FULLTIME: This first: the better team won. The “question” of which was the better team was not even remotely a question by game’s end.
This second: this offense can do anything. It can win any championship. That’s not the same as saying it will … but if it will get out of its own way, there is no game on the schedule it can’t win virtually by itself. That LSU defense was probably the best one Auburn will face all season. And they destroyed it. They humiliated it. 528 yards, yes … but 442 rushing yards is what Auburn does to freaking Sun Belt teams. They turned Drake Nevis and Kelvin Sheppard and the rest of that front seven into one of LSU’s neighbors … Tulane, or Lafayette or something.
In the end, Miles had to try and throw on 4th-and-6 because giving the ball back to Auburn was simply to concede. He had to take one gamble too many, one too early. Even when it’s off the field, Auburn’s offense disrupts what the other team wants to do. It’s that good.
It is a joy. Cam for Heisman. Nick Fairley for Lombardi. War Damn Eagle.
The defense might not help out too terribly much. But Nick Fairley will, and Josh Bynes will, and the secondary will do their best.
THIRD QUARTER: He’s on our team. I still can’t believe it:
By this point, Auburn has established themselves as the better team. If our Tigers don’t throw the game away with FUMBLES, MARIO or letting Peterson loose for a big return, we will win.
C’mon, Auburn. One more quarter.
HALFTIME: DammitdammitdammitdammitdammitDammitDAMMIT. Auburn has the chance to open up a two-score lead and really, really take control of this game, and they toss it away. Of course LSU comes back to tie the game, and of course they have the ball first in the second half, and of course we’re back to chewing our nails to the quick.
The good news: Auburn’s been behind at the half and been perfectly fine. Tied at the half, they are certainly capable of being perfectly fine again. But this game has “one play decides it, again” written all over it, doesn’t it?
Other thoughts:
— Where the hell would the defense be without Nick Fairley? And now he may be out with a head injury. Our secondary’s tackling is just flat woeful.
— We can run on anyone. But even we can’t drive 99 yards exclusively on the ground. Auburn’s got to get more out of the passing game.
— We’re at home. I still like our chances. But it’s hard to breathe. War Eagle.
Kickoff, 2:30 CDT: Eltoro Freeman is dressed; I would be surprised if he didn’t play given how much better he matches up against LSU’s ground game over the likes of Kentucky and Arkansas.
And that’s it. It’s time. The opportunity is vast. WAR DAMN EAGLE.
Pregame, 2 p.m. CDT: Jerry again. Lineupdates: Fannin is getting the start over Dyer at tailback. Both will probably play; sounds like Dyer still isn’t entirely over his knee injury. Not surprising, but much more troubling: T’Sharvan Bell is probably not going to play today. Chris Davis, it’s your time, my man.
Also worth noting that Ryan White has changed his jersey number; it may be to get him onto special teams somewhere, but it may also be because he’s the emergency corner today if someone else suffers a knock. And finally, neither DeAngelo Benton nor Trovon Reed will play today, but I’m not sure why you would have expected otherwise.
Pregame 12:30 p.m. CDT: Jerry here, guys. As Jeremy reported already, Malzahn has designed an Oregon-style flashcard for this week’s game … or did he? Maybe Oregon already had the card made?!?!?
That is a totally accurate and untouched screencap of Thursday’s game and not a Photoshop rendition at all. At all.
Elsewhere, the student section is bringing it. They are, as the saying goes, “all in.” This is 2.5 hours before kickoff:
War Eagle, gents and ladies. Thanks to Peggy for the pic.
The beat writers are also in the house, but no news on the ground just yet. But wait, before you leave TWER, makes sure you check out Mac’s last-minute projections, the same ones that GUARANTEED an Auburn win last week.
Pregame 11:25 a.m. CDT: ESPN’s “College Gameday” picked Auburn across the board. And how about that Navy to start their game against Notre Dame!?!? Kill ’em Midshipmen!!!! And a big thanks to the readers for checking in this morning. I’m finding the rituals fascinating so far! (Especially tigertracker’s poor ol’ mom!) — J.M.
Pregame 8:25 a.m. CDT: Just a few short hours ’til kickoff. The butterflies of doom in my stomach are strangely quiet this morning. I’ll be very limited today on posting things here ’cause I’ve got a thousand things to do and traveling around the mid-Atlantic before and after the game. (Any other TWER contributors are certainly welcome to jump in. And comment like crazy down below, gentle reader!)
I was wondering what everyone’s lucky charms or game day rituals were … you know … to ward off evil football spirits. I know you have them. I have them. A lucky hat. A lucky Godzilla holding a 2009 Trooper Taylor Towel. I think Coach Chizik has them too. How else can you explain the repeated appearance of the Under Armor’s “Mean Gene Signature Lucky White-with-Blue-Trim, Short-Sleeve, Turtleneck Windbreaker Bo-Diddly-Bob Wearing Thang”? You know what I’m talking about.
As much as I’ve made fun of the “Mean Gene Signature Lucky White-with-Blue-Trim, Short-Sleeve, Turtleneck Windbreaker Bo-Diddly-Bob Wearing Thang,” I will probably flip out if I don’t see Chizik be-garbed with it today.
So what are you doing today to help out the team? Grab those discarded chicken bones, put ’em in a Crown Royal bag and roll ’em out in some voodoo fashion to “spell” L-S-U-C-K or something. Not that I think we’ll need luck, but I DO think we’ll need something to counteract the devil-may-care luck of Coach Les sMiles.
If you haven’t checked out Jerry, John and Justin‘s posts from yesterday … do yourself a favor and check them out. (You know what? There sure are a lot of “J” names involved with this operation. Weird that I just now noticed that.)
Once again … let’s post up the BEFORE photo of the LSU braggart and hope that we get to see the AFTER shot later on. Weagle weagle folks! War Damn Eagle! Kick ’em in the butt Big Blue … — J.M.
Photos via al.com. LSU graphic by my special lady friend, Amy Quarles. Illustration by Noah Van Sciver.
The tackle by Bares on the td was awful. Just stay in front of him. Agh
LSU has done a very effective job of limiting our possessions thus far. It feels like we had the ball no more than four times in the entire half– punt, TD, FG, missed FG (not counting that bit at the very end).
Letting the punt roll to the 1 certainly didn’t help. This is going to be a game of a very limited number of opportunities and we need to maximize every one of them. This is the diametrical opposite of last week.
We win if we can just tighten up a tiny bit on defense in the second half.
It always feels to me as if we have a set of very creative offensive plays we use early on (as on the TD drive), and then we get away from them as the game goes on. I’d like to see more short passes mixed in, too.
Of course, if we can’t get the LSU offense off the field quicker, we won’t have the chance to do that.
It sure seems like the interference call on Thorpe wouldn’t have been called had it been an LSU db tugging on Darvin. Then three plays later the back judge loses his flag when the play clock hits zero. I hate the effin zebras in the SEC.
Three Auburn special teams plays are why LSU is in this game right now: Missed AU field goal, offsides on AU kickoff, and letting punt roll back to the 1.
We have go to take advantage on offense. Go for some 4 downs. We don’t need this game in Byrums hands.
And there is your Heisman Trophy leader, ladies and gentlemen.
GO, GO, GOD2ILLA!!!!!!!!! War Eagle! Alright, D. Now step up and play like you did on that first drive for the rest of the half. I don’t think LSU’s D can stop our offense, so it’ll come down to whether or not our D can hold.
I’d be ticked at that BLATANT offensive pass interference, but Fairley might have gotten away with roughing the passer, and plus it was 3rd down anyway.
Quote of the day on EDSBS’s open thread: “Superman wears Tim Tebow pajamas. But the Tim Tebow on those pajamas is wearing [God2illa] pajamas.”
Now we’re cooking!!! Let’s open it up!!
FANNIN!!!! GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
OK, seriously. No more. That’s it. REALLY. NO F$%^$%KING MORE!!! FANNIN SHOULD NEVER RUN THE BALL AGAIN!!!!
Never, ever, ever hand off to Fannin again please.
Well, on the plus side: we’re still winning. It doesn’t look like they can stop us. And the defense is playing well this half.
On the downside: WHY ARE WE CONSTANTLY GIVING UP OPPORTUNITIES TO STOMP ON THEIR THROATS!?!?!? We should be KILLING them in this game!!!!!!
At this point, Fanin has to have the football equivalent of the shanks right? No one just fumbles this much…
Fannin for alumni of the year. Can’t wait until he is out of the orange and blue. I don’t even want him as a receiver. Not even on special team. Sit him and tell him thank you for an average career.
Fannin is like Lorenzo White in Tecmo Bowl. Great skills, no ball control. Feel bad for him…
Should we hand it to Fannin first play from the 2 to get his confidence back? We may need him later. Just keep him near the sidelines.
There was your fourth AU special teams error, and now we’re looking at 98 yards to the other end zone.
On the plus side, if we can maintain possession and eventually actually SCORE, then we’ve kept the LSU offense off the field a long time…
What’s with that F’ing spot????
Terrible spot
Wow. That was horrible. At least God2illa got a decent length out of the endzone. Come on punt coverage, we need ya.
Finally called that block in the back, after missing it on that kickoff return.
Alright Defense, let’s GOOOOOOOOO
Defense stepping up. LSU only making big gains on broken plays
I’m not sure LSU hasn’t gotten away from what was working for them on offense.
The defense is slowly, slowly getting better earlier and earlier in the game.
You’ve GOT to be kidding me/ He had a foot in the ENDZONE!!!
LSU special teams, and Auburn special teams, are working together to keep LSU firmly in contention in this game.
And God2illa bails us out. He stood in that endzone and dared someone to tackle him.
Walt: foot of the player touching it doesn’t matter, only the ball can’t break the plane.
Yeah, I always forget which is which on that one. Either way. This drive will be EPIC if we score a TD. How unstoppable is our offense (barring Fannin fumbles)!?!?
FOURTH BEGINS.
We can do this if we just limit the mistakes and let the MAN do his THING.
4th quarter…LSU hoping to luck another one out…Auburn the better team and more deserving of the win in the battle to stay unbeaten…Bama will eat LSU’s lunch anyway…AU only team I can see beating Bama. War Dam (Cam) Eagle!!!!!!
Awful punt…basically guarantees an LSU score or more terrible field position for AU.
When are we going to realize it is better to just go for it if it is under 5 yards. Our punters are worst in the league.
We outsmarted our selves there. Gave up the easy first down to get all fancy. Jeez.
You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Good grief. We should be DESTROYING THEM!!!!!!!
sick
This is what they do. We knew it coming in.
At least now, hopefully, we’ll get the ball and it won’t be on our 1 yard line.
field position the difference today
Big play here
newton has added a new dimension. notice the slight hesitation as the D collapses into the middle and he can go off tackle.
Yeah, that delay has been good for 4-5 yards all game.
Great stats they are showing about how we are witnessing one of the greatest players in CFB history
WHAT WAS THAT?!?!?!?!?!??
Aaaaaannnnd more bad field position. That basically counts as another special teams mistake, right?
That… I just don’t understand. Why? WHY!?!?!?!?!? I was expecting the quick kick. Why did we go for that!?!?!?!?
Yeah, thatw as a terrible call. now lets holdem
I simply do not understand the repeated use of lower-percentage plays in critical situations today.