if someone had told me Auburn would get over 400 yards rushing, I'd told them they needed immediate medical attention. That was pitiful. Cam Newton is terrific and the best team won, but I cannot believe how totally inept our defense was. I was also stunned at how Auburn controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage,too. But darn if with 7:00 left and we had the ball at the 40, I thought we'd pull it out. But everyone in the stadium knew we'd hand off to Ridley and guess what ? Long walk back to the car Saturday, especially after all the "nice" comments made our way coming down the upper deck and down to the street.
They fell victim to what they said they wouldn't. Got too far away from the game plan and didn't play their gap assignments. They got so enamored with trying to stop a superstar they forgot to stay within the plan. On that 70 yard run if the left side of the line holds their spot and doesn't bite on a Newton keeper that may have only netted 5-6 yards. They bit and it cost them. Newton was going to get his no matter what they did but they lost focus and the game.
they played safe all game. rarely run blitzed, it was strange, almost like looking at last years defense, the bend don't break, give them yards just keep em out of the end zone.
Yeah, I'd have to agree, I didn't see that coming either. They rolled it up on us in a big way. That being said, I guess it could have been a lot worse. The "D" did stiffen alot and get the ball back. Normally, I would say over 500 yards of offense would net you more than 24 points.
This too...I'd have played them the way teams play us. Stack the line and force him to beat you with his arm. He has one, we know, but if you are in his face all day a mistake will show up. And put him on his butt every play...that wears more on you no matter what kind of QB you are.
We were dominated on both sides of the ball. All the 5 stars in the sky would not have changed that. It just confirmed that LSU is not the dominant team we once were. Who in here has seen LSU dominate any ranked team? I sure haven't. Occasionally we do back into a win despite ourselves, but even that luck runs out eventually. So go ahead and dream about a 11-1 season, I'm sure I will, but don't be shocked when we end up like we have in the past 2 years.....
I was waiting on us to stack the box and load up on the run. As poor as our O was playing in the 2nd half, we had to have stops. The D kept the points off the board and did get us that 1 turnover in the 2nd half. We had excellent field position but couldn't capitalize on it. I kept hoping we'd get the 1 big play we need to steal that game. Just couldn't do it.
what's silly to me is that we didn't disguise the defense. Cam Newton is effective when he can sit back and watch play's develop. There was no deception what so ever, and even Gary Danielson noticed it. You have to try and confuse him, make him think the blitz is coming from one side then send it from another. We played a safe zone all night, and expected to get pressure with the front 4. Nevis was doubled and sometimes tripled, and Newton had all the time in the world.
This. As most of us had stated prior to the game we needed to be able to win this game in the trenches. We needed to be able to close the holes with our front line and allow our LB's the freedom to prevent long gashing runs. We lost this battle. Also, in reference to what they have been talking about with the NFL and players being fined for certain types of hits. What a lot of the analyst are discussing is that most of the D players don't know how to wrap up anymore, they all go for the knock out blow to tackle. Well, that type of tackling, which was what we were doing, won't work on players like Cam. All you do is bounce off of him. The only effective tackling we had is when they wrapped up his legs. Anything from the waist up and he destroyed our boys. Something he has been doing all season to everyone. There are plenty of things to blame for this loss, but the D did, for the most part their job. They kept them between the 30's and didn't allow them to score. When going up against a dynamic run game and player such as Cam that is really the best you can hope for. Had the O maintained the game plan we were using in the 1st half the game may have been different. We were matching them in TOP and point, which is what was necessary for them to win. We had the opportunity, but went away from the run game of JJ and Ridley, had we stayed with that as our bread and butter we may have done better. As I posted in another thread JJ was avg 4.6 yds/carry. It maynot have been the chunks that AU was putting up on our D, but it was good enough to move the ball and keep control of the clock.
Part of the problem was that our O couldn't move the ball in the 2nd half and our Defense simply got gased. No defense would be able to keep up with all the options Auburn has when our Offense only gets 38 yards in the 3rd and into the 4th. I'm certain if we had been able to move the ball in the 2nd, eaten time off the clock, and kept our defense off the field - we'd have won the game. Yes the defense needs to improve, but Auburn putting up 24 points was a COMPLETELY WINNABLE game if we could have actually moved the ball on O. Lee getting slammed and hurting this throwing wrist really hurt us.
