagle!

[AUIH1 1,515]

3 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

I try never to blame officials myself (regardless of the temptation) but to those referencing the questionable ref calls, Rod & Stan "reminded" everyone several times during the game that it was an ACC crew.  TIFWIW...

Please don't go down this road.  You are better than that.  The refs did not coordinate our O. 

 

wde

[tigerman1186 537]

What is mind-boggling to me is every team has scripted the 15-25 plays of the game....I am curious if we scripted the plays and if so did they have it for the 3 QB's to be involved within the time they did???? If not, then as mentioned earlier...there were a lot of BINGO numbers called, but maybe we would have better luck running bingo numbers....