Heart Breaking trends...

[StatTiger 3,188]

The game that broke many trends...

• First time Auburn has lost a game with over 360-yards rushing. Auburn is now 69-4-1 with over 300-yards rushing.
  
• First time Auburn has lost a game with over 540-yards in offense. Auburn is now 69-2 with over 500-yards in offense.
  
• Auburn is now 134-3, when scoring 38 points in regulation from 1951-2014.
  
• This was Auburn's first conference loss in regulation with over 500-yards in offense.
  
• This was only the 3rd loss in conference play with over 300-yards rushing and the first with over 350-yards rushing.
  
• Auburn is now 65-1 from 1992-2014, when scoring on at least 50 percent of their offensive possessions.
  
• Auburn is now 54-2 from 1992-2014, when the offense scores TD's on more than 40% of their offensive possessions.
  
• During Auburn's last 15 conference games, the offense has averaged 507-yards and 38 PPG, yet have lost 3 games. Prior to the TAMU game, Auburn was 67-1 in conference games from 1961-2014, when gaining at least 400-yards and scoring at least 30 points during a conference game.
  
• From 2000-2014 SEC teams have won 95% of their games, when scoring at least 38 points during a game.
  
• Auburn has now won 85% of their games with a 200-yard rusher.
  
• Auburn is now 80-4 in games with a pass-efficiency rating of 174 or better from 1961-2014.
  
• Auburn is now 102-3 from 1961-2014 with a pass-rating of 140 and over 200-yards rushing in the same game.
  
• Auburn is now 80-2 from 1961-2014 in games where the offense rushes for over 200-yards and averages over 8-yards per pass attempt.
  
• Auburn is now 71-3 from 1970-2014 in games the offense averaged over 7-yards per play during a game.
  
• Auburn is now 57-2-2 from 1970-2014 with 40 rush attempts during a game, averaging at least 6-yards per rush attempt.
  

No matter how dominant a team might be in one phase of the game, the odds eventually run out, when the other two phases struggle.

[AUBwins 10,077]

It was fun to watch the comeback happening. Mostly the deep pass to Sammie to score in 2 plays on that drive. Follow that up with the pass to Louis. Everything was in place. I was thinking this would be the "heisman" moment for NM. Not too discredit CAP. He is deserving of heisman talk as well. Neither will likely be there with us having two losses unfortunately. If the trends hold.

[GBAU83 212]

heartbreaking is right - despite the poor performance, we had a chance to win it. We haven't looked "championship caliber" since the LSU game and the loss caught up with us tonight. Time to dust it off and get ready for a tough road game.

[Auburn4life 24]

these stats tell me that the D is the problem.

[Guest jojo1515]

So youre saying that was the worst defensive performance, well......ever when the offense did that well....BYE BYE EJ. Its been real and its been fun, unfortunately the fun only comes when your D isnt on the field

[JamesG 0]

Horrendous defense. Just horrendous. Sadly it's been this way for several years now.

[AUbritt 611]

Without a blocked field goal returned for a TD and two fumbles at the end of the game (not even talking about fumble i the first half), we win. It's easy to blame the D for the loss, especially when their performance in the first half was so bad. But this was an all-around team loss.

[cole256 17,084]

How many times will the defense come out flat and make adjustments in the second half though? Shouldn't that be addressed? They have done that damn near every game this season

[AUbritt 611]

How many times will the defense come out flat and make adjustments in the second half though? Shouldn't that be addressed? They have done that damn near every game this season

I agree completely. The idea that we need to wait for halftime to make adjustments boggles the mind. If we can play that much better in the second half, we should be able to make at least some adjustments in the first half to improve our performance before halftime.

The defense gave up 28 points in the first half. That's totally unacceptable against any team, in my book. But I don't think that's the whole reason we lose the game. That's all. After 1 offensive play, we were down two scores. The second TD we allowed was the result of a CAP fumble, though. Yes, we needed more stops on D -- especially in the first half. But take away that CAP fumble and replace it with even a punt and we likely win the game. Take away the two fumbles at the end of the game, and we almost certainly win. Take away the blocked FG, and we win.

That's too many mistakes all around. Yes, the D let us down in the first half. But so did the O and special teams. And the O let us down in the second half.

[AUbritt 611]

I actually think this note from Stat in another thread is the most heart-wrenching trend:

Here is a note about the defense...

Take the first 4 possessions defended from Auburn's last 4 games (16 possessions total), the Tigers have surrendered an average of 60-yards per possession on 8.1 yards per play and 9 TD's. For the season AU is allowing an average of 222-yards per game during the first-half this season and 165-yards during the second-half. The horrible starts must stop or every game will turn into having to score 40 points to win.

Again, I agree that the performance by the D -- especially in the first half -- is putting too much pressure on the O to be perfect. The D must improve, especially in the first half. But the O put some pressure on the D, too -- especially in our 2 losses -- with turnovers. Yes, the D must improve. But they are not the only reason we lost.

[tigereyes 19]

Didn't Auburn have a 70 something winning streak when scoring 32 points or more per game? Going back to the 96 Georgia game.

[AUBwins 10,077]

That was before the bcs championship last year.

[Mikey 16,673]

I don't see the "share the blame" logic. The offense scored 38 points. I don't care if the offense did fumble 3 times, 38 should be a winner. The team that scored 26 on UL-Monroe at home rang up 41 on us in our house. Chew on that for a while.

[weagl1 1,786]

I just can't understand why we can't have a defensive game plan going into a game rather than waiting until half time to get it together. If you look at the past two years we generally go into a game playing horribly on defense the first half and then get better in the second half. Are teams fooling us that bad with changes they make during the week or do we just not have a plan going into the game?

Several things always seem to stand out this year. Tackling and cover skills in the secondary are horrible and seem to get worse every week. Pressure up front from the DL is just not happening. The only way we can get pressure is selling out with LBs ans Safeties. We have all this experience up front on defense, why are they playing so sorry? Why has our secondary forgotten how to tackle? They don't wrap up, they just dive at people to try to knock them off their feet. I just don't get it. We expected to see big improvement this year and it just ain't happening.

[AU64 10,122]

I don't see the "share the blame" logic. The offense scored 38 points. I don't care if the offense did fumble 3 times, 38 should be a winner. The team that scored 26 on UL-Monroe at home rang up 41 on us in our house. Chew on that for a while.

So you really think they went out and ran the same offense against ULM with a freshman making his first start? Sumlin is no dummy...and it's illogical to think that ULM got his best offensive game plan. As for the fumbles....consider that TAMU scores and then AU fumbles in less than a minute and the D is back on the field. That's not a factor in the game....or the blocked FG that was a 10 point turnaround? The D had it's problems but gave the O the chance to win the game TWICE in the last 3 minutes....that should have been enough. It's a team loss.

[cooltigger21 0]

I don't see the "share the blame" logic. The offense scored 38 points. I don't care if the offense did fumble 3 times, 38 should be a winner. The team that scored 26 on UL-Monroe at home rang up 41 on us in our house. Chew on that for a while.

So you really think they went out and ran the same offense against ULM with a freshman making his first start? Sumlin is no dummy...and it's illogical to think that ULM got his best offensive game plan. As for the fumbles....consider that TAMU scores and then AU fumbles in less than a minute and the D is back on the field. That's not a factor in the game....or the blocked FG that was a 10 point turnaround? The D had it's problems but gave the O the chance to win the game TWICE in the last 3 minutes....that should have been enough. It's a team loss.

Yes the offense made some errors. The whole point is the offense should not be put in the position of having to play perfect in order to win. That is where we are right now.

[Dom1ni0n 51]

Didn't Auburn have a 70 something winning streak when scoring 32 points or more per game? Going back to the 96 Georgia game.

Yes, however that streak ended back in January against FSU. And I believe it was 80+ games

[Tampa Tiger 30]

The way I see it:

Special Teams - F (Blocked Kick)

Red Zone Offense - F (Fumble on the 1, had the chance to put the knife in)

Defense -F (Huge blown pass coverage)

[jetermary 6]

I don't see the "share the blame" logic. The offense scored 38 points. I don't care if the offense did fumble 3 times, 38 should be a winner. The team that scored 26 on UL-Monroe at home rang up 41 on us in our house. Chew on that for a while.

I thought they fumbled 4 times. Watch and see how Texas finishes the season. That quarterback is the real deal.

[Randman5000 4,229]

It was fun to watch the comeback happening. Mostly the deep pass to Sammie to score in 2 plays on that drive. Follow that up with the pass to Louis. Everything was in place. I was thinking this would be the "heisman" moment for NM. Not too discredit CAP. He is deserving of heisman talk as well. Neither will likely be there with us having two losses unfortunately. If the trends hold.

I thought the same thing. Ricardo made a heck of a grab too with the pressure on. Nick could have brought us back. The boys need to rally

[Ber798297 241]

The way I see it:

Special Teams - F (Blocked Kick)

Red Zone Offense - F (Fumble on the 1, had the chance to put the knife in)

Defense -F (Huge blown pass coverage)

The blocked kick was a ten point swing... They don't block that kick, we win. But that obviously was not the only problem...

[meh130 1,046]

Defense and turnovers. Our defense allowed the game to be close, and turnovers ensured we lost the resulting close game.

Opposing teams have figured out how to attack our defense. Some of this was visible with FSU's use of short passes over the middle in the second half of the BCSNC game. The HBC put on a clinic two weeks ago of how to dismantle CEJ's schemes--no doubt Kevin Sumlin looked at that game film closely. I believe strongly in CEJ's defensive concepts, but his concepts are not the problem. The problem is execution of CEJ's defensive schemes. With better talent, I think CEJ's defensive schemes work. However, while we have recruited a stable of 4 star talent on defense, many of those players have not panned out. Inconsistent play and lack of player discipline is a problem with both our line and our secondary. LB play has also been inconsistent, but I think they have been put in a bad position by poor line play. We have no pass rush from our four down linemen, and we cannot slow down, much less stop the run unless we are expecting it.

CGM and CRL have shown they can adapt their offense and schemes to their players. CEJ has not. Nor has Coach Rodney Garner, which is really disappointing. We are stilll looking for answers on defense two-thirds of the way through the season. We were moving players to fundamentally different positions as recently as three weeks ago, halfway through the season. We have not developed depth at LB. We are making foolish penalties. Defensively, we did not appear to look at the aTm/USCe game film, the aTm/UAT game film, nor back at the AU/USCe game film to prepare our defense for aTm's offense.

I expect UGA to try to mimic what USCe and aTm did. I do not expect them to just run Gurley up the middle, but once they get us off-guard, they will.

[jibi 0]

The game that broke many trends...

• Auburn is now 134-3, when scoring 38 points in regulation from 1951-2014.
  

We are now 187-4 all-time when scoring at least 38 points; 221-4 when scoring at least 35 points; 315-6 when scoring at least 30 points. Other non-relevant numbers: 159-1 when scoring at least 40 points (the one loss was in that multi-OT game against UGA, so that is a bit skewed); 73-0 when scoring at least 50 points.

[FormerlySec38Row34 56]

Why should it take until half-time to make adjustments. Those can be made when you see what the opposition is trying to do. I still can't understand why EJ didn't bring the pressure on 3rd and long. Rushing 3 guys on a freshman qb is just helping him get a feel for the game. And yes, the short slants are killing us. So are the gaping holes in the middle that let them run for first downs. I'm no defensive genius. That's what we pay EJ big bucks to be. So far, I don't see it. It seems we take a step forward (LSU game) and then 2 steps backwards ( the next 3 games). We, as fans, just don't care for the bend but don't break defense we've seen for the last several years because it only takes one or two mistakes to break it. I want to see a crushing defensive wall again with DB's who know how to cover, tackle and take the right angles on the ball. Is that too much to ask? I realize that CGM is an offensive genius, but we still need to recruit on defense and we haven't for a while now. That's JMHO

[AUbritt 611]

Why should it take until half-time to make adjustments. Those can be made when you see what the opposition is trying to do. I still can't understand why EJ didn't bring the pressure on 3rd and long. Rushing 3 guys on a freshman qb is just helping him get a feel for the game. And yes, the short slants are killing us. So are the gaping holes in the middle that let them run for first downs. I'm no defensive genius. That's what we pay EJ big bucks to be. So far, I don't see it. It seems we take a step forward (LSU game) and then 2 steps backwards ( the next 3 games). We, as fans, just don't care for the bend but don't break defense we've seen for the last several years because it only takes one or two mistakes to break it. I want to see a crushing defensive wall again with DB's who know how to cover, tackle and take the right angles on the ball. Is that too much to ask? I realize that CGM is an offensive genius, but we still need to recruit on defense and we haven't for a while now. That's JMHO

Hey, buddy!

Couldn't agree more. Waiting until halftime to make adjustments is completely baffling. Lack of tacking totally frustrating. I'm ready for a return of the D. I really thought we were on the right track after the LSU game. Don't know what happened, but it's not good.