FULLTIMEWOOOOOOO
— WOOOOOOOOOOOO
— That, folks, is what this offense is supposed to look like. 492 total yards, 35 points, 334 rushing yards against what had been one of the best rush defenses in the country through three games. Gash after gash after gash. One punt in the second half, and only at the very end of the game. Against that kind of competition, that’s some pretty freaking incredible production. Never leave us, Gus.
— I can’t help it: Dyer 23 carries, 100 yards, 4.3 per carry. Lattimore 14 carries, 33 yards, 2.4 yards per carry. Dyer’s line gave him more help, but … yeah, this debate is years from being over, and our guy has as much a chance of winning it as their guy.
— Mmmmmm, the defense we wanted to see. I don’t think these guys are good enough to just shut down an offense with guys like Lattimore and Jeffery (Jeffery, holy crap) when they’re executing the way the ‘Cocks (and Garcia in particular) were. But they remain perfectly capable of making the sort of big plays that can make up for a lot of yielded yardage, and tonight–finally–they did. 4 turnovers in four possessions to end the game is going to give your team a damn good chance of victory.
— What were the odds coming in that the special teams’ biggest problem on the night was going to be Wes Byrum?
— Aaaaaahhhhh that touchdown drive after the second Garcia fumble–where they passed the ball once, and that once was the swing to Blake for the touchdown (and by the way, how sweet is Emory Blake?)–should be able to distilled into a substance I can inject directly into my veins.
— Cam Newton … I mean, what can you say? 334 total yards, five touchdowns, zero turnovers this week. Zero turnovers. If he stays intact and keeps playing like this, Auburn’s going to be able to do what they did tonight to an awful lot of teams.
— Only one crippling offensive penalty in the red zone. That almost qualifies as progress. Even if I may have sworn out a blood contract on any lineman that jumped down there at the goal line.
— THE SWEDE KILLA IS IN EFFECT, Y’ALL
— Does anyone think going to Shaw for those last two possessions was the right move? Anyone? Unless Garcia had his bell rung, that was just begging for, well, consecutive interceptions.
— Auburn is 2-0 in the SEC and despite the fact that both of those games came down to the final possession, Auburn has outgained their opponents by more than 100 yards in each. That’s a damn, damn good sign.
And overall, Auburn is as good as 5-0 for a second straight year. There’s a ton more work to do. But given the hurdles Auburn’s already cleared, that’s a hell of a start.
War Eagle!
HALFTIME
— Well, hey, we’re better off than last week, right?
— What’s so infuriating about that half is that Auburn is answering the major questions; the passing game is mostly productive, Lattimore has been largely held in check, Auburn’s offense hasn’t left the D on the field too long (they’ve punted just once on five possessions) … and it doesn’t matter, because Fannin and Dyer left the ball on the turf.
— OK, so it’s Roof’s turn to get flambeed, right? Honestly, it’s mostly deserved; we knew Carolina would run a ton of screens and draws, and what happens? Those screens and draws torch us. And check the conversion stuff below. But know that Carolina scored two touchdowns without even having to convert a third down. And Auburn has yet to force a three-and-out. That’s not good.
— A comprehensive list of the 3rd downs Carolina converted in the first half: 12 yards, 11 yards, 8 yards, 5 yards. 2nd downs that were eventually converted: 11, 10, 11, 10, 12. Auburn is tremendous on first down. And then the opponent looks to screens and draws, and our linebackers and secondary aren’t good enough to earn a stop. Sigh.
— Damn, Cam Newton. Not just 97 yards rushing and two TDs, but 7/9 for 73 yards–8.1 an attempt–with both of those misses catchable balls. Hell of a performance so far.
— Jeremy sent this to me and I meant to have it up in pregame, but by waiting ’til now, I get to note how super-ironic it is, give nthat Burns did not actually, in fact, catch this same pass in the game:
— How ginormous was that final touchdown drive? Not only the 7 points, but that it took long enough to prevent any immediate answer by Carolina … and now Auburn gets the ball to start the half.
C’mon, Tigers. Let’s do this.
PREGAME, 6:00: Update on starters: John Sullen will get the first call at right tackle, and in something of a surprise, Mario Fannin is listed as the starting tailback. I doubt that will end up meaning a whole heck of a lot, but it is a sign that Fannin will be involved in some fashion. (Wheel route city!) Oh, and as for Josh Bynes, apparently there was a rumor he was hurt. He’s not.
As for Alabama: Ryan Mallett is still Ryan Mallett. He giveth, and he taketh away like no other quarterback in the SEC.
UPDATE: Just kidding: Brandon Mosley is actually your starting right tackle, Dyer is the starting tailback, and–now here’s a surprise–Nosa Eguae is starting in Michael Goggans’ place at defensive end. Goggans was better the last two weeks than he was in Week 1, but I guess he wasn’t better enough for Rocker.
That’s all for now on this end; unless we get some sort of revelation between now and kickoff, the next update will be at halftime.
PREGAME, 4:15: So, how ’bout them Hogs? Obviously McElroy’s brainlocks have helped, but 300 yards in the first half is 300 yards. There wasn’t anything fluky about that half.
The pregame posts from the beat writers have started going up. As has been the case for the last few weeks, the big news so far is: it’s dreadfully hot. I have to admit that as badly as I want to get back to Alabama one of these days, hearing that it’s still 92 degrees on Sept. 25 isn’t, um, an enticement.
This just in: Tennessee is really, really bad. It’s one thing to let UAB hang around; it’s another to get flat dominated, 544 yards to 287, and win because UAB’s kicker had a J**n V****n day.
Since I almost never do this, I’ll do it now: I’m on Twitter, with occasional thoughts on the happenings across college football. Follow or just click over if you’re interested.
PREGAME, 1:10 p.m.: Not much going on in these noon games, not that we couldn’t have foretold that just by looking at the schedule. I had my hopes for UAB, and of course the Blazers are looking good in the box score, having outgained Tennessee by more than 60 yards. Too bad they’ve been outscored by 16.
So I’ve found some Auburn stuff to recommend: Track ’em has an insightful Q&A with Garnet and Black Attack; the discussion of the ‘Cocks expectations vis a vis Spurrier and his eventual retirement is good stuff. Andy Bitter’s weekly breakdowns are always worth a read; I hadn’t realized Gilmroe had that much success as a punt returner last year. Evan Woodbery notes that Mario Fannin’s return could make a big difference in Auburn finally diversifying the passing game; he’s very right. And lastly, if you’ve got ESPN Insider, their Scouts Inc. breakdown of the game is very well done; they predict Auburn’s defense to wear down after last week’s slugfest and the ‘Cocks to emerge victorious. That might be troubling if they hadn’t also predicted Auburn to lose to Mississippi St.
Lastly, man, I don’t get announcers sometimes. The Va. Tech-Boston College broadcast puts up the BC QB’s numbers: 10-of-22, 120ish yards, one pick (in the end zone to negate a long drive), 0 TDs. Announcer: “Shinski’s having a pretty good day.” Yes, a completion rate lower than 50 percent, less than 6 yards an attempt, one critical interception and no touchdowns–he’s doin’ swell. What would it take for him to actually be having a bad day?
PREGAME, 11:10 a.m.: I still haven’t made up my mind if it’s cool to be on Mountain time on Saturdays or not. On the plus side, as soon as I wake up, there’s football to watch. On the downside, that means I have to wake up by 10 a.m. on a Saturday. Six in one, half-dozen in the other.
Spurrier was just interviewed by Holly Rowe (love you, Holly!) and it sounds like there’s been a ton of unfortunate real-life incidents for the team this week. It’s a shame, and condolences to all the ‘Cocks who have been affected. But if there’s going to be any impact on the football field, it’s likely to be in Auburn’s favor.
OK, what the hell, SEC picks. Went 3-3 last week.
UAB (+14) vs. Tennessee: Blazers may have found something with their backup QB last week and this seems like the sort of “breather” game that Vols could flounder in.
Arkansas (+7) vs. Alabama: Not sure the Hogs will win–I kind of think Alabama gets the ball back up 3 with like 6 minutes to go and runs the entire clock out–but I think they’ll keep it close enough to cover the full touchdown at home.
Georgia (PK) vs. Mississippi St.: Two desperate teams. But State’s quarterbacks have been so poor I don’t see them getting enough balance to beat the Dawgs.
Fresno St. (+2) vs. Ole Miss: Look, Fresno is way better than Vandy or Jax State. Stunned they’re the underdogs here.
Kentucky (+16) vs. Florida: ‘Cats have to stop crapping the bed against Gators one of these years, right?
West Virginia (+7) vs. LSU: You know what I think of LSU. ‘Eers have great record vs. SEC, too. If Geno Smith will just not turn the ball over …
OK, so looking back, I took the points every time, didn’t I? Yikes, that’s probably not right. Oh well.
I’ll be back after a while with some pregame reading material. But for now, it’s coffee time.
Photo by Van Emst.
Wait until that kid shows up, Jerry. You’ll look back fondly on the days when you could sleep until 10 on Saturdays.
Yeah– since mine came along, I’ve called 10 a.m. “midafternoon.”
Also, you can watch the big espn night game, have time to (mostly) de-compress, and still be in bed well before midnight. Not so us east-coast dwellers.
3:30pm Eastern time. 9:30pm Kosovar time. Bedtime for me so that I can get up and watch the game. Y’all have fun with the pregaming, and I’ll be back in a few hours! WDE!
Tennessee was essentially dominated by UAB in that game. 544-287 total yards. The only reason they didn’t win was because their kicker missed 5 FGs…sounds familiar, no?
Tennessee got dominated by UAB…they may not win another game this year. I don’t know who’s left on the schedule, but it’s gonna be ugly.
I am a big fan of Fannin the alumni
Or is that alumnus?
My son, who is 5, had this to say about the first half: “This Auburn team is not so good.”
I made him go to bed. Although I worry he might be right.
The “O” is ROCKIN’ now!!! Come on D! Step on their throats and lets pull this one through!!!!
That’s not how you step on their throat though, D.
Darren Bates… you are my hero for that hit. Now let’s capitalize after the mistakes on that last drive!
“They can get a first down just inside the 1. They’ll almost have a TD if they do…” Announcer fail.
SWEDE KILLA!!!!!!!!!!
And where is everyone else tonight, lol?
McCalleb is FAST on the corner. Wow the running game is pounding the football. Come on Tigers! Finish this!
Wow we’ve got some offensive talent! 28 first downs?!?!? And what a move by Blake to keep his feet and then stretch to get the TD! Up by 8, and the crowd and team is rockin’, now! Come on Tigers!!!!
Spurrier playing musical QBs, now. Get in his face!!
Way to go Josh Bynes!!! Boy I thought we might have seriously hurt ourselves with that offsides. All we ended up doing is let them run more clock for us! Penalties have hurt tonight, but not as much as they could have. That block in the back on Sakerlina helped us out a whole lot, too. Come on offense, run the clock and let’s come out of this with a big win!
Please, for all that is good in this world… get a good punt off here since we didn’t get that 1st down…
WAR EAGLE!!!!! ALL WE DO IS WIN, BABY!!! What a pick!!!!
WAR DAMN EAGLE!! Bout time we force some TO’s!
Thank God and War Eagle. I was wrong!
War Eagle, y’all! Fun game, great outcome.
I feel like we should all pitch in and get Spurrier a fruit basket or something for pulling Garcia. I think we win either way, but I was scratching my head on that one.
In somewhat related news, Ive switched over to the LSU game… and its weird seeing db’s that are… you know, tall.
Walt, thanks for holding down the open thread singlehandedly. And yeah, that’s a freaking avalanche of first downs. Auburn never did get the huge bombs that tore Clemson apart and still racked up massive yards.
Wes, yeah.
Top unconfirmed quote of the week comes from Tub, on how you beat SOS: “You beat Steve in football the same way you beat Steve in golf: you wait for him to pull out a 3-wood when a 9-iron will do.”. Prophetic, no?
Isn’t Lutzenkirchen a german name? Shouldn’t he be the SAXON KILLA?
But anyways, YES: LUTZ, BLAKE. No: fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuumbles. Also YES: Dyer>Lattimore. And it was nice to catch a couple breaks there at the end – I really thought we were going to go to overtime again, sigh.
Poor Spurrier…during his life, he’s shed so many tears at Jordan-Hare…so many, many sweet, sweet tears. This was one of the best.
It got a little lonely in here tonight, but I couldn’t help but keep posting. I was sitting in my room, watching the game on channelsurfing.net (b/c I’m in Europe, and ESPN 3 finds nothing but cricket matches here), listening to it on my headphones, and trying not to scream out loud and wake up the roommate with every big play. So I had to have an outlet.
What a game! Our rushing is DANGEROUS right now. Dyer is a beast, OMac is SCARY fast when he turns on the jets and makes cut backs, and if neither of those work, then that delayed fake and Cam keeping the ball will continue to gash people.
Roof’s “bend, don’t break” defense was fabulous, too. Some silly things almost cost us, but those interceptions and forced fumbles were all the difference. I still can’t believe Spurrier brought in Connor Shaw, but he’s going to be a good QB for them one day.
And I loved the shoutouts for Jaybo Shaw, who is quarterbacking my GSU Eagles. Currently the best looking Div-1 football team in the state of Georgia! Looks like my GSU Eagles are on the way back to dominance in the FCS! A great day (night/morning) of football for me! GATA EAGLES (for GSU) and WAR DAMN EAGLE!
I’m with you Walt. i also went to GSU and graduated from AU. Best seven years of my life. Go Eagles and War Damn Eagle!!!!
War Eagle, Jerry!
Nice, J.P.! My father is a ’74 grad of GSC, and I was in the stands for the ’89, ’90, ’99, and ’00 National Championship games (and unfortunately also for the ’98 game). Working on finishing up a Master’s degree from GSU myself. Hopefully I’ll get that done in the spring or summer when I return from Kosovo.
WDE to all!
looks like 4 consecutive weeks that a tiger will be sec player of the week. think cam has that one locked up without me even looking at what anyone else did! Hallelujah, malzahn rediscovered the intermediate passing game!!!!!! Did anyone else see how that opened up…I don’t know…like EVERYTHING for our offense? I am super satisfied with that win. Sure I could nitpick, but this week I’m not. Celebrate this one guys, and take care of business early and often next week so these youngsters can get some reps and help us even more down the stretch. BIG trap game at kentucky though. At least the coaches have last years game film to show them. Road game and revenge on the brain should make a hell of a contest. Also, gotta say I hated the T-Pain stuff initially, but in the stadium watching the student section it was freaking awesome. Good Night and War Eagle
Another important aspect of the Auburn experience:
The following was posted on my Facebook page:
Marc Blumberg Went to the SC – Auburn game at Auburn last night. I wish we won the game but the Auburn experience could not have been nicer. Clean campus, polite fans, great traffic management, all very first class. Head and shoulders above any other SEC environment I’ve experienced. (No, I’ve not been to the Grove yet.)
about an hour ago ·
TigerTracker –
Don’t be surprised if Mark Ingram or Burton from UF (6 TDs!) takes home offensive POTW honors
It is my belief that Garcia failed his concussion questions.
The trainers were obviously interviewing him on the sidelines after the hit.
I just don’t see another reason why he was pulled.
I’ve witnessed a few concussion questions in my life.
I know it’s a very serious thing, but the answers can be some of the funniest you’ll ever hear.
Overall good game for us and if we had not turned the ball over, the game would have been over much, much sooner.
WDE!
Also,
I watched 3 different highlight reels of the game and in each segment, P-Lutz’s named was pronounced differently.