Linayus

I was speaking of Fitz's "TD" - so thanks!

@WarTiger - do I even need to ask your opinion on the non-overturned "TD" play from Saturday? lol

Yep.. definitely blocked that one out. lol

Oooh, I was so close! lol But 10 consecutive without 100 yards?? I must have blocked that entire season out of my mind.

It seemed like we stayed in the same defensive package all night. I'd have gone to a traditional 4-3 and let the MLB focus on Fitz the entire night. Every time he ran up the middle we were always coming at him from one side or the other with arm tackles instead of head on.

I want to take a stab at this and say 2008! lol

Does anyone other than Ryan Davis ever catch screen passes? lol If he wasn't as quick as he is, every screen we throw would be for 2 yards or less. While I agree that tempo is important for this offense, it's also important to actually do more in tempo than run the ball up the middle of the defense when we get a big first down. We're already struggling to run the football so why waste a down by doing something everyone and their mother can see coming? It'd be different if we actually did try to throw the ball more, or do a jet sweep, or anything other than run up the middle on those plays but nope... just hand it off for 2 yards or less. I wish we had someone competent to step in for Stidham, but I don't think Malik is the answer there. He seems to be a one trick pony but doesn't even read the zone well enough to be effective. And who knows what Cord can/can't do.

Basically agree with you, @corchjay. First half was a disaster and State's clock-draining drives were absolutely KILLER. Kudos to them for executing their game plan nearly to perfection all night long. Their defense was also extremely fired up and continued to make big stops when they needed to while our defense decided to pick that night to tackle worse than any Auburn team in the last 2-3 years at least. I can't tell you how many times I saw DW just dive at Fitzgerald or the RB and come up empty. I did see the changes in the offense and it really did help bring some momentum back in our favor but the missed opportunities continue to plague us. As exciting as Whitlow's almost-TD run was, I wanted to curse him for trying to lay out for it. But at least he tried to get us back in it! Stidham.. we know his faults. He's regressed tremendously, especially on his deep balls. But what concerns me most now is the confidence his WR corp has in him. If you go back and watch the play where he misses Slayton, on the sideline he goes over to Slayton and is basically saying that it was his fault, but Slayton just kind of nods and walks off. The look on his face spoke volumes though. They are not happy with him.

I don't disagree, and it's troubling that there are so many glaringly bad things to say about the o-line, but I'm not on the "Fire him!" bandwagon. That said, I'm not so sure he sticks around after this season anyway. I just feel like he was hired back as a temporary solution and letting him leave (or asking him to) would be part of Gus' "We're going to fix these issues." promises after the season is over.

So, uh.. @JMR - do you think we need to mix up the o-line more or stick with what we have (barring injuries keeping our guys off the field)? We had issues against Washington but it seemed like that o-line was at least more consistent than the one we're trying to work with now. Or maybe it was just that the confidence level then was higher then than it is now?

Lots of blaming the o-line coach but I think a lot of you forget that Grimes just now came back to Auburn and inherited this lack of development from Hand. We've got probably 2 really good linemen and the others are average and raw. They'll get better but it won't be an immediate turnaround. Stidham is my #1 concern. I wish someone would go back and watch for how many times he runs out of the pocket needlessly and ruins the play. He just can't see the field once he starts to scramble unless the receiver is dead-on in his line of sight along the sideline. It's infuriating to watch. AND... I'm really starting to hate how nonchalant his attitude is. "Another 3 and out.. oh well!"

Thanks for doing this @WarTiger. I always learn something and it's nice to get clarification on new rule changes. I watched our offensive highlights against Washington and I saw where they called targeting on the Washington player (McIntosh) but overturned it. Since I didn't get to see it live, I don't know the reasoning behind that. It looked to me like he lowered his head and hit NCM high (just below the neck) while he was defenseless. Probably could've went either way, I guess, but do you happen to know why it was actually overturned?

Way to burst the bubble so darn quick!! lol North Texas is also leading some categories - the others, yeah.. not so much.

This might put some things in perspective. We've had our struggles on the o-line (no denying that) but we've also faced two of the best run defenses in the country so far: RANK TEAM G OPP RUSH OPP RUSH YDS YDS/RUSH OPP RUSH TDS YPG 1 Michigan St. 3 86 98 1.14 3 32.7 2 San Diego St. 4 122 258 2.11 3 64.5 3 Air Force 3 83 217 2.61 5 72.3 4 Oregon 4 142 302 2.13 2 75.5 5 Miami (FL) 4 147 315 2.14 3 78.8 6 Iowa 4 126 336 2.67 1 84.0 7 Arkansas 4 129 353 2.74 6 88.3 8 Virginia Tech 3 91 265 2.91 4 88.3 9 LSU 4 140 365 2.61 3 91.3 10 Texas A&M 4 102 370 3.63 4 92.5 We're ranked #20 - just fyi.

Anders has a BIG leg. Even bigger than Daniel. But where he has the advantage in power, Daniel was much more accurate. This was immediately apparent to me last season when I would watch Anders warm up, but I thought he'd improve. So far that's not been the case, but he needs the attempts and the coaches need to show him they have faith he CAN do it by calling on him in those situations. (And let's be honest - we'll likely be needing those 50+ yard FGs.) If it weren't for Ryan Davis' pure athleticism on those screen passes - Auburn would likely have no passing game at all. Aside from KJ last year, I don't think there was a single player who made so much out of nothing for us.

The media made him look like an all star when we GAVE him those sacks. Still ticks me off!

He definitely outplayed MW on Saturday, imo. I've been away from the forum for a while (got married, work projects, etc.) so I didn't even know who he was until he stepped on the field. LOL Yeeesh.. sounds like the Ole Miss "landshark" defense from years past (definitely not anything recent). While I love forcing turnovers, I'd rather not give offenses chunks of yardage. It pains me when we'll hold an offense to like 100 yards passing for 3/4 of the game then give up an 80 yard play that kills our stat line.

That's like the only reason I watch USC games. I hate them but ohhhhh their cheerleaders... ??

Let's hope Nix, at the very least, can fill in the role quickly if needed. (He's next year, right?) Having all this (legit) world class speed at skill positions is amazing and Gus/Chip should be working extremely hard to get these guys involved early on. It will do nothing but help the run game open up to allow us to be even more deadly on offense. (Seems like we say that every year.. but c'mon.. this year it's obvious!!) I didn't get to watch the Washington game (except highlights) so I haven't seen our secondary up against a decent team so I'll be watching that closely. TA&M, Ole Miss, and TuaBama will hurt us if that's an area of weakness. The rest of the defense appears as solid as last year!

With Schwartz's speed - we should be able to throw downfield without all those long developing plays. Just move up under center real quick, snap, drop 3-5 steps and float one up for him to chase down. Well, as long as he's not covered up top with a safety too. That'll be a bummer. lol

Grimes might be a bit slower in his assessment. We have some serious needs on the OL so I expect to see way more offers go out. Once we think we have 4-5 solid WRs that number will drop considerably, I'd expect.

Having lived in Louisiana during some middle school through high school years, anyone and everyone who played sports dreamed about playing for LSU. The fact that any of those kids leave the state to play somewhere else is pretty amazing. We had 2 guys on my football team with Auburn offers and they chose to stay home and give up football rather than leave the state. Having been born and raised an Auburn fan - it stunned me. LOL

Man I hope our defensive staff keeps recruiting hard. While it's fun to watch the offense score points, I love to see the defense shut down the opponent and a lot of that has to do with the LB position. Come on to Auburn, Pappoe!

So were the Carlsons. Okay, Saban hates kickers.. but still!

Special Teams won't get any better if we don't actually get a coach for it. We could've been even worse if Carlson didn't send the bulk of his kicks out of the end zone. (Speaking of - any insight on why he started kicking short as the season wore on? Overuse maybe?) Predictability will continue to hinder us offensively. If we can't attack the middle consistently - you're allowing the defense to cover 66% of the field with 4-5 DBs and the other 6-7 defenders can focus on the run. We've seen defenses completely vacate the middle (our RBs have sat down wide open as safety valves and never once got targeted). Like many here, I'm hoping this season was a transition season between the Gus offense to the Chip offense and that next season will be much more of a Chip Lindsey offense that utilizes all of our offensive weapons. We can only wait and pray. Defensively - we've got work to do but when you're only allowing 20 points a game the last 2 seasons while playing in the SEC, you're doing something right at least. I hope that continues but I think we're going to see that number go the wrong way next season with the talent we've lost.