Looking back on Saturday

[Aubie7 0]

I have purposely not read or listened to anything since the game on Saturday. That goes for this site also. Nothing I could hear or read would have made me feel any better. My worse nightmare came true. Auburn did not show up and play a solid game on Saturday against Tech. I know many of you will say how good our QB looked or other positions did well, however, it doesn't matter. At this point all of the football pundits and announcers seem to be right. We are not the same team with last years backfield and defensive backs gone.

That being said, let's look at the game:

1) The opening video was a joke. I was embarrased by it. It seemed to be a promo for one or two players(by no fault of their own). Of course last years was great and would be hard to match, but this one was AUful!

2) punting- When in the name of blue blazes are we ever going to see an Auburn kicker try for the "coffin corners"? This has gone on since 1993. How many times do we have to see Auburn get inside the 45 only to kick the ball thru the opponents endzone? Enough! Just look at what the FSU kicker did to Miami last night. He constantly kicked to the sideline and kept Miami backed up all night.

3) Offensive line- Where was it? Never stopped the blitz. When watching Tiger Walk, I thought I was seeing a high school team going to he stadium. Surely we can recruit bigger players. Defesive line- Where were our great DE'S? Most of the night they were chasing R. Ball down as he ran around them.

4) defensive backs- Auburn is in bad shape when MP is our best DB. He does his best I know, but none of them cover very well.

5) Linebackers- Speed is all we have heard, didn't help. They were constanly outrun on the corners and blocked.

6) defensive line- where were they? I can tell you, they were being blocked by much bigger players

7) Gene Chizik is a genius! We are going to miss him.

8) We have NO running game. Tech said they would stack the line and stop the run and they did. They said they would put the game in the hands of our QB, to win or lose, and that is what happened.

9) CTT is 0-3 against opening with a quality opponent. Maybe we need to play more Ball States in the future and not Washington States.

10) Suddenly, no game on the schedule is a gimme. Look at what TCU did to OU. Saturday against is now a MUST WIN! Who would have thought that beating might make the difference between a 7-4 and 6-5 season.

11) Finally, for now, Auburn has regained their position as a middle of the pack team. This year was a chance to make a statement that last year was not a fluke.

The only way to do that is to go 10-0 the rest of the way. It won't happen. The worse thing is that now, everyone knows they can beat us. The good news is that we can stop worrying about the BCS. The bad news? Where will the Independence Bowl be played?

I hope that all of the "half-full" glasses that were drank this weekend didn't have poison in them. Too many people on this site, and elsewhere had too high expectations for this team. I am going to stick with my "8-3 at best " decision and hope that we do better than that. As it is, it could get worse.

[AUesquire 1]

Even as disappointed as I was in losing to GT, I don't think I could possibly find that many negatives in that game. For me, the bottom line was that most people knew this would be a war and it was. If you had no interest in either of these two teams, you would have simply been watching a very competitive game. The difference as I saw it, was execution in a few areas such as picking up the blitz and cutting out the mental mistakes like procedure penalties. These were all drive killers.

Our DBs got burned early then settled down to play fantastic, Montae Pitts included. Step back for a second and take your passion for Auburn out of the equation. If you look at this team realistically, I think you'll see an incredibly talented and athletic team that needs some maturity at some of the skill positions. BC will be a great one and the backs have to get the job done picking up the blitzes. I'm still a glass half full guy and look forward to putting it on MSU.

Saturday is coming and so is Miss. State. Let's get ready for those nasty, smelly ole Bulldogs and go 1-0 in the SEC. It's on to Hotlanta.

[mcgufcm 4,107]

this weekend was a disappointment for sure, but not a total surprising unless you're really, really naive. i will say that we lost for reasons that i didn't expect which made it a little harder to swallow, but if you really think this team's going to 6-5, pm me your name and phone number so that we can put a couple thousand dollars on it. i've got student loans to pay, and i'd rather do it with your money than mine.

as for stuff you said or i saw:

you didn't watch the second video i take. last year we ran two videos: a pump you up as the players ran out video and THE video. this year we ran two videos: the "horror movie" thing and the "unity, courage, etc" video. keep your eyes open.

i don't know how you can complain about kody. only one kick actually went into the endzone. the rest fell inside the ten and weren't fielded by the gunners. kody had a solid game and might have been our best player on the field.

the middle of the oline disappointed me. marcus and troy played pretty good, but the interior seemed to be where most of the breakdowns were. the backs also missed some blocks, and it wasn't just one of them. they are as important as any lineman when it comes to blitz pickup.

after seeing our dline this year i can honestly say without cracking a smile. if i could trade ANY TWO of our ends now to get back brett and doug and keep which ever two ends i have as backups, i'd do it in a heartbeat. you have to play the run first, and you have to stay home on the backside of a play.

montae played great. if you have a knock on him, i don't respect your opinion. at all. my question is for gibbs: how does he not start????? not only was montae better than patrick, he was the best corner on the field for either team! he's gotten a lot better, and he shut down calvin johnson in the second half after we switched david off. irons got better as the game progressed.

the linebackers we disappointing. that's all i'll say b/c i haven't been very nice about it. i just expected more.

i agree that i never want to play big opponents to start the year again. we just don't show up for it. that doesn't mean you can't play them, just don't schedule them as the opener. get a win, get some confidence, get into the season, then play good teams.

we do have a running game. look at the first drive of the fourth quarter (i believe) for proof. we ran it like 8 times in a row for at least 3 first downs. we just didn't commit to running the ball which was a shock. i've never seen a tubby team drop the run from opening kickoff. we didn't even give it a chance. this was EASILY the worst game borges has called since joining the staff. without a close second. he put WAY TOO MUCH on brandon's shoulders which is why i refuse to complain about cox's performance. that was all borges' fault. heck as "bad" as we ran the ball, tre finished with a 4 ypc average. you get first downs rushing at 4 ypc. we have to get back to being a balanced team b/c we won't win many throwing the ball 45 times.

it's not as bad as it seems. i told a friend of mine the most lose-able games in my mind were tech, arkansas, and lsu. i stand by that. win any of those and i think you'll have a shot at a 10 win year. we can still do that. we just have to fix the mistakes which is a lot better than watching a game and realizing you don't have the talent to win. we have to talent just got to shore up the problems and move on.

war eagle!

[AURainman 6]

[mcgufcm 4,107]

oh i forgot to add the worst thing about the game. the crowd sucked. sucked. if that's how the stadium is going to be for night games, i hope we never play another night game as long as i live. i'm serious. start to finish that place was dead.

if the eagle can't circle, don't fly'em. period. the bird looked like it came out of the cage and got shot. seriously. i feared for its life.

how did the band get bigger and the music get quieter? my entire section couldn't even hear them playing during the pregame show. how is the possible?

students, if you read this, you have to yell. all the time. you don't sit down every time there is a lull in the game, or a timeout, or whatever. you stand up! i was the only one standing in my entire section (above the band to the right) on multiple occasions. halftime is for sitting. i asked two guys i didn't know why they sat down at every possible opportunity. response? "i'm tired man; i've been up since 10." great. we're the only team in the world with fans that get worse at night. boooooooo on espn or espn2, leave us alone.

i've been coming to games since i was a kid, and i've been a student for longer than i care to disclose. that was the worst showing from a jordan-hare crowd i can remember. we were louder in 2003 when we lost all the time. a team with a 15 game winning streak deserves better. i hope we give it to them the rest of the year since we already let those guys down once. stop the home field disadvantage!

[aumoore 0]

Guys remember the team on theother side of the ball has something to do with your winning and loosing. GT is a respectable team that was ranked when we played them. They have a veteran QB that beat Auburn three years ago. They have an EX NFL Coach so he has to be better than Mike Dubose. Some of you act like we just lost to Ball State or something. If Auburn had not shoot itself in the foot all night inside the red zone we would have won. Despite all the setbacks we had close to 400 yards offense.

GT is not a world beater but did you expect Auburn to go 13-0 this year. I will be happy with 8 regular season wins and a bowl win. The mistakes will be corrected and the coaches now know what they have to work with.

Cox will be fine and I am sure he feels bad enough withour a bunch of spoiled grown men talking trash about him. Those of you that bash the players for making your day miserable probably were the ones that bashed Jason Campbell.

I still see this team winning 8-9 games and going to a good bowl.

As long as we beat Bama and have a winning season I am happy

[weaglewagon 1]

as a half full glass myself, i'm just glad it wasn't an SEC game. get the mistakes out of the way ( hopefully a season's worth in one half! ) and get on to playing better ball starting this saturday. GT is a good team and with an experienced QB that took advantage of our early defensive mistakes. the D settled down ( i presume good coaching decisions ) and mostly kept them in check the rest of the game. offensively, we moved the ball in the second half, even without a strong running game, but we turned the ball over the entire 4th quarter! if we don't have the turnovers, or at least cut them in half, it's a totally different ballgame.

trust me, i was as pissed off as anyone sat. nite & sun. i just refuse to think we have a horrible football team. lots of teams struggled on the opening weekend. we just played a better team than others did and paid with a loss. i'm up here in knoxville and you'd have thought UT got beat by 4 TD's.

war eagle! beat !

[vatz22au 142]

178786[/snapback]

LOL

[Aubie7 0]

Even as disappointed as I was in losing to GT, I don't think I could possibly find that many negatives in that game.  For me, the bottom line was that most people knew this would be a war and it was.  If you had no interest in either of these two teams, you would have simply been watching a very competitive game.  The difference as I saw it, was execution in a few areas such as picking up the blitz and cutting out the mental mistakes like procedure penalties.  These were all drive killers.

Our DBs got burned early then settled down to play fantastic, Montae Pitts included.  Step back for a second and take your passion for Auburn out of the equation.  If you look at this team realistically, I think you'll see an incredibly talented and athletic team that needs some maturity at some of the skill positions.  BC will be a great one and the backs have to get the job done picking up the blitzes.  I'm still a glass half full guy and look forward to putting it on MSU.

Saturday is coming and so is Miss. State.  Let's get ready for those nasty, smelly ole Bulldogs and go 1-0 in the SEC.  It's on to Hotlanta.  

178775[/snapback]

Those weren't negatives that I found,...they were facts. Pure and simple. Will they be corrected? Hopefully, but the competion will get better also.

[WarTim 3,457]

My ONLY "complaint" of Saturday night, in keeping with the "I will not bash ANY player" rule:

We had NO home field advantage. That is the worst AU crowd of any game I have ever attended. I know "they" scored first, but, we NEVER did ANYTHING to make it tough on the techsters...nothing.

Maybe WE should work on improving what WE can actually control.

[mcgufcm 4,107]

amen. the only thing that embarrassed me on saturday was standing in that crowd. tim did you know that nearly 90 thousand people could even be that quiet? i sure was surpised. i mean it isn't like it was the knoxville crowd looking at a 31-3 deficit at the half... it was a one possession game. we fans gave a much worse showing than any player on the field.

[channonc 466]

Completely agreed! I was yelling the whole time, while most of my row sat silent the whole game.

People MAKE noise, esp. when we are on DEFENSE!!!!

[AURainman 6]

Those weren't negatives that I found,...they were facts. Pure and simple. Will they be corrected? Hopefully, but the competion will get better also.

...That being said, let's look at the game:

1) The opening video was a joke. I was embarrased by it. It seemed to be a promo for one or two players(by no fault of their own). Of course last years was great and would be hard to match, but this one was AUful!

OPINION

2) punting- When in the name of blue blazes are we ever going to see an Auburn kicker try for the "coffin corners"? This has gone on since 1993. How many times do we have to see Auburn get inside the 45 only to kick the ball thru the opponents endzone? Enough! Just look at what the FSU kicker did to Miami last night. He constantly kicked to the sideline and kept Miami backed up all night.

auburntigers.com doesn't have "Inside the 20 numbers, so I'll give you this one. [sarcastic]Funny, I didn't know we hadn't downed one inside the twenty in ten years! [/sarcastic] Hmm...

3) Offensive line- Where was it? Never stopped the blitz. When watching Tiger Walk, I thought I was seeing a high school team going to he stadium. Surely we can recruit bigger players. Defesive line- Where were our great DE'S? Most of the night they were chasing R. Ball down as he ran around them.

Opinion

4) defensive backs- Auburn is in bad shape when MP is our best DB. He does his best I know, but none of them cover very well.

Opinion

5) Linebackers- Speed is all we have heard, didn't help. They were constanly outrun on the corners and blocked.

Constantly. Guess they never tackle either. Hyperbole.

6) defensive line- where were they? I can tell you, they were being blocked by much bigger players

Much bigger? Hyperbole.

7) Gene Chizik is a genius! We are going to miss him.

Opinion

8) We have NO running game. Tech said they would stack the line and stop the run and they did. They said they would put the game in the hands of our QB, to win or lose, and that is what happened.

Major Hyperbole. Fact-"We didn't run well on Saturday"

9) CTT is 0-3 against opening with a quality opponent. Maybe we need to play more Ball States in the future and not Washington States.

Finally, a hard fact. Thank you for that. It's enlightening.

10) Suddenly, no game on the schedule is a gimme. Look at what TCU did to OU. Saturday against is now a MUST WIN! Who would have thought that beating might make the difference between a 7-4 and 6-5 season.

How is this a fact? Sounds like opinion to me.

11) Finally, for now, Auburn has regained their position as a middle of the pack team. This year was a chance to make a statement that last year was not a fluke.

The only way to do that is to go 10-0 the rest of the way. It won't happen. The worse thing is that now, everyone knows they can beat us. The good news is that we can stop worrying about the BCS. The bad news? Where will the Independence Bowl be played?

Opinion, opinion, opinion.

I hope that all of the "half-full" glasses that were drank this weekend didn't have poison in them. Too many people on this site, and elsewhere had too high expectations for this team. I am going to stick with my "8-3 at best " decision and hope that we do better than that. As it is, it could get worse.

178772[/snapback]

The more posts I read, the less I like your OPINIONS. Especially when you whole-heartedly believe them as fact.

[autkidd 0]

I completely agree. After being in band for 2 years and playing the tuba nonetheless I wished i was back there. The student section just sucked. I stood up during the timeouts and everyone around me sat down. The idiots behind me told me to sit down. I looked at them and pointed at the band who was still standing up and said they were out at practice at 9:30 that morning and those tubas are around 45 lbs. If they can do it you can do it. They just shrugged at me and continued on talking with their friends. That really was pathetic. Hopefully they will get better as the season goes on.

[Aubie7 0]

Those weren't negatives that I found,...they were facts. Pure and simple. Will they be corrected? Hopefully, but the competion will get better also.

...That being said, let's look at the game:

1) The opening video was a joke. I was embarrased by it. It seemed to be a promo for one or two players(by no fault of their own). Of course last years was great and would be hard to match, but this one was AUful!

OPINION

2) punting- When in the name of blue blazes are we ever going to see an Auburn kicker try for the "coffin corners"? This has gone on since 1993. How many times do we have to see Auburn get inside the 45 only to kick the ball thru the opponents endzone? Enough! Just look at what the FSU kicker did to Miami last night. He constantly kicked to the sideline and kept Miami backed up all night.

auburntigers.com doesn't have "Inside the 20 numbers, so I'll give you this one. [sarcastic]Funny, I didn't know we hadn't downed one inside the twenty in ten years! [/sarcastic] Hmm...

3) Offensive line- Where was it? Never stopped the blitz. When watching Tiger Walk, I thought I was seeing a high school team going to he stadium. Surely we can recruit bigger players. Defesive line- Where were our great DE'S? Most of the night they were chasing R. Ball down as he ran around them.

Opinion

4) defensive backs- Auburn is in bad shape when MP is our best DB. He does his best I know, but none of them cover very well.

Opinion

5) Linebackers- Speed is all we have heard, didn't help. They were constanly outrun on the corners and blocked.

Constantly. Guess they never tackle either. Hyperbole.

6) defensive line- where were they? I can tell you, they were being blocked by much bigger players

Much bigger? Hyperbole.

7) Gene Chizik is a genius! We are going to miss him.

Opinion

8) We have NO running game. Tech said they would stack the line and stop the run and they did. They said they would put the game in the hands of our QB, to win or lose, and that is what happened.

Major Hyperbole. Fact-"We didn't run well on Saturday"

9) CTT is 0-3 against opening with a quality opponent. Maybe we need to play more Ball States in the future and not Washington States.

Finally, a hard fact. Thank you for that. It's enlightening.

10) Suddenly, no game on the schedule is a gimme. Look at what TCU did to OU. Saturday against is now a MUST WIN! Who would have thought that beating might make the difference between a 7-4 and 6-5 season.

How is this a fact? Sounds like opinion to me.

11) Finally, for now, Auburn has regained their position as a middle of the pack team. This year was a chance to make a statement that last year was not a fluke.

The only way to do that is to go 10-0 the rest of the way. It won't happen. The worse thing is that now, everyone knows they can beat us. The good news is that we can stop worrying about the BCS. The bad news? Where will the Independence Bowl be played?

Opinion, opinion, opinion.

I hope that all of the "half-full" glasses that were drank this weekend didn't have poison in them. Too many people on this site, and elsewhere had too high expectations for this team. I am going to stick with my "8-3 at best " decision and hope that we do better than that. As it is, it could get worse.

178772[/snapback]

The more posts I read, the less I like your OPINIONS. Especially when you whole-heartedly believe them as fact.

178879[/snapback]

So, using your logic, you wrote your opinion about "my opinion'. Great, that really helped. Here's what you can do to make me see you point of view (which I never will becasue it is pointless, just like your post) but give me your "facts" to disprove anything I said herein. Don't waste your time, because you can't. Those were and are the facts about the game.

[vatz22au 142]

I completely agree. After being in band for 2 years and playing the tuba nonetheless I wished i was back there. The student section just sucked. I stood up during the timeouts and everyone around me sat down. The idiots behind me told me to sit down. I looked at them and pointed at the band who was still standing up and said they were out at practice at 9:30 that morning and those tubas are around 45 lbs. If they can do it you can do it. They just shrugged at me and continued on talking with their friends. That really was pathetic. Hopefully they will get better as the season goes on.

178887[/snapback]

Cant say I can agree with you. I was also in the student section and everyone around me was standing all game, cheering as loud as they could. Im sorry you had that experience

[GaTigerFan 0]

One thing I'd like to mention....

Did anyone see the Frat boys throwing their drinks on the Tech band? Now that shows a lot of class... I mean really... what is the point in doing that crap?

[autkidd 0]

If its even worth anything, it looked as if the tech band was provoking the drunken frat guys.

[DKW 86 7,481]

We were loud in section 15, sorry for the rest of yall.

[AURainman 6]

So, using your logic, you wrote your opinion about "my opinion'. Great, that really helped. Here's what you can do to make me see you point of view (which I never will becasue it is pointless, just like your post) but give me your "facts" to disprove anything I said herein. Don't waste your time, because you can't. Those were and are the facts about the game.

178973[/snapback]

I can see it is useless to argue logic with you. I stated FACT that what you thought was FACT was merely OPINION. Until you get that into your head, I refuse to type any new message in response. It would be, like your ideas, WORTHLESS.

[tigerdude 0]

After all has been said and done about the fiasco saturday night, I am left with this nagging,, nagging thought. So many times when Auburn has a chance to step up and consolidate opinion on a nationwide level, that we have a program that is to be considered as among the nations elite, we leave it on the field. Face it folks, our coaching staff just posted another no show. The kids, I think, arent the problem. There is plenty of talent. Georgia Teck is the perfect opener. A game that we should win, but offers a solid test. And a game that if won, gives credence to our feelings that our program is solid. Saturday nights game will haunt the rest of the season. I fear that Teck will be a 6-5 team which will only underline our critics jibes when they refer to us as wannabees. Is our season doomed, absolutely not, am i a war eagler forever, win or lose, absolutley. I just am so disappointed that when we had a chance to walk the walk, our coaches were all talk. Come on guys, show us what you showed us last year when the chips were on the line.

[redfish99999 0]

Don't be so negative......

We have only three problems:

blocking,

tackling and

everything else......

[SupperClub 0]

We were loud in section 15, sorry for the rest of yall.

179094[/snapback]

Yes, we were! I have been in Section 15 for the last 3 seasons. I am still hoarse from the game. We know how to bring it!

[Aubie7 0]

So, using your logic, you wrote your opinion about "my opinion'. Great, that really helped. Here's what you can do to make me see you point of view (which I never will becasue it is pointless, just like your post) but give me your "facts" to disprove anything I said herein. Don't waste your time, because you can't. Those were and are the facts about the game.

178973[/snapback]

I can see it is useless to argue logic with you. I stated FACT that what you thought was FACT was merely OPINION. Until you get that into your head, I refuse to type any new message in response. It would be, like your ideas, WORTHLESS.

179117[/snapback]

"Yea, yea, fact, fact, that's a fact for sure, no opinion, just fact, yes..."

Rainman

What a great name. I enjoyed your movie.