After sleeping on it I’ve determined that yesterday proves how right I was. There’s no voodoo in JHS. The way in which we won proves that. They did not have any fluky plays, a ball did not bounce off our helmet into their receivers hands etc. We should have never been in a dog fight with a team that got blown out by New Mexico St. We simply played like shit. And they played like it was their super bowl. Our poor execution especially on defense has nothing to do with Auburn or their stadium. Honestly those who believe in this voodoo and who fear playing Auburn in JHS are only perpetuating the myth and are part of the problem. It’s like Stephen King’s IT: the JHS voodoo only exists to the extent that you fear it.
There are a few times this year where I feel like the team let one bad play get to them and change momentum if game Arkansas was one The 4th and 1 last night was another
The stupidest thing about auburn is how they act like they’re the only school with traditions or that have fathers that bring their sons to the game
I’m gonna need an explanation for how we let them run for 240+ and 5.8 ypc. Thought our defense was better than that.
They ran for 244, not 300+. They had three explosive runs of 42, 56, and 22 yards (two where Key missed his assignment and one on a Thorne scramble) that went for 120 yards. Those three runs each led to a TD or FG. The other 40 runs they had netted 124 yards. Not to go Zeke Elliot about it, but we just got particularly burned by a few explosive plays they had.
I was looking at 2022 by accident where they rushed for 300+ and 7+ ypc. So they were 244 and 5.8 ypc yesterday. Still not good.
Auburn had 337 total yards against us and 307 total yards against Georgia. So pretty close to same yardage.
Gave up way too many explosive plays in general. In addition to the previously mentioned runs, their final TD drive had explosive passes of 37 and 27 yards. The only grinding drive they had was the 16-play one that went through the third and into the fourth and led to a FG for them. From the time we took over the ball with 10:15 to go in the game, they had 7 plays for -6 yards total.
Yah so I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened. Defense had been pretty damn good all year. Then put up a pretty disappointing game going into the biggest game of the season. Hopefully it's not a precursor of things to come.
I get it, wish I could say something more tangible than, "sometimes they just get you", but that's p much what it was. I don't think there was some systemic breakdown or collapse, I just think a few individual guys didn't execute on plays that happened to be critical. To give Auburn full credit, they squeezed every last possible point out of every big play they made.
They were 4-12 on 3rd down which is obviously terrible. THey only had 93 yards passing on 6-17 completions. And they had 3 turnovers. And only 337 total yards. So on paper , other than giving up 5.8 ypc, the defense had a pretty good game. It's just that many of their biggest plays came in critical situations and inopportune times for us.
Offense: 6 for 16 is not great on 3rd down conversions for us. 451 total yards is above average. 259 passing yards on 16 of 24 completitons is solid. 192 rushing yards on 4.4 yards per attempt is satisfactory. And we had 32 minutes in TOP compared to their 27. Milroe had 107 rushing yards and averaged 5.9 per carry. Burton had 107 receiving yards, 26.8 per reception, and a TD. And Bond had 75 receiving yards and a TD. So offensively we had a pretty good game statistically. The biggest issue was the 6 for 16 on third down. That's the difference between us kicking their ass as we should have and the game being way too close. Feels like there were a bunch of 3rd downs where either the receivers didn't get separation or Milroe didn't find them .
This is not the first game we have seemed very vulnerable to off tackle runs. UGA runs a ton of those plays…sure hope we come up with a better gameplan this week
Don’t forget 3 points in two red zone trips to open the second half. Game is way different if we finish those drives.
Did Will end up with the points record? I saw some posts on tmb saying yes but I thought he got 8 and needed 9?
I was driving and listening when this happened so I’m just now seeing it. Holy shit. I never want hear another peep about officiating favoring us.
New Mexico State held Auburn to 213 yards, 65 rushing yards, and 2.5 yards per rush. Auburn had 200 total yards against Texas A&M , and averaged 3.5 ypc on 41 attempts for 144 rushing yards.
Auburn rushed for practically the same number of yards and ypc vs us and Georgia. Suffice it to say Auburn played their best games of the season against Georgia and Alabama. And if Georgia's defense is the best in the country then ours had basically an identical game against the same team.
We’ll do a much better job stopping the run against UGA. It’s not even near the top of my concerns for that game.
We got gashed hard. I hope we can chalk it up to a bunch of overconfident guys looking ahead to Georgia. Because Georgia isn’t going to have a problem getting to 300 yards on the ground if we come out like we did yesterday. I haven’t rewatched yet but seems like they were opening up massive holes against a front 7 that has been pretty good all year.
I know it’s easy to say but I think you can just throw a lot of what happened yesterday out when it comes to UGA. Case in point, two years ago.
Listening to Travis Reier on Instant Analysis: -The hold on Law's TD run to bring it back then the shanked punt was a big 2 play turnaround in the 1st half. -Auburn ran for 300+ last year and we couldn't stop the run against this year. -When teams go empty we give up QB draws by leaving the middle of the field wide open. -Still having miscommunication between Seth and Milroe -Jalen had 2 throws beyond the LOS . Lose a down and backs us up each time. -Auburn only had 67 rushing yards in the 2nd half and we were much better against the run in the 2nd half. That makes me feel better. And it makes me think we figured some things out and made adjustments. -They had their way against our linebackers in the run games. Missed some run fits. Lawson had a hard time trying to cover their run game coming off an injury and Campbell had to play a lot. Campbell didn't always make the right run fit etc but did his best. This is a great point. This was a really tough ask for Lawson trying to stop a run oriented team coming off a lower extremity injury. -Arnold played at a really high level. -Issues from Alabama linebackers against the run: linebackers ducking under stuff , not getting over the top, bad angles, and technique. -Roydell was huge in this game. -Arnold on the pick 6 that was called back-was out at the 3 according to game stats - My Thoughts: -We can't give up the middle of the field to Beck and let him pick up 1st downs with his legs. That has been wide open all year against us and we just aboslutely can't let it happen. -We better be able to stop the run. That should probably be the #1 priority in practice this week for us. Need to work on fundamentals all week against the run. Run fits are going to be critical. -Whatever the hell is still going on with Seth and Milroe with the snaps has got to be fixed.
Man Im not sure if we have any other options, but like Kool Aid at PR im just not sure how you keep rolling Seth out there. It almost cost us our season last night
Also, if we are going to nit pick, Milroe not just taking off on that 3rd and 20 and doing whatever little dance he did with the LOS was incredibly dumb. He had an easy 15+ yard gain and a lineman in front leading the way The dude is one of the most electric running QBs ive ever seen but makes bizarre decisions on when to use his legs He won us the game though so whatever, Roll Tide
To be fair, we can’t really beat our chests after needing a 4th-and-31 conversion to beat an Auburn team that got blown out by New Mexico State last week. OSU will only be above us (if they are) until CCGs play out, then we’ll jump them if we win.
In the clip after Jalen comes to the sideline and is hugging one of the coaches, you can see Wolford in the foreground absolutely laying into Seth
The hold on 4th & 1, Milroe’s low throw to Bond in the second half, Milroe throwing late to Niblack in the end zone (he was open a lot sooner) and not just running for the first down, Reichard missing a 42 yarder, Burton’s foot being in but being called incomplete, the missed PI on Bond in the end zone, and the illegal motion that caused us to jump offsides all made that game much closer than it should have been
Agreed, Iron Bowl will always matter. Even for playoffs though, if we had lost that game then were to lose again next week, there's no guarantee we stay too 12 either. It would've still mattered
And RJF-GUMP doubling down is interesting. I thought you swore we’d beat their ass and nothing funky would happen? I don’t really believe in voodoo but I will never go to that stadium expecting a beat down
In other news, it looks like the bball team responded well to the Ohio St loss and beat Oregon. Out-rebounded them 40-28. Sears with 27 and Estrada with 22
Saban said after the game he’s just gotta go. So, at least they are aware and can hopefully emphasize that next week.
they still gave up 91. Pringle has been ass and the young guys are not ready defensively. We need major improvement from those parties or it will be a long season.
It’s time for the SEC scholar athlete of the week with a double major in finance and economics and a 4.0 GPA to take the reins at center. Spoiler