Important: Cameron Newton and the Offense

[Jonesy 1]

The play calling was dictated last night towards the end of the game not because Chizik decided to handcuff Malzahn but because MSUs defense handcuffed Cameron Newton.

In terms of SEC experience, Cameron Newton is just a freshman. His athletic ability is amazing, but he is still going to have growing pains reading SEC defenses. Last night was a great learning experience for Cameron Newton and the tapes from the game are really going to help Malzahn teach Cameron how to read complex defenses better.

Teams improve the most from week one to week two but because of the short week, Cameron and the tigers will improve most from week two to week three.

Clemson will look much different on both sides of the ball. That's the game where I believe both sides will really start clicking.

Most importantly, if they don't, we owe it to the team to be patient and supportive. We are their  people, and they are our  family. No matter what.

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

Outstanding post! WDE!

[weaglebeagle 0]

I agree, I was kidna recognizing this in the game. Cam was having a hard time with the plays being called. This was his first game in a hostile atmosphere against a defense with a pulse. I'm fine with last night as long as we see progress from game to game. I don't think we have any reason to believe that we won't. WDE!

[kflah 0]

Good call Jonesy.  I noticed that they started disguising their pressures and coverages much better late in the 3rd quarter.  I give Cam full credit for being smart with the ball and not trying to do too much.  I think his running was obviously crucial to our extending drives.  Every mistake made last night is correctable.  

Imagine being an MSU fan and having to watch him extend plays/drives all night (I guess we almost got to see him in an MSU jersey)........that would have been torture.

[BadrabbitAU 0]

The play calling was dictated last night towards the end of the game not because Chizik decided to handcuff Malzahn but because MSUs defense handcuffed Cameron Newton.

In terms of SEC experience, Cameron Newton is just a freshman. His athletic ability is amazing, but he is still going to have growing pains reading SEC defenses. Last night was a great learning experience for Cameron Newton and the tapes from the game are really going to help Malzahn teach Cameron how to read complex defenses better.

Teams improve the most from week one to week two but because of the short week, Cameron and the tigers will improve most from week two to week three.

Clemson will look much different on both sides of the ball. That's the game where I believe both sides will really start clicking.

Most importantly, if they don't, we owe it to the team to be patient and supportive. We are their  people, and they are our  family. No matter what.

If that was the case, this game would be anomalous. It wasn't. In 2009, every time we got out to a two score lead over a difficult opponent we slowed down.

Don't know if we're still allowed to disagree with the Mods on this board but I disagree nonetheless.

[Browning4AU 405]

Seems like he hard a hard time picking up the blitz. State had a good feel of the snap count and showed the blitz a split second before the snap = perfect timing. Seems like Todd had a difficult time with the same thing last year.

[AuburnEngineer 0]

Yea my fears came true last night with Cam... I think he'll

Learn quickly.. He'll have to or it will be a

Longgggg season

[AUFAN4EVER1345162816 0]

Thank you Jonesy for the nice post, I agree 100%. Finally someone who is sane and is not already calling for the back up QB, or wanting the backup to play more. I don't think people realize this is Cam's first year being a starter in the SEC, so he'll have some growing pains. People apparently expect immediate results from Cam. He had a rough night, but at the same time, he still helped the offense out more than anyone else, except maybe Dyer. He will learn from his mistakes, and we will see that potent offense we saw against Ark. State once again. War Eagle!

[AUIH1 1,515]

I thought Cam did fine for his 1st SEC road game as a starter.  He definitely has limitations in terms of accuracy and getting us into the right play.  I am much more concerned with the play calling, penalties and lack of running game from our RBs (I think it is obvious Dyer is our best RB even it has been only 2 games) than anything related to Cam right now. 

wde

[ausoldiergrad 57]

I agree that we will see a confident pumped up Auburn squad, executing in all phases of the game.

[AuburnEngineer 0]

Thank you Jonesy for the nice post, I agree 100%. Finally someone who is sane and is not already calling for the back up QB, or wanting the backup to play more. I don't think people realize this is Cam's first year being a starter in the SEC, so he'll have some growing pains. People apparently expect immediate results from Cam. He had a rough night, but at the same time, he still helped the offense out more than anyone else, except maybe Dyer. He will learn from his mistakes, and we will see that potent offense we saw against Ark. State once again. War Eagle!

Who is calling for the backup to play????  You have to know nothing about football to not realize Cam is the best QB we have and maybe when he's done the best QB in a long time.  I doubt anyone has been calling for the backup so please refrain from starting crap

[AUfanLCDR 0]

Confused enough times to call Time-Outs for.  It is a learning curve the whole team seems to be going through.  The best part is they're learning enough each week to win.  Hope that continues.  At least CAM reacts with no panic.  He seems to be calm and collected even when confused.  To me that's a very good sign.

[aucpe 0]

I agree, I was kidna recognizing this in the game. Cam was having a hard time with the plays being called. This was his first game in a hostile atmosphere against a defense with a pulse. I'm fine with last night as long as we see progress from game to game. I don't think we have any reason to believe that we won't. WDE!

I agree with this 100%.  I was quite impressed with how Cam handled himself last night, and he is probably the main reason we won the game.  What you want to see with a football team is improvement from week-to-week.  Since the first week was against a smaller team, I consider this week one and I hope to see progress going forward.

[AUFAN4EVER1345162816 0]

I'm not starting crap, I'm just stating what has been posted on these boards. A few people have already said they would like Trotter to play meaningful snaps when the offense is struggling. It's on the thread "thoughts on offense". I'm not making stuff up just to get a rile out of people..

[TerritorialTigers 0]

Jonesy, you made a couple of great points and thanks for the quality information.  I believe last night was a much needed experience for Cam and I think he knew they were gonna come for him.  Cam did the best he could and knew to do and honestly that's all we can ask of him.  Should he have thrown it a couple of times, yes! The defense had a growing process last game and I believe the offense had one last night.  The O is going to evaluate what happened last night and make corrections.  Hopefully next week we'll see a more balanced and developed team.  We shall see in due time.  War Eagle!!

[Aeronaut 0]

Many times the MSU line and LBs would start rushing before the ball was actually snapped. I think that not snapping the ball (faking it or something?)  would've gotten us quite a lot of free plays / forced offside.  Also that would've greatly controlled the blitzing.

I don't know about the intricacies of doing such a thing. Someone more knowledgeable than me can probably correct me if I am wrong, or give examples of teams actually doing that.

[WDEvan 0]

I did notice Cam never panicked. He was always calm and took his time passing, not making any bad choices (except that one INT). I was more disappointed in our running game, but I guess I can blame MSU's defense for that one.

[Jonesy 1]

I'm on my phone so I can't quote reply, but for the person who said in 2009 we squated on 14 point leads, you're wrong. Almost everytime we went up 14 on the next drive we allowed a TD. That had nothing to do with the offense and everything to do with a depleted defense.

By the way, anyone is welcome to post any thought they have on my topics without fear of execution. I'm all for opposing opinions!

[laptop 0]

I'm offically worried about our O and our D. I think we will improve but we have a long way to go to get ready for some of the dudes down the road!

[auclassof04 0]

I think Cam Newton kept us in that game all night. As did the defense.  He will only get better!

[aubcali 436]

Cam did an outstanding job.  What needs to happen is a running back to step up and get the pressure off Newton and the passing game.  When this happens, the offense should be clicking on all cylinders.   Could you imagine a (healthy) Ben Tate in Auburn's backfield this year? (If only he redshirted his freshman season...)

[auburn24 0]

I'm offically worried about our O and our D. I think we will improve but we have a long way to go to get ready for some of the dudes down the road!

I am sure you are " LAPTOP "

[walker77 0]

I'm offically worried about our O and our D. I think we will improve but we have a long way to go to get ready for some of the dudes down the road!

Agreed...we WILL improve to get ready for the big dogs...

Disagreed ... I am officially not worried about either D or O... or special teams for that matter

= We are getting stronger...as long as injury bug stays away we will compete with anyone...

[telling tiger 156]

Laptop? You can't be serious,lol. You'd be better off named the crimson coke connection instead. Must keep the tide employed after failure to graduate. Parole tide

[AuburnSpider 2]

I agree and a W is a W, BUT, the play calling was entirely too CONSERVATIVE!!!!  I think Malzahn is still in a learning curve too.  He was IMHO outcoached last nite.