What is the most pivotal game this season?

[McLoofus 35,182]

11 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

I don’t know what happened when Iggy intercepted Mond’s pass in the A&M game, but somebody got inspired on offense.

Could only happen at Auburn. Where a converted WR in his first year at cornerback could save our offensive guru head coach's job and jump start his offense with one play. 

 

[aujeff11 6,243]

 

14 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

That 3rd loss knocked us out.  

Which is exactly what I said.

Yet you said....

1 hour ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

If you think that a 3 loss team will be in the playoff discussion year after year then I can't help you

Which renders this:

 

15 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

my reading skills are just fine

false 

[aujeff11 6,243]

16 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Pretty much fired mid-season.

Yet he wasn’t.

[keesler 5,924]

46 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Keep hearing about the Miss St game over and over. Folks don't realize what the locker room was like. It was a mess. Was a mess for most of the season after LSU. No leadership from anyone, including the coaches. No one on offense knew who was doing what. Fly by the seat of their pants. The D players could see this.  Left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Told it was part of the reason that a lot of the players came back. To right that wrong. 

I don't doubt you one bit WDE, but that right there ^^ pisses me off.

AU had a veteran coaching staff and for those clowns to lose the locker room and provide no leadership or direction for those players is flat out unacceptable with a HC in his 6th year.  

 

 

[BigWhiskey91 632]

48 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Keep hearing about the Miss St game over and over. Folks don't realize what the locker room was like. It was a mess. Was a mess for most of the season after LSU. No leadership from anyone, including the coaches. No one on offense knew who was doing what. Fly by the seat of their pants. The D players could see this.  Left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Told it was part of the reason that a lot of the players came back. To right that wrong. 

For anyone here to say that the D was the main reason for AU's record last year is just plain stupid. As dumb as can be. Sure the D didn't play as well as they should or could have but the O damn sure didn't help them much at all.

Yeah the LSU loss was brutal. I still hold that had we defeated them, we don’t lose to Miss State or Tennessee. Brutal loss that lingered on. Felt like we were gonna lose the team like 2012 and thankfully that never happened.

If what I heard that offseason was correct, it sounded like many folks weren’t impressed with how Stidham was leaning to the NFL no matter how 2018 went. So when the team began to struggle it felt like he was checked out which killed morale. At least that piece is no longer in play for 2019.

[aujeff11 6,243]

3 minutes ago, keesler said:

I don't doubt you one bit WDE, but that right there ^^ pisses me off.

AU had a veteran coaching staff and for those clowns to lose the locker room and provide no leadership or direction for those players is flat out unacceptable with a HC in his 6th year.  

 

 

I think there may be some truth to it. Even the most stubborn skeptic could see post LSU that the team and coaching staff seemed to be going through the motions for the rest of the season.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

15 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Yet he wasn’t.

[McLoofus 35,182]

6 minutes ago, keesler said:

I don't doubt you one bit WDE, but that right there ^^ pisses me off.

AU had a veteran coaching staff and for those clowns to lose the locker room and provide no leadership or direction for those players is flat out unacceptable with a HC in his 6th year.  

Most of the veteran coaches and players were on the side of the ball that was holding its own through halftime. They'd been providing leadership and direction for a few seasons now, despite only occasionally getting any help from their counterparts across the LOS. Their leadership and direction probably has a lot to do with 3 NFL DLs all coming back for another year.

The most veteran coach on the offensive side was the one whose unit was performing the worst. The 2nd-most veteran coach was in charge of a position we don't use. The 3rd-most veteran coach was job hunting 2-3 years ago and is no longer in that position. I think maybe our head coach is now the 3rd-most veteran guy? Anyway, not sure where our OC fell on the totem pole, but it's not like he was given much say anyway. He's gone now. And has the WR coach turned 30 yet?

[ellitor 33,091]

15 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

Now that's brilliance right there my friends

Could only come from a Bird brain.

[abw0004 10,110]

1 hour ago, AUDevil said:

We had 2 offensive starters transfer mid season...I'd say it was a mess.

Those were for different reasons though.  NCM was getting surpassed by Seth Williams and knew it.  That was in his best interest to transfer.  I think Harris just wanted more playing time as a true TE and Cox was really taking over as the hybrid.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, aubiefifty said:

i was told he was seeing a powerful bot's daughter and he was told he could resign or it would go public. some people swear that is the truth and some say it is bull. it is a bad look that maybe our coach was maybe blackmailed? i would love to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I don't see that as blackmail. He was  fired either way. They just gave him the opportunity to say he resigned instead to avoid an unnecessary mess for all involved. 

People "resign" all the time. 

[aubiefifty 16,767]

Just now, McLoofus said:

I don't see that as blackmail. He was  fired either way. They just gave him the opportunity to say he resigned instead to avoid an unnecessary mess for all involved. 

People "resign" all the time. 

i made the mistake of going through the posts from newest to on and realized noone was talking about that and tried to delete it before anyone saw it. not even buzzed yet so no excuses............lol

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

32 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Most of the veteran coaches and players were on the side of the ball that was holding its own through halftime. They'd been providing leadership and direction for a few seasons now, despite only occasionally getting any help from their counterparts across the LOS. Their leadership and direction probably has a lot to do with 3 NFL DLs all coming back for another year.

The most veteran coach on the offensive side was the one whose unit was performing the worst. The 2nd-most veteran coach was in charge of a position we don't use. The 3rd-most veteran coach was job hunting 2-3 years ago and is no longer in that position. I think maybe our head coach is now the 3rd-most veteran guy? Anyway, not sure where our OC fell on the totem pole, but it's not like he was given much say anyway. He's gone now. And has the WR coach turned 30 yet?

The most veteran coach had just returned after a hiatus to another school and was working with players who had not been well coached.  As year went on Grimes got the weak link O-Line to play better.  I do agree with your general viewpoint that D did its job that O let us down and that O coaches were the ones that did not get the job done.   I think youth on O side and Grimes coming into a really bad situation in O-line had a lot to do with why O was such a disappointment.  

This year despite the extremely tough schedule there is very little room for Gus to fail. Grimes seems to have a starting 5 that can play at a high level but we can't have any injuries in the starting 5.  That is why Oregon and A&M are so important. We have the talent to beat them so if we don't Gus is probably gone whether it is announced during middle of season or Gus is told in middle of season and not announced till end of season.

[kevon67 2,368]

15 hours ago, gr82be said:

The whole thing was hard to watch sitting there among those clanging cowbells. Couldn't shut them up because we couldn't score. Then to make it worse for me, I know I'm in the minority here, I had to sit through the Don't Stop Believing 4th Qtr intro. Hate that song. My wife knows I love her but if sitting there with her and her cowbell doesn't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt I just don't know what will. I work with State fans and they don't need much encouragement to think they are something else. 🙄

Your wife had a feva..........and the only prescription.............was more COWBELL 😁

[McLoofus 35,182]

11 minutes ago, AuburnNTexas said:

The most veteran coach had just returned after a hiatus to another school and was working with players who had not been well coached.  As year went on Grimes got the weak link O-Line to play better.  I do agree with your general viewpoint that D did its job that O let us down and that O coaches were the ones that did not get the job done.   I think youth on O side and Grimes coming into a really bad situation in O-line had a lot to do with why O was such a disappointment. 

I described Grimes in that way to show that he was not in a position of strength to lend veteran leadership to the entire locker room. I actually started to go into the inexperience (and Herb Hand-ness) of his troops, but I didn't want to get long-winded as I too often do. Totally agree with you. 

 

[keesler 5,924]

I think the bottom line is that the coaching staff as a whole were deficient in providing leadership, guidance and some tough love if they lost the locker room before mid-season.  WDE stated the locker room issues started after the dang LSU game on September 15th!

Is this coaching staff and roster so weak that they lose their s#!t after the 3rd game of the season?  WTH

[AuburnFast 21]

Most "pivotal game"? Oregon, because they could very well lose to a better than advertised Nevada team the week after playing us and if that happens - and we lost to Oregon - we spiral out of the top 20 REAL quick.

[DAG 33,980]

3 minutes ago, keesler said:

I think the bottom line is that the coaching staff as a whole were deficient in providing leadership, guidance and some tough love if they lost the locker room before mid-season.  WDE stated the locker room issues started after the dang LSU game on September 15th!

Is this coaching staff and roster so weak that they lose their s#!t after the 3rd game of the season?  WTH

People react differently when they know their jobs or futures are on the line. Players don't like to feel like they are led astray and coaches don't want to wonder if they are going to be fired the next week. The same thing very well can happen this year. I think the frustration messed with quite a few people on and off the field last year. I believe JS was as frustrated as anyone, and it had an effect on his performance. 

[keesler 5,924]

40 minutes ago, DAG said:

People react differently when they know their jobs or futures are on the line. Players don't like to feel like they are led astray and coaches don't want to wonder if they are going to be fired the next week. The same thing very well can happen this year. I think the frustration messed with quite a few people on and off the field last year. I believe JS was as frustrated as anyone, and it had an effect on his performance. 

I agree.  And Gus must feel the same way because he pressured the AU Admin to provide him with serious job security with that guaranteed 2017 extension/raise.  Auburn acquiesced and gave him what he said he needed and damned if he didn't turn around AFTER the contract was inked and has lost 7 games since then.  There will be no pressure like this staff will find starting in only 51 days, Gus hits the ground running in a pressure cooker.

 

[Barnacle 9,064]

Sorry to keep a dead horse from being left alone, but there has been so much back and forth about the Miss State game from last year that I decided to rewatch it this morning (one of the perks of having a newborn and a few days off of work). 

My conclusion is that despite my judgment being affected by sleep deprivation, those of you who put the game on the defense without acknowledging they still played at least twice as well as our offense must be smoking crack. The defense bent all night without breaking until there were two minutes left in the game, while the offense was a clown show for all 60 minutes. That's all I've got. 😭

[gctiger 931]

2 hours ago, ellitor said:

Could only come from a Bird brain.

That was my thought too!   Surprised that Golf didn’t jump all over it, but then again, he is getting old...

[DAG 33,980]

Just now, Barnacle said:

Sorry to keep a dead horse from being left alone, but there has been so much back and forth about the Miss State game from last year that I decided to rewatch it this morning (one of the perks of having a newborn and a few days off of work). 

My conclusion is that despite my judgment being affected by sleep deprivation, those of you who put the game on the defense without acknowledging they still played at least twice as well as our offense must be smoking crack. The defense bent all night without breaking until there were two minutes left in the game, while the offense was a clown show for all 60 minutes. 

The offense couldn't score a TD. This is unacceptable. I get being disappointed in the defense but to expect the defense to hold a team to literally one touchdown just for you to win the game is unfair. 

[Barnacle 9,064]

1 minute ago, DAG said:

The offense couldn't score a TD. This is unacceptable. I get being disappointed in the defense but to expect the defense to hold a team to literally one touchdown just for you to win the game is unfair. 

Agreed. The defense was far from perfect, but they came up with some big stops in big moments - TD to close the first half was a killer stop that was robbed on replay. 

Offense had two fumbles, one taking a touchdown away. One dropped touchdown pass. One fumble on 3rd and short. One touchdown pass that was overthrown on the most wide open receiver I've ever seen, and then special teams also has a fumble.

Whatever grade you give the defense, the offense deserved two full letters lower. So, if someone wants to give the defense a "C", they better acknowledge the big fat "F" put up by the offense.

Anyway, sorry for going there.

[DAG 33,980]

And please don't say I am attacking Gus. His side of the ball went through the same thing in 2014. How frustrated was it for the offense to know you had to put up dang near 40 to beat teams like USCe because the defense allowed score after score?

[DAG 33,980]

1 minute ago, Barnacle said:

Whatever grade you give the defense, the offense deserved two full letters lower. So, if someone wants to give the defense a "C", they better acknowledge the big fat "F" put up by the offense.

 

You hit the nail on the head with this. It doesn't have to be either or, but at the very least be relative when we are talking about the team loss.