Well, T'Sharvan Bell said it best "they aren't ranked #1 on accident". Their defensive linemen were as fast as any DL I've seen in a long time. There may have been more strong, physical DLs, but in terms of pure speed they take the cake....
that being said, the Auburn Offensive line had as poor of a showing as I've seen from Auburn in the 3 years that Coach Grimes has been at Auburn. Unfortunately, I don't feel it's his fault completely. I simply don't feel that we're very talented on the left side of the offensive line, and our Center being a true freshmen (while very, very talented) does cause some problems. Chad Slade simply doesn't have the quickness, nor does John Sullen, to handle the pulling responsibilities that are necessary in this offenses' running game. If you go back and watch the film from last year, Byron Isom and Mike Berry were literally step by step with one another in perfect harmony and always got to the outside with more than enough time for the RB to be able to read what was developing since they were there so quickly. I felt so bad for Moseley getting his first start under those conditions AND on the road on the Bayou.
This game was absolutely one that could've gone dramatically different but, if we're honest, the better team did win. Auburn was playing great defense after LSU's strong first drive for a TD, but penalties and the coinciding plays that LSU made with those penalties were the difference in the game. The second half probably could've and should've been 7-3 or Auburn could have even taken the lead had they not made penalties and had gotten stops on 3rd downs instead.
The special teams all around were very lackluster when compared with how we've performed as a unit there all year. Steven Clark, possibly the nation's best punter when right, had his worst game of the year. He consistently was putting the ball 10-20 yards short of where the LSU punt returners were, which is very unusual for Clark. He has been consistently hitting punts 43+ yards with over 4 seconds of hangtime, on the year. For Auburn to hang with LSU, I knew that we'd have to dominate field position using Special Teams, but that obviously never happened.
Overall, I don't think too many people felt that we could win this game, being so young and on the road with a first time starting QB against the #1 team in the country. Auburn is certainly better than they played on Saturday afternoon, and Chizik has been fantastic at getting his teams to bounce back after tough losses, and I expect this to be no different. I expect this team to respond against Ole Miss on Saturday night the same way the 2009 team responded on Halloween '09 with a big win over Ole Miss at home and head into the bye week with a 6-3 record and get ready to face a UGA team on the rise at home. That game scares me because it will be yet ANOTHER top 25 team on the road for this young bunch, but hey at least it's not a top TEN road game.
WDE guys, and I'm excited about what the future is shaping up to look like for this young bunch.
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