Score is 24 all – Auburn defense has just stopped UGA on the possession after the Washington Kickoff Return TD – Auburn’s defense is gassed and the offense needs to at least hold the ball for a while and give them some rest – the possession starts at 10:55 left in the game on Auburn’s 12 yard line – bad field position. Auburn has moved the ball up to the UGA 48 on 5 plays using every part of the playbook, runs, deep throws, short throws, and wildcat and the UGA defense seems a little off balance. It’s 1st and 10, 9:02 left in the game, Auburn lines up in shotgun one back, with Fannin in the short slot to the left, 2WR left and 1WR right, UGA is in a typical 2 deep zone under. Presnap, Fannin motions to the short slot left, but not in the typical alignment for our base run play and opposite Tate in the backfield. This SCREAMS “PASS!!!” to the defense. Sure enough, a half-hearted ball fake to Tate and Todd quickly loads up to throw downfield. Less than 3 seconds and the ball is out. Good thing because Isom’s man totally whipped him and is bearing down on Todd’s grill. The WR to the right side (Adams) has run an 18 yard Post Corner route which starts out at an angle from his alignment outside toward the goal post then he turns to run 90 degrees across the field to the side line at about the 30 yard line. HE IS WIDE OPEN!!!! This should be a HUGE gainer for the Tigers…unfortunately Todd throws the ball to the Skinny Post at 23 yards which means that the WR should start out again going to the goal post then straighten up down the field on the hash marks. And of course Reshad Jones for UGA is right there for the pick. This looked to me like Todd threw the wrong route, I put this one on him. Maybe it was an option route for Adams due to the defense alignment and Todd didn’t make the same read, and it could have been influenced by the amount of pressure on Todd. This was actually a very good play call. Had this play been executed properly Adams would have had the ball on the UGA 30 with room to run and Auburn would have been in great position to take the lead. I think this is one of those plays that in pressure situations one player makes one decision and another makes a different one. If they had run this play 250 times in practice over a 4 year span together they don’t make this mistake (they both make the same decision), but it’s the first year in this system and with these reads, this kind of mistake is going to happen until ALL of the players have the reads and decisions committed, not just to memory, but to instinct. The solution to this is consistency in the offense and more practice by the players.

Thanks to both you and everyone for the nice words.

DH, it would be nice to see more pressure, sure, but the secondary’s in such tatters I don’t blame Roof for trying to give Washington, Bates, etc. as much slack as he can give them. Leaving those guys on an island in order to blitz doesn’t seem like a good plan right now, either. It’s really pick your poison for the AU defense, and though I would like to see a little more emphasis on getting to the QB vs. the Tide (I’d trust McElroy and his wideouts to find some zone-holes more often than Cox and his, and the Tide’s line might be a little more vulnerable to failed blitz pickups), hoping Coleman and Carter could get pressure on their own vs. the Dawgs seems to me like as good a plan on paper as any.

Flesh Wounds: Davies and Jones are the worst announcers in the history of college football. “This situation reminds me a lot of something that happened to me back at Notre Dame in 1982……………blah, blah, blah.” Yes, the salary debate during a tied game was just more than I could handle. I try to keep my yelling at 2-D objects that can’t respond to an absolute minimum, but I’m pretty sure this game set the bar for me in that category.

Jerry – Keep up the good work. I was skeptical at first and sad to see the JCCW go, but you guys have put together a great website. Still think you should work in through a moniker such as The JoeCribbsCarWash@WarBlogEagle or something, but that might be a bit wordy.

How did our b-ballers get beat by MO State last night? I listened to the Niagra game and figured that was a pretty good win based on their 5 seniors and RPI finish last year. Don’t know anything about MO State.