Ellis Johnson

[AUFlyer99 647]

As noted by many, we have not had a D since Tubs left.

We have had 3 different (well known and experienced) DCs and essentially three different sets of position coaches for the defense with pretty much the same result.

I say this seriously.....the only common thread in that time is that Gus has run the offense....

So someone tell me how the next see of defensive coaches will be better?

Better? Recruiting to start with.

[cooltigger21 0]

As noted by many, we have not had a D since Tubs left.

We have had 3 different (well known and experienced) DCs and essentially three different sets of position coaches for the defense with pretty much the same result.

I say this seriously.....the only common thread in that time is that Gus has run the offense....

So someone tell me how the next see of defensive coaches will be better?

Better? Recruiting to start with.

What happened to all that talent that Chizik left behind that just needed coaching up?

[war eagle6 0]

As noted by many, we have not had a D since Tubs left.

We have had 3 different (well known and experienced) DCs and essentially three different sets of position coaches for the defense with pretty much the same result.

I say this seriously.....the only common thread in that time is that Gus has run the offense....

So someone tell me how the next see of defensive coaches will be better?

Better? Recruiting to start with.

Players are there, it's coaching. Moo-state have lesser talent on defense than we do and look how good their defense is. Hell la Monroe held aTm to 21pts for the whole game! Let that sink in for a moment

[AURealist 2,185]

This team is one of the most experienced teams in the entire country that began the season in the driver's seat to the CFP. It's literally been a tale of two seasons. Pre- and Post-LSU.

This mid-season regression is disheartening to say the least. 149 offensive points in the last four games, silly drive-extending defensive penalties, terrible tackling fundamentals, surrendering 3rd-&-longs far too frequently, secondary is routinely out of position, lack of consistent penetration from the defensive line. It's been living on the laurels of the offense for the past month and if finally caught up. Frost appears to be the lone leader on defense, which is more disappointing considering the amount of upperclassmen back there. No emotion nor intensity present until after halftime; a lingering problem since the season opener.

For all intents and purposes, this is a year two of the defensive rebuild. However, I refuse to subscribe to the notion that AU isn't capable of fielding a more solid defense. I realize that the defensive days of 7 - 3 scores are in the past, but this has downward trend has been remarkably underwhelming. How is that Ole Miss has managed to build a far more stout defense than Auburn relative to how each school typically recruits?

True enough, the players have to execute, however Johnson has had far more talent at his disposal than any of his last two SEC stops, and doesn't appear to making the best of it. Like others, I am losing faith weekly in the 4-2-5. The reality is defense is a major reason why AU won't be competing for the National Championship this season.

Nailed it. ^^ How anyone can say otherwise is laughable!

OK. I'll say otherwise.

I keep seeing the question, "What happened to our great defense?" I'm not convinced the defense was all that great to begin with. Other teams have just learned to better exploit its weaknesses.

That's where the disagreement ends.

The fundamentals in tackling, discipline and just basic situational awareness are circling the drain. As the D continues to get abused, the fundamentals will probably continue to erode. We're playing like Georgia Tech now, do we need to play like So. Miss circa 2012 before something is done?

[war eagle6 0]

This team is one of the most experienced teams in the entire country that began the season in the driver's seat to the CFP. It's literally been a tale of two seasons. Pre- and Post-LSU.

This mid-season regression is disheartening to say the least. 149 offensive points in the last four games, silly drive-extending defensive penalties, terrible tackling fundamentals, surrendering 3rd-&-longs far too frequently, secondary is routinely out of position, lack of consistent penetration from the defensive line. It's been living on the laurels of the offense for the past month and if finally caught up. Frost appears to be the lone leader on defense, which is more disappointing considering the amount of upperclassmen back there. No emotion nor intensity present until after halftime; a lingering problem since the season opener.

For all intents and purposes, this is a year two of the defensive rebuild. However, I refuse to subscribe to the notion that AU isn't capable of fielding a more solid defense. I realize that the defensive days of 7 - 3 scores are in the past, but this has downward trend has been remarkably underwhelming. How is that Ole Miss has managed to build a far more stout defense than Auburn relative to how each school typically recruits?

True enough, the players have to execute, however Johnson has had far more talent at his disposal than any of his last two SEC stops, and doesn't appear to making the best of it. Like others, I am losing faith weekly in the 4-2-5. The reality is defense is a major reason why AU won't be competing for the National Championship this season.

Nailed it. ^^ How anyone can say otherwise is laughable!

OK. I'll say otherwise. >:D/>

I keep seeing the question, "What happened to our great defense?" I'm not convinced the defense was all that great to begin with. Other teams have just learned to better exploit its weaknesses.

That's where the disagreement ends.

The fundamentals in tackling, discipline and just basic situational awareness are circling the drain. As the D continues to get abused, the fundamentals will probably continue to erode. We're playing like Georgia Tech now, do we need to play like So. Miss circa 2012 before something is done?

I see what u did there, who was coaching that so miss team in 2012 anyway? Hmm....

[DyeCampAlum 335]

According to Football Outsiders, our D was #10 in the country in efficiency before the A&M game.

People say the defense has regressed. Let's think on that.

1. The SEC schedule happened.

2. We have no natural pass rush. When you play good teams, that means you either have to load up and expose your DBs or sit back and let the other team pick them apart. It also compromises your run D.

Because of 1 & 2, teams have figured out how to exploit us.

3. One reason Football Outsiders is helpful.... A Gus team is gonna give up big numbers just because of our offensive style. It helps to see things in a larger, series by series context.

[AU64 10,122]

Just for the record, EJ was at So Miss for one year and they were terrible before he got there and are no better now.

Otherwise, I'm amazed that so many people just pass off the special teams and offensive mistakes yesterday .... as if the defense is supposed to clean up the messes made by them ....as if losing the fumbles and getting the kick blocked were immaterial. I mean lose a fumble on our first offensive play? that did not matter?

JMO, this was MSU all over again.....dug a deep hole in the first quarter and could not get out of it because of mistakes and penalties at critical times.

edit: no matter what happened for the first half, the D put the offense in position to win the game TWICE in the last 4 minutes and the team made two stunning mistakes.....those kind of things can happen but the lost does not belong to EJ alone.

[AubTiger14 0]

According to Football Outsiders, our D was #10 in the country in efficiency before the A&M game.

People say the defense has regressed. Let's think on that.

1. The SEC schedule happened.

2. We have no natural pass rush. When you play good teams, that means you either have to load up and expose your DBs or sit back and let the other team pick them apart. It also compromises your run D.

Because of 1 & 2, teams have figured out how to exploit us.

3. One reason Football Outsiders is helpful.... A Gus team is gonna give up big numbers just because of our offensive style. It helps to see things in a larger, series by series context.

1. The SEC schedule is tough yes. But giving up the yards we did to SC and A&M is inexcusable. They are not upper tier SEC teams and we should've beaten each of them by 2-3 touchdowns.

2. We are getting beat by the same plays over and over and over and over. A team can literally run the fake zone-read slant/or seam route on us every time and it will work.

3. Our offensive style shouldn't have mattered yesterday. I'm pretty sure we dominated TOP.

[around4ever 4,139]

I'm an auburn man...i support everything auburn...thus, I support T. Rock coming back as DCoord or Asst DCoord to Garner. Bye Ellis.

yep

No. Auburn is not a training ground for DCs. We do not need to hire a DC with no DC experience. I have been an Ellis Johnson supporter but the time has come to move on. Yes, our style of offense does not bode well for a defense to be a shut down defense. But our defense should not give up 30+ points per game.

And yes, we have digressed terribly since the LSU game, which was about the time Whitehead melted down and was suspended. This event may have a much more far reaching effect on our defense than we are aware of.

On the field, many things are just driving me crazy and the obvious lack of a pass rush is not one of them. These are in no particular order, one is not more irritating than others.

#1- Tackling, or should I say lack of tackling. During the first four games we were attempting to wrap up when we hit. Now we look like we are wearing one of those padded suits where you run around bumping into other folks wearing one, trying to knock them down. What the hell is up with that? Everybody is doing it, you can't just single out a couple of players.

#2- Pursuit angles by LBs and DBs are awful. Are the opponents players just that much faster than anybody we have?

#3- DBs have regressedback to not looking back for the ball. We play alot of Man-on-Man and I will give our DBs credit many times (except slants) they are right in the WRs pocket but we don't know the ball is coming so the WR gets a catch.

#4- Slants and crossing routes. We can not defend a slant or crossing route to save our lives. Many times we have nobody within five yards of the WR when he makes the catch then he starts running with the ball and we play bounce off. If I was an opposing Offensive Coach, I would wear us out doing this. Oh wait, USC, Ole Miss and TAMU did do that,

#5- 3rd down defense is abysmal. Of course many of the 3rd down plays we see are slants or crossing patterns. Why can we not get off the field on 3rd down, long or short yardage?

#6- Stupid Personal Foul penalties and offsides at crucial times.

I think it is time to make some changes. I have seen each one of our defensive coaches be successful in other programs. I know Coach Garner is (was) one of the best D Line Coaches and Coach Harbison and Coach Smith both have coached some highly successful DBs. And I thought I really liked those three and still don't know if I would like to see them go but a new DC will probably want his own people.

Coach Malzahn needs to be very careful because Auburn is becoming a place where defensive coaches don't want to be. Think back to recent history, Coach Roof leaves Auburn in terrible shape and ends up at Penn State who has a Top 3 defense under him. Coach VanGorder leaves Auburn and ends up at Notre Dame and has a good defense, in the Top 40. Is it just a by-product of our offense?

OK, my rant is over, It is still great to be an Auburn Tiger!!! WDE!!

[cooltigger21 0]

Just for the record, EJ was at So Miss for one year and they were terrible before he got there and are no better now.

Otherwise, I'm amazed that so many people just pass off the special teams and offensive mistakes yesterday .... as if the defense is supposed to clean up the messes made by them ....as if losing the fumbles and getting the kick blocked were immaterial. I mean lose a fumble on our first offensive play? that did not matter?

JMO, this was MSU all over again.....dug a deep hole in the first quarter and could not get out of it because of mistakes and penalties at critical times.

I don't think anyone is just dismissing those mistakes. They certainly played a role. When the opposing team just cuts through your defense like a hot knife through butter repeatedly, game after game, you tend to focus on that. When the offense has the burden of scoring every time sometimes they do things that will cause mistakes.

[AURealist 2,185]

So if special teams and the offense make no mistakes, Auburn wins. Clearly, more effort needs to be put into training the offense and special teams to make sure they make zero mistakes.

Stay the course on defense, then?

[AUFlyer99 647]

So if special teams and the offense make no mistakes, Auburn wins. Clearly, more effort needs to be put into training the offense and special teams to make sure they make zero mistakes.

Stay the course on defense, then?

lol

[around4ever 4,139]

So if special teams and the offense make no mistakes, Auburn wins. Clearly, more effort needs to be put into training the offense and special teams to make sure they make zero mistakes.

Stay the course on defense, then?

Al three phases had issues yesterday. The glaring fumbled exchange between Marshall and Artis-Payne was on Marshall. Bad decision to try to pull the ball back out that late in the exchange on the goal line. Let the play go and if it doesn't work you have another play (or two) to score. The early snap has not happened (to my recollection) all season. Why then? I can't tell you. The blocked FG was low and off line to begin with. Again, I'm not sure why. The snap was a little off, maybe timing was off. But, even with a blocked FG and an early fumble, our offense should be able to overcome that with even an average defensive effort. Defense is the problem, sorry.

[80Tiger 899]

Gone. Weve recruited enough talent yo be competitive. He is not a coach or recruiter and therefore dies not deserve a job. The sane problem is apparent every game but is not

assessed.The short pass is hard to defend but should not kill our defense like it has. Coach cheese can follow him out the door. We can find better

Not particularly defending coaches, but I don't think we have near the defensive talent of the

elite teams in the conference, especially the secondary. I don't think any of our secondary would play for the other SEC teams. LBs have been Ok. Talent is good but neither seem to play good at the same time. DE are not good at all talent wise or execution. DT we have one guy that is SEC talent and looks great every once in a while. We have a couple of other DT that were perceived as SEC talent when they were recruited but have never performed at that level. With all that said, IMO it is all the defensive coaches that have to be evaluated; including CRG. Our D line cannot get off blocks for the life of them and make very little penatration. We get man handled. Especially at the DE position. I think we are undersized on the DLine. I believe we have to play more zone. Our corners just cannot play man. The interception came on zone coverage yesterday. They gave a man look and suckered the QB into thinking his guy was open.

[AubTiger14 0]

We tied the game up 14-14 and then bam they went up 28-14. Defense is getting worse. Remember against K st. and LSU when we were flying to the ball, stuffing the run, and competing in the secondary. That is all gone.

[war eagle6 0]

So if special teams and the offense make no mistakes, Auburn wins. Clearly, more effort needs to be put into training the offense and special teams to make sure they make zero mistakes.

Stay the course on defense, then?

Al three phases had issues yesterday. The glaring fumbled exchange between Marshall and Artis-Payne was on Marshall. Bad decision to try to pull the ball back out that late in the exchange on the goal line. Let the play go and if it doesn't work you have another play (or two) to score. The early snap has not happened (to my recollection) all season. Why then? I can't tell you. The blocked FG was low and off line to begin with. Again, I'm not sure why. The snap was a little off, maybe timing was off. But, even with a blocked FG and an early fumble, our offense should be able to overcome that with even an average defensive effort. Defense is the problem, sorry.

Exactly! Does anyone honestly believe we can beat uga and uat with defense? Hell no!!

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

Let me make one disclaimer, anyone looking for a Pat Dye or Tubbervile AU defense is already lost. The game has moved to offense and those defense do not exist anymore. If you want to compare we gave up the same amount of yards to LSU that uat did and we gave up less to Arky than uat did. The reason their defense seems to look better is their offense is usually much slower paced and prevents a lot of scoring on either side. Going into the game last night our defense ranked in the top 25 in most catagories and even some in the top 10. Everyone needs to remember that was no ordinary freshman last night. He was a 5 star recruit, #1 QB in the country. Most insiders figured he was better than thrill Hill but since he was a freshman Hill got the start. USCe made Hill look like the second coming of Johnny Football but then he got exposed. Sumlin has been bringing Allen along slowly. TAM was not as good as they played against USCe and not as bad as they played against uat. That said we made a lot of bad tackles and missed assignments on defense last night. That has re-occurred over the last 3 games. Also the game could have turned on so many points. The ten point swing on the botched FG. Of course the other three turnovers. A couple of dropped passes and some more dumb penalties. Plenty of room for blame other than just defense. As I said other places, the schedule was as bad as I have ever seen. Most pundits early on said we would lose 3 or 4 games due to that schedule. So we fans need to just suck it up and put or big boy pants on and support this team. Maybe this loss and the loss of the pressure will make some improvement and we can win out and get good bowl game. Every year is not going to be a championship year. By the way when I looked at the missed FG it sure looks like the guy beat someone of the corner unblocked and got to the ball, and also made the recovery. WDE

[fishm3at 8]

Gone. Weve recruited enough talent yo be competitive. He is not a coach or recruiter and therefore dies not deserve a job. The sane problem is apparent every game but is not

assessed.The short pass is hard to defend but should not kill our defense like it has. Coach cheese can follow him out the door. We can find better

Not particularly defending coaches, but I don't think we have near the defensive talent of the

elite teams in the conference, especially the secondary. I don't think any of our secondary would play for the other SEC teams. LBs have been Ok. Talent is good but neither seem to play good at the same time. DE are not good at all talent wise or execution. DT we have one guy that is SEC talent and looks great every once in a while. We have a couple of other DT that were perceived as SEC talent when they were recruited but have never performed at that level. With all that said, IMO it is all the defensive coaches that have to be evaluated; including CRG. Our D line cannot get off blocks for the life of them and make very little penatration. We get man handled. Especially at the DE position. I think we are undersized on the DLine. I believe we have to play more zone. Our corners just cannot play man. The interception came on zone coverage yesterday. They gave a man look and suckered the QB into thinking his guy was open.

That's because defensive recruits don't want to come to Auburn. We don't get picks, we don't get pressure and we get beat often because of the many gaps on our defense.. Our offense HAS to score 30-50 points every game because our defense can't stop anyone, who wants to be a part of that mess? Reuben Foster is one of the many who didn't.

Knowing an SEC recruiter for one our bitter rivals he let me know that's a good route to flip an Auburn commit, remind them of how terrible our defensive production has been and the how many guys we have try out for the NFL vs those who stay.

[AURealist 2,185]

So if special teams and the offense make no mistakes, Auburn wins. Clearly, more effort needs to be put into training the offense and special teams to make sure they make zero mistakes.

Stay the course on defense, then?

Al three phases had issues yesterday. The glaring fumbled exchange between Marshall and Artis-Payne was on Marshall. Bad decision to try to pull the ball back out that late in the exchange on the goal line. Let the play go and if it doesn't work you have another play (or two) to score. The early snap has not happened (to my recollection) all season. Why then? I can't tell you. The blocked FG was low and off line to begin with. Again, I'm not sure why. The snap was a little off, maybe timing was off. But, even with a blocked FG and an early fumble, our offense should be able to overcome that with even an average defensive effort. Defense is the problem, sorry.

So I need to use the tag when I post early before everyone has had their coffee, hmmm?

[war eagle6 0]

Let me make one disclaimer, anyone looking for a Pat Dye or Tubbervile AU defense is already lost. The game has moved to offense and those defense do not exist anymore. If you want to compare we gave up the same amount of yards to LSU that uat did and we gave up less to Arky than uat did. The reason their defense seems to look better is their offense is usually much slower paced and prevents a lot of scoring on either side. Going into the game last night our defense ranked in the top 25 in most catagories and even some in the top 10. Everyone needs to remember that was no ordinary freshman last night. He was a 5 star recruit, #1 QB in the country. Most insiders figured he was better than thrill Hill but since he was a freshman Hill got the start. USCe made him look like the second coming of Johnny Football but then he got exposed. Sumlin has been bringing Allen along slowly. TAM was not as good as they played against USCe and not as bad as they played against uat. That said we made a lot of bad tackles and missed assignments on defense last night. That has re-occurred over the last 3 games. Also the game could have turned on so many points. The ten point swing on the botched FG. Of course the other three turnovers. A couple of dropped passes and some more dumb penalties. Plenty of room for blame other than just defense. As I said other places, the schedule was as bad as I have ever seen. Most pundits early on said we would lose 3 or 4 games due to that schedule. So we fans need to just suck it up and put or big boy pants on and support this team. Maybe this loss and the loss of the pressure will make some improvement and we can win out and get good bowl game. Every year is not going to be a championship year. WDE

We always make qb's look like heisman contenders, he was also a freshman last wk against la Monroe. They did a far more better job on d than we did, with lesser talent

[cooltigger21 0]

Let me make one disclaimer, anyone looking for a Pat Dye or Tubbervile AU defense is already lost. The game has moved to offense and those defense do not exist anymore. If you want to compare we gave up the same amount of yards to LSU that uat did and we gave up less to Arky than uat did. The reason their defense seems to look better is their offense is usually much slower paced and prevents a lot of scoring on either side. Going into the game last night our defense ranked in the top 25 in most catagories and even some in the top 10. Everyone needs to remember that was no ordinary freshman last night. He was a 5 star recruit, #1 QB in the country. Most insiders figured he was better than thrill Hill but since he was a freshman Hill got the start. USCe made Hill look like the second coming of Johnny Football but then he got exposed. Sumlin has been bringing Allen along slowly. TAM was not as good as they played against USCe and not as bad as they played against uat. That said we made a lot of bad tackles and missed assignments on defense last night. That has re-occurred over the last 3 games. Also the game could have turned on so many points. The ten point swing on the botched FG. Of course the other three turnovers. A couple of dropped passes and some more dumb penalties. Plenty of room for blame other than just defense. As I said other places, the schedule was as bad as I have ever seen. Most pundits early on said we would lose 3 or 4 games due to that schedule. So we fans need to just suck it up and put or big boy pants on and support this team. Maybe this loss and the loss of the pressure will make some improvement and we can win out and get good bowl game. Every year is not going to be a championship year. By the way when I looked at the missed FG it sure looks like the guy beat someone of the corner unblocked and got to the ball, and also made the recovery. WDE

Well Eagle Eye the fact that you have made it this far means it must be bad. You are the biggest sunshine pumper there is on this board. That's not a criticism just an observation. Sunshine pumpers are good.

[weagl1 1,784]

We are now in a position where our offense has to score every possession to give us a chance to win. This is the worst pass defense in the history of Auburn football. Sure we gave up more points in 2012 but that was with the offense doing nothing. We can't get a pass rush without selling out with LBs and Safeties. Our secondary is horrible. The tackling in the secondary is particularly horrible. I don't know that it is as much scheme related as it is just terrible execution on the field. Lack of fundamental tackling skills in the secondary has plagued this team for several years now and that goes back to coaching. If Ellis is going to stay he is going to have to do something to bring immediate improvement in the secondary and Coach Garner is going to have to do something to improve the push up front from the DL. We expected huge improvement from the defense this year and it is clearly worse than last year. That is not acceptable. Some people are clearly not earning their pay and it is time for Gus to step in make some decisions. He appears to just be hands off as far as the defense is concerned and when this season ends it is time to straighten this mess out.

[AURealist 2,185]

Let me make one disclaimer, anyone looking for a Pat Dye or Tubbervile AU defense is already lost. The game has moved to offense and those defense do not exist anymore. If you want to compare we gave up the same amount of yards to LSU that uat did and we gave up less to Arky than uat did. The reason their defense seems to look better is their offense is usually much slower paced and prevents a lot of scoring on either side. Going into the game last night our defense ranked in the top 25 in most catagories and even some in the top 10. Everyone needs to remember that was no ordinary freshman last night. He was a 5 star recruit, #1 QB in the country. Most insiders figured he was better than thrill Hill but since he was a freshman Hill got the start. USCe made Hill look like the second coming of Johnny Football but then he got exposed. Sumlin has been bringing Allen along slowly. TAM was not as good as they played against USCe and not as bad as they played against uat. That said we made a lot of bad tackles and missed assignments on defense last night. That has re-occurred over the last 3 games. Also the game could have turned on so many points. The ten point swing on the botched FG. Of course the other three turnovers. A couple of dropped passes and some more dumb penalties. Plenty of room for blame other than just defense. As I said other places, the schedule was as bad as I have ever seen. Most pundits early on said we would lose 3 or 4 games due to that schedule. So we fans need to just suck it up and put or big boy pants on and support this team. Maybe this loss and the loss of the pressure will make some improvement and we can win out and get good bowl game. Every year is not going to be a championship year. By the way when I looked at the missed FG it sure looks like the guy beat someone of the corner unblocked and got to the ball, and also made the recovery. WDE

So it's the schedule. Stay the course on defense, then?

[Dom1ni0n 51]

Just for the record, EJ was at So Miss for one year and they were terrible before he got there and are no better now.

Otherwise, I'm amazed that so many people just pass off the special teams and offensive mistakes yesterday .... as if the defense is supposed to clean up the messes made by them ....as if losing the fumbles and getting the kick blocked were immaterial. I mean lose a fumble on our first offensive play? that did not matter?

JMO, this was MSU all over again.....dug a deep hole in the first quarter and could not get out of it because of mistakes and penalties at critical times.

I don't think anyone is just dismissing those mistakes. They certainly played a role. When the opposing team just cuts through your defense like a hot knife through butter repeatedly, game after game, you tend to focus on that. When the offense has the burden of scoring every time sometimes they do things that will cause mistakes.

My sentiments exactly.

[AURaptor 1,125]

I have no positives to say about this defense--coaching, execution, or otherwise. We are flat-out bad.

Did hold them to 2 FG's in the 2nd half. Not much worse than shutting out Arkansas , after giving up 21 pts....

I know.