Mercer 10 Positives

[War Knight 514]

Well, it's a weekly post regardless of my personal feelings towards our current team. So let's squeeze some positives out of that lemon of a game!

1. Jarrett Stidham can flat out throw a ball. While turnovers proved to be costly, our passing yardage is something we haven't seen in a while. Kudos to the staff on giving him some easy completions and working him to an efficient role for the team.

2. Kamryn Pettway - while I'm beyond flabbergasted as to why we wouldn't give our other backs carries, it's not like they have a redshirt, I am proud of Pettway. He's clearly only 30% out there but he still managed to carry the ball 34 times and showed he can run the Tumbling Tiger (wild cat) too.

3. Talent at receiver. We have a lot of issues to clear up with our receiving core but the potential is there. NCM, KD, RD, WH are all formidable targets. If Chip can get the boys running real and crisp routes we'll be alright 

4. Play calling improved, even if just by a little bit. I think that our game plan looking alright for the most part. A lot of that was overshadowed by execution and turnovers with no running game. Still, we were out in a lot more manageable positions this week with a change up in our predictability.

5. Darius James was at practice Sunday and his injury isn't near as bad as it had initially appeared. Hoping the O-Line continues to gel and starts opening some bigger holes.

6. Defense, even while at half speed, still looked very controlled and disciplined. Steele rotates the boys out so much that it's hard to keep track with who is in at any given time. They will critical moving forward while our offense continued to search for answers.

7. For some, the fact that we're 1/4 through the season should be comforting! (2-1) was a realistic guess by many at this point in the season. So it's not a complete end of the world. Next week will either bring all of us to the cliff or pull some of us away. We'll see.

8. Humor, I'll say the site is almost more entertaining during the negative times. In-fighting, doom and gloom v sunshine pumpers, the recruiting niche sweating what ramifications this will have, and the game thread. A lot of you guys are pretty dang funny when we're at our worst.

9. Our schedule is manageable coming up. Mizzou, as many not so politely pointed out to me, hasn't been lighting up the score board like they did in week one. Mississippi State way out-played themselves last week and likely blew their load. Ole Miss is in much worse shape than us and Alabama will demoralize them before playing us. Vanderbilt is manageable. Miss State gave a how to seminar on how to demolish LSU. So there's potential for us to grow as the season progresses.

10. I didn't buy season tickets this year .

[creed 1,629]

The thing that really stood out to me was the tackling by the dbs. Their form was exceptional.

[Linayus 676]

29 minutes ago, creed said:

The thing that really stood out to me was the tackling by the dbs. Their form was exceptional.

I know there has been a lot of discussion about the lack of forced turnovers by the defense - but tackling overall has improved greatly. I prefer that to turnovers any day!

[Gowebb11 9,309]

Derrick Browns deflected pass was a thing of beauty. I've also noticed Cowart, Big Cat, and Moultry playing hard. Our D will continue to be,salty and I think Fitzgerald better buckle up his chin strap in two weeks when Mrs St visits Jordan Hare.  WDE ?

[RunInRed 16,360]

1 hour ago, War Knight said:

I'll say the site is almost more entertaining during the negative times. In-fighting, doom and gloom v sunshine pumpers, the recruiting niche sweating what ramifications this will have, and the game thread. A lot of you guys are pretty dang funny when we're at our worst.

I'm not sure what this says about us as a collective community but you guys do sure keep things interesting. ?

[SumterAubie 3,031]

Among the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, we need to consider Auburn’s qb has played what? 8 games in his career. And 5 of those games were 2 years ago. Yes, Stidham played great at Baylor. However, just ask Johnson how much easier it is to play well off the bench than to be THE man.  Not to mention the OC has just concluded his 3^rd game with the team.

[Timeslider 6 269]

Thanks for the positive vibes!!!!!!!! 

[NCeagle 16]

Vandy game scares me. 2 different years , losses there = coach  (with new OC) FIRED : 2008, 2012.

[I_M4_AU 7,772]

When do we play Vandy?  I don't see it on our or their schedule.

[AUStew87 326]

4 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

When do we play Vandy?  I don't see it on our or their schedule.

This year we don't - Vandy drew bama and ole miss as their west opponents this year. 

[I_M4_AU 7,772]

9 minutes ago, AUStew87 said:

This year we don't - Vandy drew bama and ole miss as their west opponents this year. 

That's what I thought, the OP and another poster referenced the Vandy game.

[TitanTiger 20,471]

18 hours ago, Linayus said:

I know there has been a lot of discussion about the lack of forced turnovers by the defense - but tackling overall has improved greatly. I prefer that to turnovers any day!

Honestly, if anyone is complaining about our defense, they are really straining at gnats.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Positives 

1) being in Auburn

2) defense 

3) Stidham 

4) pass blocking was better

[djg0017 726]

Turnovers sucked but at the end of the day the offense played much better than the GaSo game and it was nowhere near the JSU fiasco of 2015.

[WFE12 9,191]

20 hours ago, War Knight said:

8. Humor, I'll say the site is almost more entertaining during the negative times. In-fighting, doom and gloom v sunshine pumpers, the recruiting niche sweating what ramifications this will have, and the game thread. A lot of you guys are pretty dang funny when we're at our worst.

Necessary evil..not even going to lie, it's entertaining man.

[kd4au 1,145]

Positives  THE DEFENSE .

[TigerFanAU 586]

22 hours ago, War Knight said:

turnovers proved to be costly

I am focusing on the turnovers more so than the score. The margin of victory would've been much higher against Mercer had we held onto the ball better. Malzahn mentioned they'd be doing ball-security drills this week, hope it shows up against Mizzou.