Post-game Thoughts

[AUBwins 10,104]

That safety would only have put us within 6, but given us 3 or 4 minutes of clock as well with getting the ball again.  I'd  go as far to say we win if that safety is called (unless we get boneheaded near goal again) 

[woodford 3,669]

Tons of issue, but none that can’t be fixed. Our guys can’t get any bigger but the coaches can make adjustments. 
 

I’m not claiming a moral victory, but they can use this to fix the issues. Win @ LSU and a lot of us will forget last night (figuratively). Again, I think that if Auburn can run the ball we can beat anyone. Did y’all see what Florida did to Bama on the ground?

[aubaseball 2,663]

That officiating crew was terrible.   How do you get the down and distance wrong?  Of course there are going to holding calls missed during a game.   It’s the ticky tack pass interference calls that I hate.    Defensive backs grab and hold on just about every pass play (both teams).  The last PI call was horse sh*t.  If what happens through out the game is not called, that shouldn’t have.  

[aubaseball 2,663]

2 minutes ago, woodford said:

Tons of issue, but none that can’t be fixed. Our guys can’t get any bigger but the coaches can make adjustments. 
 

I’m not claiming a moral victory, but they can use this to fix the issues. Win @ LSU and a lot of us will forget last night (figuratively). Again, I think that if Auburn can run the ball we can beat anyone. Did y’all see what Florida did to Bama on the ground?

It’s scheme.   It’s having the other team in an advantageous position to be able to run.   As much as I can’t stand the guy, Mullen knows how to leverage.   

[AUpreacherman22 3,892]

17 minutes ago, woodford said:

I’m not claiming a moral victory, but they can use this to fix the issues.

Yes.  We learned nothing about our team in week 1 and 2.   We got tested for the first time last night.  Now we can learn from it.  Adjustments will be made.   Honestly, our OL may be a little better than I thought.   WR, DL, and DBs have A LOT of work to do!!!!  

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

2 hours ago, aubaseball said:

That officiating crew was terrible.   How do you get the down and distance wrong?  Of course there are going to holding calls missed during a game.   It’s the ticky tack pass interference calls that I hate.    Defensive backs grab and hold on just about every pass play (both teams).  The last PI call was horse sh*t.  If what happens through out the game is not called, that shouldn’t have.  

Imagine a world where simply having your body between a receiver and the ball is called pass interference. Ticky tack is an understatement... that's down right ignorance of the rule book.

[fishepa 1,911]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

And never reviewed. The ball has to come completely out of the end zone. It was a safety.

Agree but the refs always give benefit of the doubt to the offense. Same would have happened if it was Auburn. 

[lala 327]

Two thoughts….

1. Our WR’s could not get separation last wk, and will be a concern all yr.  

2.   Losing Truesdale and Newquik really hurt IMO.  

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

Defense was the biggest disappointment to me. 

I like the Tite front against certain offenses, but thought it odd to start out with against that PSU offense. We eventually got away from it as the game went on.

We haven't been decent in zone coverage in years. Our defense is built to man up. I love Mason's ability and desire to be more versatile, but if we go man cover all night we'd have had much more success. 

Pass rush was non-existent. I'd have to go back and re-watch, but I just don't remember much we did up front or with blitzes to confuse their OL. Guess we thought we could beat their OL straight up, but it didn't play out that way.

[jj3jordan 2,078]

Not that I want a lot of trickeration but did anyone else feel like PSU failed to rush or even spy the punter? I saw three times where we had 3 blockers and they had zero or one guy pretend rushing. I thought the punter could have easily run for first downs at least three times with almost no fear of getting stopped with three blockers. Anybody else see this?

[Fastlax16 6]

12 hours ago, Zeek said:

Top 20 will happen. Top 15 is a huge stretch. Top 10 isn't happening this year.

 

Unrelated but I don't want to double post:

Thought this was 100% a safety 

Deceptive screengrab is deceptive and lacks context (time). That doesn’t show forward progress before he was pushed back into the end zone. Not that forward progress mattered for spots earlier in the game like that 4th down attempt that was 2 yards beyond the line to gain when the whistle blew and was somehow spotted short and not reviewed. Good luck the rest of the way. Hope this crew gets suspended.

[MaitlandTiger 325]

5 hours ago, AUpreacherman22 said:

Our pass D is total garbage right now.   I am worried about any team we play that can pass the ball (yes, I’m concerned about MS St).  Clifford was right.  He had all day!   I saw one play where he ordered a pizza and had it delivered on the field and never even had to move.   Another play I saw him roasting marshmallows back there and singing campfire songs.   It was absolutely pitiful!!!   DBs didn’t impress me either.   Lots of busted coverages and just flat out getting beat.   We’re in trouble on that side of the ball!!!!   PSU isn’t very good.   We’re going to face at least 5 teams better than them.  
 

Bottom line:   We’re just not ready yet.  I like CBH.  I think we’re headed in the right direction.  But some of those things we were concerned about didn’t just magically go away.   We need a few years to get to where we need to be.   A rebuild requires patience, something we as fans rarely possess.   

I agree with the overall essence of this post in that “We are just not ready yet” but I think the reason for that is coaching and not the athletes (by and large). Per the original first post and breakdown:  Football is not a democracy, it is like the military with a chain of command. With the blunders coming from the top, you can’t really pick apart the soldiers in their attempt.  I believe it is the schemes, not necessarily the athletes. (WRs did play poorly). Bo tried valiantly but was meh. Play calling was Bush League. Offensively, In our attempt to be unpredictable, we were predictable. And on Defense it was coaching. And the superior coach capitalized on that. And failure to adjust. LB were put in a lose:lose situation. Then we often rushed three linemen. Two of our three are doubleteamed in that scenario.  WE WERE CLEARLY OUTCOACHED. We were not just slightly outcoached, they literally saw what we were doing, exploited it perfectly and exploited it for THE FULL 60 MINUTES. And we were still in the football game because I think we have great athletes. Now the question is, do we acknowledge that, and make the changes? Or double down on this and get the crap kicked out of us by some good SEC teams?  Time will tell. Bobo was just awful, and Mason was embarrassing.  And we were still in the football game. 

[TigerTennis80 345]

3 minutes ago, Fastlax16 said:

Deceptive screengrab is deceptive and lacks context (time). That doesn’t show forward progress before he was pushed back into the end zone. Not that forward progress mattered for spots earlier in the game like that 4th down attempt that was 2 yards beyond the line to gain when the whistle blew and was somehow spotted short and not reviewed. Good luck the rest of the way. Hope this crew gets suspended.

Agree that those refs were egregiously bad. I was impressed with your D & #5 is a difference maker. Good luck to y'all the rest of the way. We look forward to welcoming y'all to Auburn next time. Maybe we'll do a blue out. Or something.  

[W.E.D 11,070]

13 hours ago, Zeek said:

QB - Bo completed 57% with a decent amount of drops and a few throw aways. If I told you he threw for 185 and no turnovers you'd think it's a win. He ran for an additional 19 and one critical conversion. Had one pass that should have been intercepted and one way off after tweaking his shoulder that stood out to me. Otherwise I feel like he did enough on his end to put us in a spot to win

He looked marginally better on the road than before. I'm not sure he's ever going to be an elite QB.

Most concerning thing still is what the hell is going on with his deep passes.  They are now these moon shots and its not like we like we WRs that are elite 50/50 guys.

[W.E.D 11,070]

14 hours ago, Zeek said:

DL - absolutely horrendous. Clifford even said in his post game interview he had all day to throw. The lack of a pass rush absolutely killed us. How there wasn't one holding call blows my mind but still we had almost no pressure here all game

Said this in the game thread, it looked like their main goal wasn't to rush the passer and open up running lanes. Just keep him in front and hope our DBs could cover well enough. 

Just didn't seem like they were trying to get pas their guys

[Zeek 16,660]

1 minute ago, W.E.D said:

Said this in the game thread, it looked like their main goal wasn't to rush the passer and open up running lanes. Just keep him in front and hope our DBs could cover well enough. 

Just didn't seem like they were trying to get pas their guys

It was brutal. Holding was atrocious (wild neither team got called when we all know it happens almost every play).

[W.E.D 11,070]

14 hours ago, Zeek said:

Playcalling was bad. Outside screens were too slow against a Penn State D that was FLYING around the field. Very impressed with their defense.

The reverses and cute stuff absolutely killed us. That fumble at the start of the second half was brain dead. We could have ran on them all game and Bo should have been an intentional factor in the run game to keep them off Tank/Hunter.

The 4th down call was assanine. Based on how it was thrown I 1,000,000٪ believe it was done with the intention of drawing a PI. Power-I to Tank might have been predictable but I'll be damned if I don't trust him to get 2 yards. Hell do a 5 WR set and let Bo scramble. Heck a rollout with Shenker in front of him even.

Hunter needed more touches. The sweeps and reverses are for the birds. Sugar huddle doesn't work for us even with a new staff just stop.

Defense was flat out embarrassing compared to expectations. Made Clifford look like ******* Joe Burrow. McCreary spy #5 and LB spy #86 that's there whole offense right there. 

I give Harsin, Bobo, and Mason a F grade. It was bad all around from a game plan perspective 

[USATiger 741]

I gave my opinion of our QB performance last night.  Early on, I gave explanations for being critical, wrong reads, terrible passes, etc...not going to rehash it.  I will say this, and with 100% certainty, in the QB meeting this afternoon, Harsin and Bobo w 

[Zeek 16,660]

6 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

He looked marginally better on the road than before. I'm not sure he's ever going to be an elite QB.

Most concerning thing still is what the hell is going on with his deep passes.  They are now these moon shots and its not like we like we WRs that are elite 50/50 guys.

Pretty sure Moon shots were due to injury. Doesn't seem like he'd suddenly change his deep shot trajectory out of nowhere. Maybe an attempt to not over throw and let the receiver get under it? Agreed.

 

Here's what I'll say so everyone can have the screenshot and be pleased. Bo isn't elite. Bo isn't great. At this point I don't think he's going to ever be great. He's improved a lot but there's some stuff he just doesn't have. The deep ball accuracy isn't there and his inconsistent fundamentals will keep him from ever being a deadshot passer.

That being said. He's easily in the top 30 in the country with what he does bring to the table. He's at worst the 5th best QB in the SEC and we don't need him to be much better in order to win and win big. What he did last night was enough to win. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter when other aspects of the game aren't there. 

100% completions in the second half by Clifford is going to lead to a loss. No pass rush makes that even worse. Blown coverages (repeatedly) spells disaster. 

The reason I come to Bo's defense is because it often feels like he gets unnecessarily blamed the moment something isn't perfect. I know there's the homers who never attribute blame to him too. There are VERY few fans I find to be reasonably level headed enough to have a legitimate conversation about his game.

People don't understand an average to below average quarterback gets eaten alive by that Penn State defense. Bo is good but not great and that's okay. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

15 minutes ago, Zeek said:

It was brutal. Holding was atrocious (wild neither team got called when we all know it happens almost every play).

There was one tackle that seemed really egregious. Those are the only holding calls that should be made. Officials were really bad.

[USATiger 741]

Nah there were multiple holds downfield as well that effected the game.  One on PSU's last score, TE caught the ball but we had a defender in position to make the tackle, but was tackled by the WR trying to block him

[Zeek 16,660]

2 minutes ago, USATiger said:

Nah there were multiple holds downfield as well that effected the game.  One on PSU's last score, TE caught the ball but we had a defender in position to make the tackle, but was tackled by the WR trying to block him

Every time they ran that receiver screen we got molested.

[WDE_OxPx_2010 5,319]

It was pretty obvious that this was our first test as a zone defense. We've been playing man for years, it'll take time to get it perfected. This will provide good tape.

I don't hate the reverse pass decision to open the 2nd half. Moment was too big for Hudson, but the play call was ok. 

Hudson also bailed on the 4th down play. Say what you will about the pass (it was catchable), but I've watched the replay several times and he clearly was trying to draw a flag, never tried to run the full route.

Great game, we'll build off of this and will have a fun season.

[W.E.D 11,070]

9 minutes ago, USATiger said:

Nah there were multiple holds downfield as well that effected the game.  One on PSU's last score, TE caught the ball but we had a defender in position to make the tackle, but was tackled by the WR trying to block him

Was only talking about the OL

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

29 minutes ago, Zeek said:

Pretty sure Moon shots were due to injury. Doesn't seem like he'd suddenly change his deep shot trajectory out of nowhere. Maybe an attempt to not over throw and let the receiver get under it? Agreed.

 

Here's what I'll say so everyone can have the screenshot and be pleased. Bo isn't elite. Bo isn't great. At this point I don't think he's going to ever be great. He's improved a lot but there's some stuff he just doesn't have. The deep ball accuracy isn't there and his inconsistent fundamentals will keep him from ever being a deadshot passer.

That being said. He's easily in the top 30 in the country with what he does bring to the table. He's at worst the 5th best QB in the SEC and we don't need him to be much better in order to win and win big. What he did last night was enough to win. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter when other aspects of the game aren't there. 

100% completions in the second half by Clifford is going to lead to a loss. No pass rush makes that even worse. Blown coverages (repeatedly) spells disaster. 

The reason I come to Bo's defense is because it often feels like he gets unnecessarily blamed the moment something isn't perfect. I know there's the homers who never attribute blame to him too. There are VERY few fans I find to be reasonably level headed enough to have a legitimate conversation about his game.

People don't understand an average to below average quarterback gets eaten alive by that Penn State defense. Bo is good but not great and that's okay.