After a long, long, long period of waiting, we can finally tell our kids that's how it is supposed to be. I will say this, Auburn's defense is good, probably the best one the Tide saw all year, but the Auburn offense was the worst they saw all year too.
The Good.
Seniors showout
One that jumped off the page at me during the course of the game was Nikita Stover. Stover is one of those guys who seems to get up just a little bit more for Auburn. The difference in a 6-0 halftime lead and the 10-0 lead was Stover and his massive block on the outside. TV continues to have a hard time telling 8 and 9 apart from the booth and credited Jones, but it was Stover. He also beat his corner at least 3 times that I saw (once was the TD, second was underthrown to him, third Wilson went to Jones). Another big time game came from RJ. Johnson doesn't have to rack up the stat lines, but what I see that is vastly improved is how well he is seeing the play before the snap. The 2 senior tight ends had a nice day blocking as well. The staff is starting to use the McCall rub route as a bread and butter play each week. Have you noticed that McCall has more touches down the stretch than Walker? Bobby Greenwood got into the game from all ends on run defense, pass rush, and the blocked kick.
Defensive dominance
When Bama went up 10, the game was over. The truth is that Bama's 2nd string defense could have made for better television against Auburn, maybe, but the 1's on 1's was not even a contest. They held Auburn to less than 200 yards for the game and I'd say the 2nd half total yards was probably 50 or 75 yards at most. I thought all 11 starters, and the key reserves had their best game as a whole as well. The only blip on the radar was the last drive of the 1st half where they got flat footed because Burns started running and it caught them off guard a bit. After that, there wasn't much more heard from the Auburn offense other than groans of getting beat at the line and the sound of the ball hitting the soggy turf.
Run Bama Run
When the weather is horrible, bad, etc. you better have a running game worth a damn. Bama had one worth it. Coffee continues to really shine as the feature back on the team. When he was recruited, he was kinda the other guy behind Upchurch and Ford. Now, he's the guy that people will know for a while. Mark Ingram has probably the best footwork of any Bama running back since Alexander was on campus. His capacity to shift and keep body control allows him to gain an extra 5 to 10 yards at will. I think the offseason conditioning will do him wonders. Upchurch came in, made a great move to the outside, but you could tell he's not game ready yet. They need him as the change of pace between the 2 north south guys.
The best pass came at the last pass
To be honest, there wasn't exactly great quarterback play Saturday. Kodi Burns is horrible and needs about 5 years coaching before he'll be ready. Wilson has days where he's on target and days where the football looks like it is flying kites. Saturday was the second option. So, when McElroy put a rope down the right side to Maze, it was near perfect. I just wonder how many will scream Darrah, Darrah, Darrah or (fill in name here) over and over this winter when the clear heir to the QB job is McElroy? I thought the last 2 games Greg's played he's shown a better grasp of the offense and made some nice passes in traffic and under pressure. The big thing that will be different from him and Wilson will be his progression checks. Of course in mop up duty they always look good against a beaten team, but he does check down and finds the open guy where as Wilson looks for 1 maybe 2 and then tucks.
O Line play
Early on it looked iffy at times, but as the game wore on, they OL got on track and had its way with the defense. Credit the staff for finding something in film study that said Auburn would stack left and to run right. I thought this was Davis and Davis's best week and they seemed to know that they were the go to side and stepped it up. Marlon being on his last shot at Auburn seemed to have a sense of urgency on several pull plays and he cleared at least 2 lanes that I remember seeing. Drew did a good job on pass protection and continued to improve his run blocking as well.
Classy exit
I hope the recruits were around and paying attention to the game and not the tit willows when the starters got the curtain call in the 4th. It is probably one of the more memorable moments for me from the Iron Bowl in recent years.
The Bad.
Passing game
While he didn't have any turnovers, he had 2 that should have been. Wilson continues to get by on his play, but with Florida coming, he's got to step up and play like he did against Clemson, Tennessee, and Georgia. He underthrew several and overthrew the rest for a lucky 50% completion ratio. That's becoming an issue too. Go back and watch how well the offense flowed when he's hitting 60+% and how it chugs and clunks when he hits 50%. It is also why he's got 1 TD in the last 5 games and 2 ints.
Special Teams
Ugh. They were doing better, really, they were, but then it just goes back to its natural habitat of sucks. Shank punts, blocked extra point, and a few gaps on returns made for yet another typical game for the specialists. How an extra point gets blocked is beyond me, that's the easiest score in the game. There will be some stadium running for a few. Yes, Saban got all over Fitzgerald, but it isn't just him. PJ hasn't had a great year, he's had a good 2 or 3 games going into Auburn, so you can't expect miracles every week, just this coming week I hope....
The Ugly.
none
Random Thoughts
As I watched the 2 replays on CSS, it hit me that Auburn isn't far off from being back where they were. Their defense is good, it just wears out from playing so long. The only thing they need on defense is depth building. Offensively, man where to start? They don't have a fluid system right now. Period. Burns is starting to spite Tony Franklin who would go with Todd. Todd is a better QB hands down than Burns, he isn't Jason Campbell but he's better than the alternatives. What confuses me about Auburn's philosophy is their best player gets 8 touches tops. I still feel like Tubberville has packed his bags and went on cruise control to get out the door. However, I wouldn't go around yelling how bad Auburn is going to be for years to come, just yet, because with a QB and a gameplan on offense, they'll be in the hunt again.
Eventually, the story on Sly Croom will come out. My gut feeling at first was that they told him to clean the house out and Croom again said no and was ousted then. Second gut feeling says he quit to avoid the resume saying fired at MSU. Now, the debate will rage for years on these sites about Croom and how good or bad he is. Let's be fair and divorce our minds of the Alabama factor in it (at least the off field part) and look at what he inherited and where it ended up. He took a program on probation, with no in roads to recruiting talent, discipline problems galore, etal and while the W-L record doesn't show it, he developed a system of conditioning and discipline that paid dividends last year, but a lack of offensive talent and strategy failed him in the end. ESPN did have a good point, Black coaches are getting shitty jobs and being asked to make something out of them like Croom did in part at State and Turner Gil is doing at Buffalo. UT, Clemson, and others won't seriously look at a Black coach because they want status quo names like the ones being mentioned and hired. Personally, I think Croom would do better at a UCLA or Washington or Clemson than in the SEC right now.
Ding dong Fulmer is gone. I told my dad and brother Saturday that the perfect Saturday needed Kentucky to beat UT. Sadly, I'll have to wait. Fulmer thinks he can coach somewhere else and be successful, but I hate to tell him it won't happen if he doesn't rededicate himself to recruiting. I'd hire Croom over Fulmer because the stench is less. Hell, I'd hire Tubberville over him, Tubberville hasn't gone through the ups and downs nearly as much as Phil has. I would hire Fulmer over Mike Shula or Mike Price or Mike Dubose though, but that isn't saying anything.
Buy/Sell/Hold
The Big 12 is the best conference in the nation.
BUY. Earlier this year I said the SEC was. The SEC has tripped on its ego I'm afraid. The problem is that you have Bama and Florida, but then the distance between them and Georgia, the next best team, is pretty far. Truth is, the SEC is down this year. It is why the SEC champ is the only BCS contender this year, whereas last year UGA had an outside shot, because their schedules and victories aren't that great looking at the end as they were at the time they played. That is why Bama isn't getting as much love as OU and Texas are because Bama's big wins are against a 6 win Clemson, a 7 win LSU, a 5 win UT, and a 9 bad win UGA team. Same goes for Florida. FSU isn't as big as it used to be, they don't have a wow factor on their resume either, but the style points and the beat downs they've given get them there.
Bama did run up the score on Auburn
SELL. For me, there is no such thing as running up the score when you are playing rivals or conference foes. The only time such occurs is against the Sister Mary of the Blind, Deaf, Mutilated, Impotent, and Homosexually challenged games. You line up and play 1st strings and 2nd strings the full 60 minutes when you play conference games. It isn't your job to stop yourself short, that's the opponent's job.
Those who said Paul Johnson couldn't coach in the SEC should line up for crow.
BUY. Is it stylish or going to get a Julio Jones or top end QB? No. Is it going to wear out teams, score points, and win games? Yes. When Tech beat MSU like a drum, we all kinda dismissed it as State. When they unloaded 200 yards rushing in the 3rd quarter alone, damn that's some yards gained, it was worth noting. Johnson is a good coach and is a lot like Bobby Johnson, he can take talent overlooked by the big brothers and make winners out of them. Could he win a NC or SECC? Dunno, he'd be 2nd in the East right now though.
The Big 12 tiebreaker is flawed and should be scrapped.
BUY. How on earth do you say a team that got beaten thoroughly goes ahead of the team that thumped them? I like the SEC's system better that says if 2 teams are within 3 spots of each other it reverts back to H2H. That would have put Texas, the rightful contender, in the B12C again. Instead, we now have the issue of who deserves to play the SEC champ in January? OU or Texas? What happens if Missouri finds a miracle, and it seems to happen a lot in the 12 championship games (Tx beat NU in the 1st, aTm upset KSU, CU beat Tx), who goes then? Texas, the jilted champion? USC, the quiet army from the west? The loser of the SECC? Seriously, what happens if say Bama wins on a last second field goal or TD and wins by 1? Is Florida not worthy in that case, or not as worthy as Tx or USC? That is why I hate the BCS.
LSU is on the way down with Auburn.
HOLD. Here's the history lesson for all to remember: where was Alabama and Florida this time last year? It can amaze me that folks think offseasons only work for their team and not others. I'd hold judgement on LSU and others until we see what they are playing with in August. I do think both might be in trouble if they don't find some depth on defense though.
Stay tuned around Wednesday or Thursday, I'll have a Florida/Bama breakdown.
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