Sunday, September 6, 2009

Game Wrap Up

  • There is nothing I can post here we all have not already seen
  • I was very wrong on my prediction and very happy about that.
  • Auburn scored 556 yards, the most since 2005.
  • Gene Chizik goes to 6-19 in his career as a head coach.
  • The eagle flight was possibly the longest in history...I personally thought it flew out of the stadium and came back but can not confirm that.
  • Auburn had two 100 yard rushers, Onterio McCalebb (148) and Ben Tate (117).
  • Terrell Zachery's 93 yard touchdown reception was the longest offense play in Auburn history.
  • The 37-13 score was the largest margin of victory in an Auburn coach's debut since 1944.
  • Daren Bates made an interception after letting on go through his hands just prior to it. Another freshman got La. Tech's only other turnover, a fumble recovery by Nick Fairley.
  • Tate's rushing pushed him over 2,000 career rushing yards. He is the 13th Auburn back til reach the feat. He fumbled on the six yardline on one of his runs.
  • Darvin Adams, Kodi Burns and Onterio McCalebb all also scored touchdowns on top of Zachery's.
  • Wes Byrum was 3/3 on field goals with a long of 49 and 4/4 on extra points.
  • Auburn faces Mississippi State next, who defeated Jackson State 45-7.

11 comments:

  1. Seriously, how can u run an Auburn blog, cover Auburn, be an Auburn fan, and predict us to lose to La Tech? Seriously

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nick Fairly is a sophmore - former JUCO player (but was a first time starter for AU). McCalebb went to prep school after high school, so although technically a freshman by NCAA rules, he had an extra year compared to Bo Jackson who came straight from high school to college.

    Seriously, what I'm trying to say is don't start spooging all over this team yet and get your expectations out of whack. Yes, it was a great first game performance. The biggest key was we came out with NO injuries. Herring will kill us in the SEC at LB; the lack of pass rush from the front 4 will kill us in the SEC; the lack of hitting the timing out routes for 8-12 yards will kill us in the SEC; Todd floating the middle post/skinny post routes will kill us in the SEC; Todd throwing a step behind the receivers on crossing routes will kill us in the SEC; Ben Tate and Kodi Burns dancing in the holes and looking to bounce outside will kill us in the SEC; playing 10-12 yards of the outside receivers with our corners will kill us in the SEC; inside LB's jumping crossing routes man-to-man and vacating the middle will kill us in the SEC; not catching punts in the air, and/or bobbling/fumbling them will kill us in the SEC; averaging less than 20 yds per kick return will kill us in the SEC; stupid penalties/calls will kill us in the SEC; a critical injury at many positions will kill us in the SEC; etc.

    That said; great first game victory and I'm optimistic - I'm also realistic and I know we have a long season ahead of us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. negative fans will kill us in the SEC

    ReplyDelete
  4. True: Fans add 20% to the teams points per SEC rule this year. I'm realistic, but optimistic. Better that than Kool-Aid intoxicated and turning mean when reality sets in.

    ReplyDelete
  5. it was good to see the offense getting into rhythm in the second half and they will only be getting better. I did like to see our defense getting some pressure on the qb, especially since i think we only blitzed about 5 times all game. Once the linebackers get health again we can really start to turn up the pressure. Dee Ford can definitely fly. Him coming off the edge was ridiculous. I would like to see our CB's come up about 5 yards on the receivers. Screw that 10 yds off the ball crap.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Agree a lot with what Robert is saying. One thing I don't like is our QB shows very little ability to run in this offense. If we put Kodi in, they know what is coming. Also, most of the other teams that run the wildcat", run it with a pure running back (McLoster at Ole Miss, Engram at Bama to name two). We have better pure runners than Kodi that can run that position. Maybe they did not show everything they are going run out of it. The overall timing of the offense has to get better. And I think it will

    ReplyDelete
  7. The OL didnt give up a sack and generally gave Todd all day back there. They deserve alot of credit!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I pretty much agree with Robert, but I am sure the coaches will work on improving each of those weaknesses. It was a good first game! I fear the injury bug the most this season. A couple of injuries in key positions could potentially devestate this team. Hope we can avoid it.

    I am still predicting about an 7-9 win season, depending on our bowl game.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Fanin might be better as the wildcat guy, but Kodi should also be in that package. He had a tendency to just keep the ball. He wants to be a star, and I can understand that. But him taking the snap and running it got too predictable. Uncertainty is what makes the wildcat successful, unless you have a guy who is unstoppable. But even the great Charles Scott of LSU got stood up at the goal line. So there is no superman, except maybe Tebow.

    Robert, I hope the coaches read this blog and take some of your criticisms to heart. But I'm sure they know what happened. The fact is it was a first game. We are weak at linebacker. As a result, our middle game on defense will suffer. But we knew that going in.

    BigCat gives us something to rejoice about. The OL protected Todd. Excellent. Todd made some nice passes. We won the game.

    ReplyDelete
  10. they exceeded my expectations on offense and defense. I would want to see a little more aggressiveness on D and more explosion in the passing game (besides the 93yd connect for TD) but i'm definitely sipping the kool-aid. They still have a lot to work out but I am impressed where they are today vs where they were last year. can't wait for saturday

    ReplyDelete

hit counters