Upon Further Review - GSU Game

[StatTiger 3,188]

• Despite the two early turnovers by Jarrett Stidham, he managed to play well after throwing an interception. After tossing his pick, Stidham had a passer rating of 50.3. From that point on, he compiled a pass rating of 180.1, which would have surpassed 200 if not for two dropped passes.
   
• The defense was stellar Saturday, preventing the Eagles from converting a single 3rd down conversion. GSU went 0 for 15 on third down but an even more telling stat was the yardage gained on third down. Of their 15 third down situations, the Eagles needed to gain 132-yards combined to convert all 15 third down plays. They netted -14 yards on third down.
   
• 43.0% of Auburn's offensive snaps netted at least 5-yards, while GSU was held to 19.6% for the game.
   
• What made the defensive performance special last night was the performance despite the mass substitution. During the first half, GSU averaged 1.32 yards per play and during the second-half, it was 1.46 yards per snap.
   
• 38 of GSU's 56 offensive snaps netted 2-yards or less.
   
• 47.1% of Auburn's first down snaps netted 3-yards or less, while 41.2% resulted in 5-yards or more.
   
• Darius Slayton was the most targeted offensive player in the passing game with 9 passes thrown his way. Will Hastings was No. 2, targeted five times last night.
   
• 41.7% of Jarrett Stidham's pass attempts were within 5-yards of the line of scrimmage. He was only 3 of 8 in passing beyond 10-yards of the LOS, but three of those attempts were dropped passes.
   
• Kerryon Johnson and Kam Martin teamed up for 30 rush attempts for 272-yards last night. A closer look revealed 15 of their 30 rush attempts netted 3-yards or less.
   
• Auburn's defensive line accounted for 31 tackles Saturday night or 48.4% of the teams tackles. This was the most tackles combined by the DL during a game during the past seven seasons.
   
• Georgia Southern was held to 5.6 yards per possession.
   
• Auburn snapped an eleven game skid of no touchdown passes on first down against Georgia Southern.
   
• Three and out series on defense have occurred 33 percent more often under Kevin Steele than the two seasons before he arrived.
   
• Based on a rating formula that includes... yards per play, TD ratio, 1st down and 3rd down production, impact plays and strength of schedule, last night's performance ranked No.32 from 2009-2017.
   
• Auburn has now recorded 28 games of 300-yards rushing since Gus Malzahn arrived in 2009. His offense has now accounted for over 1/3 of Auburn's 300-yard rushing games the last 60 seasons. Auburn under Malzahn's offense is 27-1 in games when eclipsing the 300-yard mark. (The lone loss was to TAMU in 2014)
   
• During the last 22 years of Auburn football, the Tigers have allowed an average of 5 tackles for loss per game against teams from non Power-5 conferences. Auburn allowed 8 against Georgia Southern which is a red flag for the Clemson game. Clemson has led the nation in tackles for loss the past 4 seasons.
   
• He might not be an "every down back" but Kam Martin needs a role in the offense this season. He currently has 61 career offensive touches for 8.49 yards per play.

War Eagle!

[wareagleguy 1,393]

Thanks Stat, good as always! WDE! 

[bigbird 60,368]

2 hours ago, StatTiger said:

 

• 47.1% of Auburn's first down snaps netted 3-yards or less, while 41.2% resulted in 5-yards or more.

This stat bothers me the most. 

[johnnyAU 3,630]

18 minutes ago, bigbird said:

47.1% of Auburn's first down snaps netted 3-yards or less, while 41.2% resulted in 5-yards or more.

Yep, the ole run it up the middle after a first down for no yardage or a loss. That and the predictable reliance on running on 1st down rather than passing. Drives me insane, and I'm pretty sure Venables has a bead on it. 

[AUpreacherman22 3,876]

2 minutes ago, johnnyAU said:

Yep, the ole run it up the middle after a first down for no yardage or a loss. That and the predictable reliance on running on 1st down rather than passing. Drives me insane, and I'm pretty sure Venables has a bead on it. 

Yes. I am hoping, along with most of my AU brethren, that this was done intentionally to "not show our hand" to Clemson.  There were a few new wrinkles on O, but many of the same tendencies we have grown so tired of the last few years.  If we don't break those tendencies we will have a very tough time against those 4 solid defenses on our schedule starting Saturday vs Clemson.  

Also the tackle for loss stat was concerning. I think it was higher because it was week 1 and the OL clearly hadn't fully gelled yet. That's got to be 100X better against Clemson who probably has the best DL we'll see all year.  

[kd4au 1,145]

Lots of positives in there but as I said in another thread it looks like the O-Line is the weak link on this team. Hand needs to get to work, if they don't improve we won't  beat Clemson. 8 tackles for loss against GS don't cut it for me.

[WDEKC 187]

I'd be interested to see the difference in negative or short 1st down gains between the 1st and 2nd half. I thought the OL got better as the game went on.

Edited September 5, 2017 by WDEKC

[Auhud08 596]

James got worked a few times by GSU. He got ripped 2x by #41. Has to get better hands

[djg0017 726]

Tackling KJ and Martin for a loss is a different story than tackling Pettway for a loss. Those runs right up the middle play out a lot better with him. Dude has too much momentum to stop most of the time. Usually what I consider "bad" runs for KP are 2 or 3 yarders -- because they aren't common for him. I agree that we shouldn't have had so many negative and < 3yd runs, but we were missing our best player who excels at breaking through DL arm tackles.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

I think every Au fan on this planet wants to see what the offense will look like against Clemson. We are all about to find out if what we witnessed last Saturday was an aberration or  a sign of things to come. 

Other than the play calling, JS looked like a guy that had not played in a few years (nervous in the pocket) but he will get better over time, the OL had a few hiccups, and the WRs (other than Hastings) had a pretty miserable game. Poor Slayton had the worst game of his life. Hopefully he redeems himself 10 fold this weekend. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

The defense is gonna keep us from getting blown out vs 99% of teams. Unfortunately, that 1% that could is someone we're playing week 2 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

I just read in another thread that Slayton is hurt? I don't remember that...

[WFE12 9,191]

Offense will not differ much from saturday's game much to our disappointment. Just got to rely on the o-line to hold up.

[AuburnNTexas 7,128]

3 hours ago, bigbird said:

This stat bothers me the most. 

It was due to the Vanilla play calling. To often everybody in the stadium including the defense knew where the 1st down play was going. Also KP not being there impacted that as he has the potential to pick up and extra yard or two every time he is tackled.

[G8orH8or 61]

6 hours ago, StatTiger said:

Kerryon Johnson and Kam Martin teamed up for 30 rush attempts for 272-yards last night. A closer look revealed 15 of their 30 rush attempts netted 3-yards or less.

That wont beat many power 5 conference teams. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

7 hours ago, StatTiger said:

the Eagles needed to gain 132-yards combined to convert all 15 third down plays.

They averaged 3rd and 9? WOW. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 hours ago, johnnyAU said:

Yep, the ole run it up the middle after a first down for no yardage or a loss. That and the predictable reliance on running on 1st down rather than passing. Drives me insane, and I'm pretty sure Venables has a bead on it. 

Interesting thing is, I don't believe they ever stopped us on that last week. As I recall, we got no less than 3 yards anytime we ran it. I'm still not a fan, and I hope we ran it so much because we knew it didn't matter against Ga Southern and we wanted to give Clemson false video about what we were really going to show them. None the less, the three yards or less, last week, was 3 yards most of the time.

[looney 794]

7 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Interesting thing is, I don't believe they ever stopped us on that last week. As I recall, we got no less than 3 yards anytime we ran it. I'm still not a fan, and I hope we ran it so much because we knew it didn't matter against Ga Southern and we wanted to give Clemson false video about what we were really going to show them. None the less, the three yards or less, last week, was 3 yards most of the time.

And several long gains - including KM's first TD, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong and that wasn't a first-down run-up-the-gut that broke open). KJ may have had one, too.

Edited September 5, 2017 by bryanlooney

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Just now, bryanlooney said:

And several long gains - including KM's first TD, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong and that wasn't a first-down run-up-the-gut that broke open). KJ may have had one, too.

No... that was the first play of the drive and was a very different blocking scheme then the first down, up the gut runs we do after making a first down.

[Gowebb11 9,309]

4 hours ago, bigbird said:

This stat bothers me the most. 

Of course it didn't help that our starting RB decided to get himself suspended. 

[bigbird 60,368]

1 minute ago, Gowebb11 said:

Of course it didn't help that our starting RB decided to get himself suspended. 

True, but a lot of it was missed blocks, unsustained blocks, or just bad play calling. 

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

50 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

They averaged 3rd and 9? WOW. 

Not quite, but

Yeah. WOW.

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 minutes ago, AUld fAUx@ said:

Not quite, but

Yeah. WOW.

It's true that it's a game of inches, but I didn't mind rounding up 7.2 of them this time

[gr82b4au 5,568]

4 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

No... that was the first play of the drive and was a very different blocking scheme then the first down, up the gut runs we do after making a first down.

After KM broke loose for 60 yards or so, the very next play we ran him up the middle for a loss of a yard. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

19 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

After KM broke loose for 60 yards or so, the very next play we ran him up the middle for a loss of a yard. 

Really?  I totally don't remember that.  No surprise, however, I bet he was tired.