Were we really that bad in 2015?

[CAReeves2010 627]

I don't believe the roster was the issue. I think it had more to do with the play calling and abandoning the run game when it was working.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Just now, CAReeves2010 said:

I don't believe the roster was the issue. I think it had more to do with the play calling and abandoning the run game when it was working.

We didn't abandon the running game when it was working.  We abandoned it when it stopped working because the other team realized it was all we were doing and stacked the box. You cannot win a football game just running your back every play. You either need to pass or run the option.  We didn't have the personnel for the option last year.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

2 minutes ago, TAYLORKEETON said:

It all comes down to QB play

It all comes down to total team execution. It's not the QBs job to carry the entire team.  

[AU64 10,122]

Watson was dangerous as a runner because he was lethal as a passer....4000 yards passing which was four times his rushing total. I saw a few of their games and a good percent of the time when he ran the ball it was his second option.

[cole256 17,084]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

We didn't abandon the running game when it was working.  We abandoned it when it stopped working because the other team realized it was all we were doing and stacked the box. You cannot win a football game just running your back every play. You either need to pass or run the option.  We didn't have the personnel for the option last year.

We stacked the box against lsu and they ran all over us. In 2014 arky and Tenn stacked the box in back to back games and we passed like 6 times in two games. In 2011 we played South C and running was the only thing we could do. You at least make them stop you first....we defiantly stopped running on multiple occasions when it was working against Georgia. And we didn't have any type of passing game against Memphis but we had a back running angry

[lionheartkc 6,150]

23 minutes ago, cole256 said:

We stacked the box against lsu and they ran all over us. In 2014 arky and Tenn stacked the box in back to back games and we passed like 6 times in two games. In 2011 we played South C and running was the only thing we could do. You at least make them stop you first....we defiantly stopped running on multiple occasions when it was working against Georgia. And we didn't have any type of passing game against Memphis but we had a back running angry

If anyone can explain what happened with LSU, I'm all ears.  It really looked like our D wasn't even trying that game.  That being said, Harris was their second leading rusher, so we had to account for him.

In 2014 we could run the option, so the defense couldn't focus on a single back.

In 2011 against South Carolina, we had 135 passing yards and a passing touchdown. Without that touchdown, we lose by 4.

I was at the Georgia game... they stopped us.  It was ugly before we tried bringing Sean in to boost the passing game.  I was in the stands calling for them to bring in Sean because we stalled and anything was worth a try at that point.

Against Memphis, we had 150 yards passing and a passing touchdown.  Yes, rushing ruled the day, but had we not been able to do something in the air, we wouldn't have had the ground success.

I stand by my statement that you can't win a game by just handing the ball off to the tailback.

[TAYLORKEETON 792]

3 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

It all comes down to total team execution. It's not the QBs job to carry the entire team.  

I agree to an extent. QB is the most important position on the field, imo. If you're QB sucks...most of the time your team sucks. You stated "team execution." I agree...but execution starts with the QB. Everything revolves around the QB. 

[TAYLORKEETON 792]

3 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

It all comes down to total team execution. It's not the QBs job to carry the entire team.  

A good example is our 2008 team. Our D wasn't the problem, we didn't have good QB play. At all. 

[AUpreacherman22 3,887]

4 hours ago, CAReeves2010 said:

I think they mean AU didn't give up like the team in '12 did.

Yes. That's exactly what I meant. Fighting together as a team, not fighting with each other.  2012 was a disaster because of all the fighting with each other. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

36 minutes ago, TAYLORKEETON said:

I agree to an extent. QB is the most important position on the field, imo. If you're QB sucks...most of the time your team sucks. You stated "team execution." I agree...but execution starts with the QB. Everything revolves around the QB. 

A good example is our 2008 team. Our D wasn't the problem, we didn't have good QB play. At all. 

If your QB sucks, yea... you're in trouble, but how often have we (or most high level teams) had a QB that actually sucked? More often than not a QB is, for lack of a better word, average, and his play is brought up or down by those around them.  Case in point... Our QBs weren't bad in 2012, they were average, but our Offensive Line was a nightmare, so they couldn't get anything going.

I would argue that 2008 wasn't a symptom of play and was all coaching.  You had an Offensive Coordinator who didn't get along with anyone else on the staff, replaced by 2 guys who had no business running and offense, so everything was in disarray.  

[api1957 1,783]

In regards to the OP...

[AUsince72 11,084]

Since this is a "what if" coulda-shoulda-woulda thread, ponder this....

1) Jeremy Johnson plays like "2014 - 1st half Arkansas" Jeremy Johnson all year.

and/or

2) Carl Lawson stays healthy throughout the season.

Who thinks 2015 turns out A LOT different?

....All other things being equal, of course...

 

[NoALtiger 3,865]

Ha, I'll just be happy when '15 doesn't matter anymore because we are all so involved '16.

[McLoofus 35,182]

8 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Since this is a "what if" coulda-shoulda-woulda thread, ponder this....

1) Jeremy Johnson plays like "2014 - 1st half Arkansas" Jeremy Johnson all year.

and/or

2) Carl Lawson stays healthy throughout the season.

Who thinks 2015 turns out A LOT different?

....All other things being equal, of course...

 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

13 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Since this is a "what if" coulda-shoulda-woulda thread, ponder this....

1) Jeremy Johnson plays like "2014 - 1st half Arkansas" Jeremy Johnson all year.

and/or

2) Carl Lawson stays healthy throughout the season.

Who thinks 2015 turns out A LOT different?

....All other things being equal, of course...

 

If 1 happened, we would have had a great year. If 2 happened, the D would have come along faster, but I don't know that it would have saved us in a couple of games.  I can say I would have loved to have seen Carl vs Fournette last year.  I can imagine him watching the footage of Matthews getting abused and thinking "let's see him try that with me".

[TAYLORKEETON 792]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

If your QB sucks, yea... you're in trouble, but how often have we (or most high level teams) had a QB that actually sucked? More often than not a QB is, for lack of a better word, average, and his play is brought up or down by those around them.  Case in point... Our QBs weren't bad in 2012, they were average, but our Offensive Line was a nightmare, so they couldn't get anything going.

I would argue that 2008 wasn't a symptom of play and was all coaching.  You had an Offensive Coordinator who didn't get along with anyone else on the staff, replaced by 2 guys who had no business running and offense, so everything was in disarray.  

Our QB's that actually "sucked?" Well in 2008, Todd done horrible with a bad shoulder & KB just turned out to be inconsistent. I'm sure 2008 turned out the way it did as you started, coaching, but it doesn't matter how good a coach is, you have to have talent & I just don't think we had a talented or even average on the 08 team. At least not healthy. I agree on one thing, a QB can bring up the play of others. Cam & Tebow come to the top of my head. 2012 was just horrible all the way around, which QB would you consider average? I think they were both horrible. Kiehl Frazier just turned out ugly and Jonathan Wallace...considering the circumstances, done not completely horrible. I wouldn't say that group "sucked" but they weren't average either. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

15 minutes ago, TAYLORKEETON said:

Our QB's that actually "sucked?" Well in 2008, Todd done horrible with a bad shoulder & KB just turned out to be inconsistent. I'm sure 2008 turned out the way it did as you started, coaching, but it doesn't matter how good a coach is, you have to have talent & I just don't think we had a talented or even average on the 08 team. At least not healthy. I agree on one thing, a QB can bring up the play of others. Cam & Tebow come to the top of my head. 2012 was just horrible all the way around, which QB would you consider average? I think they were both horrible. Kiehl Frazier just turned out ugly and Jonathan Wallace...considering the circumstances, done not completely horrible. I wouldn't say that group "sucked" but they weren't average either. 

I think Kiehl could have actually become a good QB, if he didn't spend his entire first season running for his life. He had the tools. He just needed the time to let the game slow down and that never came. I've always believed that if Cam had stayed one more year and helped prep Kiehl to start in 2012, A LOT would be different now.  Of course, that wouldn't have fixed the O-Line issues, but at least Kiehl could have been more ready for it.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, lionheartkc said:

I think Kiehl could have actually become a good QB, if he didn't spend his entire first season running for his life. He had the tools. He just needed the time to let the game slow down and that never came. I've always believed that if Cam had stayed one more year and helped prep Kiehl to start in 2012, A LOT would be different now.  Of course, that wouldn't have fixed the O-Line issues, but at least Kiehl could have been more ready for it.

I agree with the general premise that Kiehl was at least partially a victim of circumstance. I don't think many QBs would've stood a chance in his shoes. Would they have been *that* bad? Not all, but I bet a lot would have. Kid was scarred by that experience. Heck, a LOT of kids on that roster flamed out. 

[cole256 17,084]

20 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

If anyone can explain what happened with LSU, I'm all ears.  It really looked like our D wasn't even trying that game.  That being said, Harris was their second leading rusher, so we had to account for him.

In 2014 we could run the option, so the defense couldn't focus on a single back.

In 2011 against South Carolina, we had 135 passing yards and a passing touchdown. Without that touchdown, we lose by 4.

I was at the Georgia game... they stopped us.  It was ugly before we tried bringing Sean in to boost the passing game.  I was in the stands calling for them to bring in Sean because we stalled and anything was worth a try at that point.

Against Memphis, we had 150 yards passing and a passing touchdown.  Yes, rushing ruled the day, but had we not been able to do something in the air, we wouldn't have had the ground success.

I stand by my statement that you can't win a game by just handing the ball off to the tailback.

From my experience playing football showing the offense had 150 and 135 passing yards shows you didn't have a passing game....nobody said you didn't have to complete a forward pass but those games teams stacked up against the run and we still ran the ball.

And you may have been at the game but I watched the game on tv and I'm sure we both saw the same game...there were drives where we were having success running the ball and Gus went away from it. There were drives where we didn't have success as well, but last year wasn't the first time people mentioned that about Gus. 

And as far as the td thing and not having it we lose that's deceptive. Yes we needed every point we had, but if we didn't hand the ball off to dyer while south c had 8 in the box we lose by twenty because that's one of the best games in this recent era of a back literally carrying an entire team to a win and you just highlighted 135 yards passing saying if we didn't have the passing we don't win. 

I agree with your statement you can't ALWAYS win by just doing that but you can run and win even when people are stacking the box. 

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

How many of you think the team across the state needs a stud QB to be successful? For the last 6 or 7 years their philosophy was "have a pulse and don't turn the ball over".

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

On 8/16/2016 at 9:09 PM, AUFAN78 said:

That bad? Maybe not, but we were not good.

 

+1

That's where I'm at. While we weren't that bad, I never really felt confident in the team's performance. Even in most of the games we won, I never thought we played a great game. The closest we came to playing a great game was the Texas A&M game but even in that game we only won 26-10. We kicked 4 field goals and only scored 2 touchdowns. That game should have been a blowout but because our offense struggled in the redzone, we had to settle for field goals which made the game closer than it should have been.

[JDUBB4AU 5,121]

On August 16, 2016 at 9:17 PM, AuburnSoldier said:

Easily the most I've cussed at an Auburn player, ever. Sorry about that Melvin. 

I don't think we were that bad last year. It was just a combination of injuries (Lawson and White) mistakes (countless drops and dumb penalties), and questionable play-calling. I think some of that will get fixed this year, and it will equal a few more wins. 

No apologies here for the awful WR play all year last year. Wrs blew Arkansas game big time. A few catches here and there equal 3 more wins.

[tigermac 11]

We weren't BAD but we weren't GOOD either. The old saying...you are what your record istraight  (however it goes) rings true. A few things go the other way we could have been 9-3. Or we could've been 3-9. That's the way it goes. That's why we ended up .500 before the bowl game

[TigerOne 1,144]

On 8/19/2016 at 9:49 AM, lionheartkc said:

It all comes down to total team execution. It's not the QBs job to carry the entire team.  

it comes down to poor coaching

[AUFAN78 3,910]

On 8/19/2016 at 3:03 PM, AUsince72 said:

Since this is a "what if" coulda-shoulda-woulda thread, ponder this....

1) Jeremy Johnson plays like "2014 - 1st half Arkansas" Jeremy Johnson all year.

and/or

2) Carl Lawson stays healthy throughout the season.

Who thinks 2015 turns out A LOT different?

....All other things being equal, of course...

 

Way different.