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Gus Holding Back?

Weegle777

By Weegle777
in AU Football Forum

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Weegle777 Founding Father

Weegle777 78

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Let's look at this in a different light. First game against a non-conference opponent. Vanilla gameplan. Nothing fancy. Offense and defense looks pretty standard from top to bottom. WIN

Second game: Against a non-conference FCS opponent. Nothing fancy. Vanilla gameplan. Pretty standard plan from offense and defense. WIN

What is the most important game early on that can either set us up for a serious run at titles, or set us back for a run? A WESTERN DIVISION AWAY GAME IN HOSTILE TERRITORY AGAINST LSU.

Whether Gus knew that we could win while not showing anything is debatable, but we really didn't show much. Did it almost cost us? Maybe, but we won and stayed alive.

And who knows, maybe Jovon is also being held back for a reason. He may be in that hand that Gus doesn't want to show. And maybe, just maybe JJ is more comfortable running our O with the entire playbook at his disposal.

JJ doesn't just go from a star in the Arky game to looking incompetent. There has to be a reason.

All I am saying is that college football is a chess game, a smoke and mirrors game, a poker game. This LSU game is HUGE as far as this season goes, and while most see AU as a disaster right now, I have a strange feeling that Gus Malzahn is going to show the country this coming Saturday why he is known as the MAD SCIENTIST.

Just food for thought from the positive side. WDE.

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AUbritt Founding Father

AUbritt 611

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I hope you are right, Weegs.

But I don't think it's a 'maybe' that it almost cost us. It's definite that it almost cost us. Though you're right that the Jax State game has no bearing on the SEC, it's not irrelevant altogether. If we had lost that game, I'm not sure we'd ever have lived it down as a program.

So, if Gus is being intentionally vanilla, I think he took it way too far. At this point, we'll shock the heck out of anyone if we look halfway decent on offense for most of the game. It's not as if we played superb vanilla ball. We played terrible vanilla ball.

And it most certainly almost cost us.

Again, I hope we shock the world and go into Baton Rouge and whip the other Tigers.

But I also hope that if Gus was intentionally playing vanilla, he rethinks that strategy. At least, if we do it, we need to do it perfectly. No more cutting it this close.

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tigerbrotha12 Founding Father

tigerbrotha12 2,362

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Agreed. Don't think JSU game was a tell-all of the season. Think the boys were looking ahead, think the coaches were even looking ahead to an extent. JSU exploited that and made plays.

Big thing is also this: when we absolutely HAD to have it, we did it. We scored when we HAD to, and took the game. You may have a point

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WarTiger Founding Father

WarTiger 3,901

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There's a huge difference between holding back and simply not being able to dominate either line of scrimmage. We should have been able to dominate both line of scrimmages and blow them off the ball and we didn't. As a result the running game was way less effective than it should have been and has been in the past. I hope you are right in one aspect, but our line not dominating their defensive line is troubling.

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PigskinPat Founding Father

PigskinPat 2,579

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I don't know if that explains our horrible performance on defense, though. Also, I would think after the first half we would have come out with a little more of the playbook if we were truly holding back.

We can survive a loss to an SEC opponent in terms of the post season. JSU? Not so much.

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gctiger Veteran

gctiger 929

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A quality team should be able to play plain vanilla and look respectable. Auburn looked terrible yesterday. I was at the game and about the only positives that I saw were, Peyton Barber, Monty Adams, respectable play from several true freshman on defense at times. Right now, Auburn is not a very good team. Not a flame, just a simple fact. Maybe it was a fluke, but I doubt it. The pollsters will treat this game like a loss, although the polls are the least of our problems.

Edited: I forgot about the kicker, punter and Ricard Louis. Apologies to the gents!

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alexava Founding Father

alexava 6,973

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Probably it. I feel so foolish now.

yep, we been swindled. just trying to drop lower in the polls, get JJ out of the heisman talk, and see how we could squeak by with 5 starters faking injuries and not dressed.
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CR Founding Father

CR 2,439

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What Wartiger said. Not to pile on, but the defense is limited by having half the starters hurt on the sidelines and freshmen playing waaaay more than they otherwise would be. Offense is limited because the line hasn't jelled and the QB is a turnover machine so the middle of the field is pretty much off limits due to fear of interceptions(for good reason). So yes were holding back but I seriously doubt by design.

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cptau Founding Father

cptau 169

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I might buy this argument for the Louisville game where we seemed to allow them to come back slowly in the 2nd half . However in the JSU game we were fighting to just stay in the game, period.

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Weegle777 Founding Father

Weegle777 78

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I understand the anger. Heck I was pissed as well, but remember, our main leader in Lawson on defense was out, as well as our enforcer in the secondary in Tray. Lawson is the hingepin for our D in my opinion, just look at how confused our ends looked, and Tray is vocal and gives our secondary a bit of swagger. Also, we generally always play crappy at 11:00. For the offense, you have to remember that Jax State's d-line isn't terrible. The fact that Gus looked shellshocked after the game, tells me that he expected us to play vanilla and win easy. He and the rest of the staff and team probably didn't expect that kind of fight. They do expect that fight next week. Who knows, this post might look genius or ridiculous by this time next week. Lol.

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TitanTiger Founding Father

TitanTiger 20,472

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Let's look at this in a different light. First game against a non-conference opponent. Vanilla gameplan. Nothing fancy. Offense and defense looks pretty standard from top to bottom. WIN

Second game: Against a non-conference FCS opponent. Nothing fancy. Vanilla gameplan. Pretty standard plan from offense and defense. WIN

What is the most important game early on that can either set us up for a serious run at titles, or set us back for a run? A WESTERN DIVISION AWAY GAME IN HOSTILE TERRITORY AGAINST LSU.

Whether Gus knew that we could win while not showing anything is debatable, but we really didn't show much. Did it almost cost us? Maybe, but we won and stayed alive.

And who knows, maybe Jovon is also being held back for a reason. He may be in that hand that Gus doesn't want to show. And maybe, just maybe JJ is more comfortable running our O with the entire playbook at his disposal.

JJ doesn't just go from a star in the Arky game to looking incompetent. There has to be a reason.

All I am saying is that college football is a chess game, a smoke and mirrors game, a poker game. This LSU game is HUGE as far as this season goes, and while most see AU as a disaster right now, I have a strange feeling that Gus Malzahn is going to show the country this coming Saturday why he is known as the MAD SCIENTIST.

Just food for thought from the positive side. WDE.

We weren't holding back.

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wde1968 Mentor

wde1968 262

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Let's look at this in a different light. First game against a non-conference opponent. Vanilla gameplan. Nothing fancy. Offense and defense looks pretty standard from top to bottom. WIN

Second game: Against a non-conference FCS opponent. Nothing fancy. Vanilla gameplan. Pretty standard plan from offense and defense. WIN

What is the most important game early on that can either set us up for a serious run at titles, or set us back for a run? A WESTERN DIVISION AWAY GAME IN HOSTILE TERRITORY AGAINST LSU.

Whether Gus knew that we could win while not showing anything is debatable, but we really didn't show much. Did it almost cost us? Maybe, but we won and stayed alive.

And who knows, maybe Jovon is also being held back for a reason. He may be in that hand that Gus doesn't want to show. And maybe, just maybe JJ is more comfortable running our O with the entire playbook at his disposal.

JJ doesn't just go from a star in the Arky game to looking incompetent. There has to be a reason.

All I am saying is that college football is a chess game, a smoke and mirrors game, a poker game. This LSU game is HUGE as far as this season goes, and while most see AU as a disaster right now, I have a strange feeling that Gus Malzahn is going to show the country this coming Saturday why he is known as the MAD SCIENTIST.

Just food for thought from the positive side. WDE.

Other than the fact it was the same plays he has ran the previous 2 years just different players..

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Auburn4life Experienced

Auburn4life 24

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Hope you right but I think JJ just doesn't have it. And not sure he will. Don't know if last year was just WR were more open and he didn't get pressure on him. But I'm afraid we could be last in West

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SIR ISAAC Rising Star

SIR ISAAC 46

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Let's look at this in a different light. First game against a non-conference opponent. Vanilla gameplan. Nothing fancy. Offense and defense looks pretty standard from top to bottom. WIN

Second game: Against a non-conference FCS opponent. Nothing fancy. Vanilla gameplan. Pretty standard plan from offense and defense. WIN

What is the most important game early on that can either set us up for a serious run at titles, or set us back for a run? A WESTERN DIVISION AWAY GAME IN HOSTILE TERRITORY AGAINST LSU.

Whether Gus knew that we could win while not showing anything is debatable, but we really didn't show much. Did it almost cost us? Maybe, but we won and stayed alive.

And who knows, maybe Jovon is also being held back for a reason. He may be in that hand that Gus doesn't want to show. And maybe, just maybe JJ is more comfortable running our O with the entire playbook at his disposal.

JJ doesn't just go from a star in the Arky game to looking incompetent. There has to be a reason.

All I am saying is that college football is a chess game, a smoke and mirrors game, a poker game. This LSU game is HUGE as far as this season goes, and while most see AU as a disaster right now, I have a strange feeling that Gus Malzahn is going to show the country this coming Saturday why he is known as the MAD SCIENTIST.

Just food for thought from the positive side. WDE.

Note to self: File this one under "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story"

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alexava Founding Father

alexava 6,973

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Hope you right but I think JJ just doesn't have it. And not sure he will. Don't know if last year was just WR were more open and he didn't get pressure on him. But I'm afraid we could be last in West

at this point we are last in the west.
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