What I saw at the game.

[DKW 86 7,956]

O:

We need big time work on the OL. They did not come to play was obvious. We had no run game at all, got pushed around all night. Cox and the WRs HAD to try and win it because we just plain out and oput had our rungame shut down by a mediocre at best D.

We threw all over them all night. We choked everytime we got to the 30 late in the game. We would drive like the wind and then choke at the 30. Almost looked snake bit there.

RBs did not show up till late, but they did show up. Running gamew was big disappointment with this OL. Maybe we needed a wake up game.

D:

Where was the DL all night? A mediocre run game ran all over us all night! We consistently over ran the play time after time. It looked very much like a Lovett coached D most of the night. I think it will get better. But for now, we could trade DES with anyone and no one would ever notice. I thought they were the strength of the D. I heard their names only a time or two all night. Ball never got his uniform dirty.

LBs gelled pretty well.

DBs were pretty good against the strength of the O

Special Teams: Returns were great, Tre should try and return more. Kicking was sound. Kutch could have a little more distance, but he is a true FR.

Coaching:

D was not on the same page much of the night. Calls came in very late. Typical of any coaching change. We should get better later on. Over running the play was TOOO much.

O was not that good either play calling was ok. may have been to suit Cox in early game.

Overall: We looked worse than we should have. The overhyping of the DL was VERY OBVIOUS. They had no impact at all on game....

[Ranger12 53]

This is my first post game post. I have been very mad at alot of the posts I have seen on the board. Alot of them are all very negative and sound too much like bammers. It is the first game of the season with a new backfield for crying out loud!

David, your post here is done the way it should be done. It points out the areas that were lacking and need work on. It did not point fingers at individual players and start whining about coaches and their salaries. So many were praising the coaching staff after last year and now the same are starting to tear them down after one game! I agree with much of what you said. Alot of people are being critical of our QB play, but I though Cox looked good for his first start. Sure, he threw some critical INTs, but the OL was not blocking to well all night and he did not have alot of time to look for receivers. Given that fact, I think Cox did better then expected for his first start. He will get better as hopefully the OL will also. We had a 15 game win streak and it had to end sometime. We played a GT team that could be underrated. They had a more experienced offense then we did and their DL and linebackers looked pretty dang good! I refuse to throw in the towel just because we got beat in the first game of the season. We all knew that we were not going to repeat last season. I even heard some say that maybe we should not have opened against GT. What?! With so many griping about us having a soft schedule because of last year and now you want to gripe about opening against GT! C'mon Nation, we are better then this. We are AUBURN!!! We don't start abandoning our players and coaches after a tough loss! For those being overly dramatic and whining, you need to pull it together or start pulling for that "other school" on the west side of the state. Again, great post David.

WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!...through wins and losses.

[tgr4lfe 220]

O:

We need big time work on the OL. They did not come to play was obvious. We had no run game at all, got pushed around all night. Cox and the WRs HAD to try and win it because we just plain out and oput had our rungame shut down by a mediocre at best D.

We threw all over them all night. We choked everytime we got to the 30 late in the game. We would drive like the wind and then choke at the 30. Almost looked snake bit there.

RBs did not show up till late, but they did show up. Running gamew was big disappointment with this OL. Maybe we needed a wake up game.

D:

Where was the DL all night? A mediocre run game ran all over us all night! We consistently over ran the play time after time. It looked very much like a Lovett coached D most of the night. I think it will get better. But for now, we could trade DES with anyone and no one would ever notice. I thought they were the strength of the D. I heard their names only a time or two all night. Ball never got his uniform dirty. 

LBs gelled pretty well.

DBs were pretty good against the strength of the O

Special Teams: Returns were great, Tre should try and return more. Kicking was sound. Kutch could have a little  more distance, but he is a true FR.

Coaching:

D was not on the same page much of the night. Calls came in very late. Typical of any coaching change. We should get better later on. Over running the play was TOOO much.

O was not that good either play calling was ok. may have been to suit Cox in early game.

Overall: We looked worse than we should have. The overhyping of the DL was VERY OBVIOUS. They had no impact at all on game....

178394[/snapback]

I agree with everything David. I guess I over estimated the effectivness of our OL. Like I have posted in other threads, we lost b/c we got beat on both sides of the ball up front b/t the tackles. On another thread someone mentioned about not hearing McGlover or Groves mentioned very much, you are right!! Tech controlled our DL. If they wanted Ball to roll out.....They could do it no problems...they sued our speed against us...we got to get better playing sound fundamental ball on the DL. He would roll out with no DE any where keeping containment!!! Getting sucked in by the play action.

DBs played a bad first qtr...but improved after that. OVerall I thought did a good job containing Calvin Johnson.

Offense, did well most of the time. But our OL, kept hurting us. false starts hurt us bad, and they always came when we driving in from the 30.???? I disagree with others about Tre being our slowest back. I think Tre, Stewart, and Irons all have their good qualities. Tre looked faster than he did 2 years ago. Irons may have overall better speed, but I don't know that he is any quicker than Tre. Or that Stewart is any faster than the two of them. Bottom line is the three of them are GOOD!! When the OL blocked our RBs got the job done. They made some things happen also. I don't know why the OL looked so disorganized, my two cents is that Ross needed to be in there. He has more playing time with current line than Cope. IMO.

Our special teams looked fantastic. Tre did a great job on punt returns. Aromashdu looked ausome on kickoff returns. He looked a lot better on pass routes also. He looked like he was catching more with his hands and making moves.

We will have a great Offense, if the OL can pull together and get teh running game going and provide the blocking for BC. Great learning game for BC last night. From reading the blitz, or not...to handling the pressure....to moving in the pocket. Cox is going to be a great QB!!!

[BustemBigBlue 222]

O:

We need big time work on the OL. They did not come to play was obvious. We had no run game at all, got pushed around all night. Cox and the WRs HAD to try and win it because we just plain out and oput had our rungame shut down by a mediocre at best D.

We threw all over them all night. We choked everytime we got to the 30 late in the game. We would drive like the wind and then choke at the 30. Almost looked snake bit there.

RBs did not show up till late, but they did show up. Running gamew was big disappointment with this OL. Maybe we needed a wake up game.

D:

Where was the DL all night? A mediocre run game ran all over us all night! We consistently over ran the play time after time. It looked very much like a Lovett coached D most of the night. I think it will get better. But for now, we could trade DES with anyone and no one would ever notice. I thought they were the strength of the D. I heard their names only a time or two all night. Ball never got his uniform dirty. 

LBs gelled pretty well.

DBs were pretty good against the strength of the O

Special Teams: Returns were great, Tre should try and return more. Kicking was sound. Kutch could have a little  more distance, but he is a true FR.

Coaching:

D was not on the same page much of the night. Calls came in very late. Typical of any coaching change. We should get better later on. Over running the play was TOOO much.

O was not that good either play calling was ok. may have been to suit Cox in early game.

Overall: We looked worse than we should have. The overhyping of the DL was VERY OBVIOUS. They had no impact at all on game....

178394[/snapback]

Very accurate assessment of the game. Bottom line is we made way too many mistakes. If we dont turn the ball over we win by 10+ points.

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

Thanks for bringing good sense and reason back to the forums, David. I have read a few threads since I got back home late today, but I finally got disgusted at the thought process (or lack thereof) of some of the "regulars" and not so regulars that have now come out of the closet and we learn that they are nothing more than fair weather fans.

Your post was just about exactly what was on my mind. Some are placing blame (and more of it than necessary) on the wrong people. Guess what? There is enough to go around. I did see some stuff that pleased me and other things that obviously need improvement. To say that the coaches' lost the game or bad calls affected the outcome or (and this is supposed to be the cardinal sin around here) to say that a particular player is the worst QB ever and then to even insinuate that his job isn't hard and that "anyone" could do it is sheer insanity.

So, if you believe the season is over (Raptor) and that you could have done better at QB (PChamp) or that Tuberville should be fired (PowerI), why don't y'all go be LSU fans or something?

Everyone has their own opinion and everyone has a right to express it, but the way some of you go about that is childish, unrealistic and immature. This was the first game against what some of you are calling a middle of the road ACC team. Unless some of you are Nostradamus, then we don't know what type of team either of the ones we witnessed last night will be. Call me a kool-aid drinker if you want, but the time to panic has not reached us yet. When the team is in trouble with the law, Bill Oliver is in charge of the DBs and the head coach resigns on Thursday night, panic. Until then, I am taking a wait and see attitude. As I read someone else with a cooler head say tonight, this wasn't the first time Aubrun has broken my heart and it won't be the last. But I will be remiss if I "give up" on my team and my school as some of you already have.

Sorry if I hijacked this thread, but I wanted to thank David again for running a class site and providing a sane response to a disappointing loss last night. Too bad all his members don't have his same attitude.

Nice meeting a few of you yesterday. Hope to see you again at the South Carolina game.

War Eagle.