Boy oh boy, what a game! If that didn't remind you of the ole' Tubershell offense type of games then I don't know what would. Auburn leaned on the go-to guy in Michael Dyer at RB on offense, then played great defense and special teams and controlled the time of possession. It was a thing of beauty and a welcome change of pace. Now on to the grades.....
Offense:
Well, this game certainly wasn't the smooth flowing offense we've all become accustomed to from Gus Malzahn. It was ugly, gritty, tough, and in the end clutch. I almost feel that certain players will deserve higher (and some lower) than what the overall grade will be. I understand that the strategy installed by Chizik was to control the ball and keep the Auburn defense off of the field for the most part. If there were any higher grade than an A+, Michael Dyer would get it. He toted the rock 41 times (FORTY ONE!!!) for 141 yards and, in my opinion, did so behind a poor offensive line performance. Most of his yardage seemed to come on second and third efforts all day. Watching the game again, AJ Greene was absolutely abused routinely. I do believe that he has a lot of talent, but he flat out hasn't been using it. I honestly don't feel that he has that killer mentality that some of the other recent Auburn greats at Left tackle have had. The guards haven't exactly been bright spots either, in my opinion. I feel that, at some point, Auburn is going to have to enact the full-on youth movement on the offensive line. But, if they don't do it soon, there is no use in burning the redshirt years off of Christian Westerman and Greg Robinson. Everyone raves about how angry, nasty, and aggressive these two true freshmen play with. Well, I'll say one thing, they can't be much worse than what we've seen so far. Even the most amateur of OL should be able to abide by the old rule of "if you don't know your assignment, kill the person closest to you that isn't wearing the same jersey color". That's something that we haven't even been seeing.
Regarding QB play, there seemed to be so many things working against Trotter. Malzahn only ran the ball 3 out of 35 times on first down. That is not good when you're trying to be unpredictable on offense. And if you're predictable in your playcalling, it is setting your players up for failure. The only times that Trotter was passing, USCe knew we were passing and the DL were able to pin their ears back and attack the QB. We definitely have to continue to feed Dyer the ball a LOT, but at the same time have to have some form of balance out there or else the OL and QB will be playing behind the 8 ball all year. On a side note, Kiehl Frazier looked great out there in his limited duty (about 10% of the snaps). Chizik believes Kiehl is not ready to take over the full repertoire of Gus Malzahn's offense, but whenever he is ready I don't think there's much doubt that he's going to be very special. Even when USCe knew he was running, he gained big chunks of yards. Frazier looked a LOT like a former Auburn QB that won the Heisman recently (hint: not Pat Sullivan).
Overall the offense played good enough to win, Dyer showed guts, and Trotter was clutch. Trotter is definitely developing a certain level of trust from the players with his gutsy performances down the stretch of games, and that can't be overstated. Props to Trotter on that. But, our defense isn't going to be able to win games consistently for us if we can't put up more than 16 points, no matter what the strategy is, if we can't develop some sort of a passing game against LSU, UF, and Bama.
Offense Grade: B
Defense:
A major tip of the cap is due to the defense for their performance this past Saturday in a hostile Columbia crowd against the 10th ranked team in the country, and one of the top running backs in the country in Marcus Lattimore. It was pretty obvious that Ted Roof and Gene Chizik's plan was to stop Lattimore at all costs and make, the wildly inconsistent, Stephen Garcia beat them. He couldn't. Garcia did hit one big play to Alshon Jeffery that could've been called pass interference, but what happened happens when you have a 175 lb DB covering a 6'4, 255 lb WR. Bell was simply overmatched AND got shoved before the ball arrived, then dragged into the endzone. But Auburn stood strong for the remainder of the game, actually grabbing some momentum right away with a blocked extra point by.......
Corey Lemonier, who REALLY seems to have turned a corner. He was completely unblockable by the freshman LT of USC. There were many, many opportunities for the referees to make holding calls, but they let them play for the most part. Even so, there were still times where it was so obvious that they had to call it. Corey was a beast, plain and simple.
You had to be happy with the play of LaDarius Owens as well. He's taking his new opportunity, with Dee Ford's season ending with an injury, and running with it. He's made impact plays in each of the last two games. Very happy with the play of the DL overall, but could still use a little more push from the DTs on passing downs.
The linebackers looked worlds better as well. They played with great discipline and tackled much better overall. Bates actually wrapped up with a great sack of Garcia early, which shows he's taken note from the times last year where he got to the QB and went for the knockout blow (sometimes injuring himself: see Jordan Jefferson). I'm very, very excited about the potential that Jawara White has. He might be our best LB right now. Also, Eltoro has played with much better discipline and showed a great ability to shed blocks this past game and get to the ball carrier. Finally, our depth at LB has improved dramatically with Jonathan Evans being back from injury.
The secondary made two big interceptions when Neiko Thorpe and DeMeatruce McNeal each got their second interceptions of the year. It really seemed like they played with great discipline as well and were always where they were supposed to be. In my opinion, their coverage in our zone blitz plays was crucial in confusing Garcia and give the blitzers time to get to the QB. Bell did get beat once by Jeffery, but we discussed that earlier, but he played very well for the remainder of the game and did really well in run support. Our corners tackling well and making Garcia be perfect seemed to be their individual gameplan, and they executed very well.
Overall the defense made huge strides by holding the #10 team in the nation to only 13 points at home and they got better, and should get confidence from this win.
Defense grade: A
Special Teams:
We might as well just skip this segment (but we won't) every week, as they have been the strength of the team in 2011. Cody Parkey should be receiving All-American mention for his kickoffs. A kicker that can consistently boot the ball to or through the back of the endzone is a huge weapon, as it prevents the returning team from stealing momentum back by making a big special teams play. Parkey leads the conference, and is second in the nation in touchbacks. Parkey did miss an extra point that could've been very costly if we hadn't been able to score on our final drive, but it didn't seem to effect him for the remainder of the game.
Steven Clark, punter, was named SEC Special Teams player of the week. He averaged over 37 yards per punt, including 5 kicks downed inside the 12 yard line (two being inside the five). He was vital in making the USC offense be predictable in their playcalling.
Quan Bray did a good job filling in for Trovon Reed, but he still never had time to really make anything happen because of punt blocking. He did make one fair catch he shouldn't have, but I'll take that over a muffed punt anytime.
Special teams grade: A
Overall:
This team went into a hostile road crowd, facing the #10 team in America on the road and came out with a win, as a double-digit underdog. You have to love a team that just knows how to win, and this team seems to know how. Great job all around by gutting this one out. Now, on to the next battle in this ridiculous October schedule in Arkansas on the road. They're coming off of a huge comeback win against Texas A&M as well, so should be pumped.
Overall grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment