One Down

One thing is certain the morning after Auburn’s season opening win:

Auburn Football is back!

Pound the ball and kill ’em on defense.

300+ yards of rushing and a defensive shutout were not what we expected to see last night.  We gladly take it.  And we’ll take it quietly.  Let Saban and the bammers get the headlines today.  There’s a long season ahead of us.  And any team that comes through our path better take notice – this defense is just getting warmed up.

Ok, the reality of it all:

1) Is Chris Todd the reincarnation of Brandon Cox?

2) Will Auburn ever have receivers that can catch a football?

3) Will the SEC officials “let ’em play” like that all year?

I don’t know if our running backs truly can’t catch or if Chris Todd has butter on his fingers but I don’t think any RB caught a ball in the flat thrown to them by Todd.  There were several plays clearly wide open that if caught by the backs would have gone for big plays.

Todd was also very lucky not to throw a couple of INTs.  When under pressure he lost awareness of the field and just threw the ball.  A few of those passes into the flat came under pressure as well.  Well into the second half he was getting plenty of time to throw too.  At those times he just seemed unsure on where to go with the ball or not confident or comfortable with getting the ball to the right guy.  He didn’t look nearly as comfortable as Kodi Burns.

Kodi Burns threw less passes but two of those incompletions could have been big gainers leading to scores.  Under pressure, throwing from his back foot he showed tremendous strength heaving what would have been a 30 or so yard TD pass.  The play was reviewed and called incomplete because the receiver’s toe was on the end line.  Then in the 2nd half before leaving with an injury, a receiver just flat out dropped a bomb running well past the defender that if caught would have been perhaps a 40-50 TD pass.

In terms of flag throwing, I thought the officials were generous.  On one replay of a hit on the ULM QB, you could clearly see our defender with a hand to the QB’s helmet.  They finally threw a flag on us for a late hit out of bounds in the 2nd half.  There seemed to many of those.  The refs weren’t on top of substitutions either with ULM shuffling defenders on and off the field, many were caught on the field at the snap but never flagged.

All in all last night I thought the game was pretty boring.  I guess that’s because we were built up on the offensive hype.  There certainly was a growing anticipation of the passing game and that never materialized.  In terms of the QB play I would say there are more questions today than answers.  There are no questions on running the ball however.  We have a stable or backs ready to make an impact and a O’Line that takes no prisoners.  We have to find some answers on moving the ball through the air!

Other thoughts on opening weekend:

– Bammer shammer.  There’s a long way to go and you just beat an over hyped ACC team.  Boo-Yah!

– Arkansas and Booby Petrino… Can’t wait to see ya at Auburn.

– We may want to keep an eye out for Ole Miss.  Looks like Nutt is on a mission.

– Sylvester Croom has to be wondering how long does it take to build a program from the ground up.  Ouch.

– Rodriguez took the job with the $, will he be able to take the pressure?

– Too bad the Cavaliers couldn’t score more points.  Are you getting sick of USC as much as I am?

– Florida, LSU, Georgia… no shockers here.

Enjoy the day off tomorrow… and Tennessee vs. UCLA.