Why is that Fayetteville Arkansas is some black hole for our tigers? I guess Rob calls it correctly about the 11 AM start. Of course from where I was sitting we actually didn't seem to start until around 1:05.
This game was really a perfect storm for bad stuff to happen given the early start, the kudos heaped on Auburn all week, and most certainly a desperate Arkansas team in a must win game (look at that upcoming schedule and tell me how they make a bowl game without a home win yesterday).
We all should have seen this one coming. I had a bad feeling about this one when I got up Saturday morning for no other reason than I didn't wake up early enough to slow cook something on my green egg for the game.
A few brief observations:
-Chris Todd had by far the worst outing of 2009. He actually looked more like Chris Todd the original vs. Todd 2.0. Averaging just over 4 yrd/pass play wasn't going to cut it. Let's hope its an outlier. He was due a not so good day. Let's not make a Snead out of it. (My new phrase for QB sucking in consecutive games)
-Ben Tate had his best day for Auburn...except for that little fumble on the 3 that was followed by the backbreaking 95 yard drive. Congrats Ben. You lead the SEC in rushing, but let's remember that between the 10 and the goal line we really need to not fumble the FRICKIN BALL!
-Defense was a FAIL yesterday. Tackling sucked. We looked confused. Very troubling that we didn't do a better job against a previously anemic Arkansas run game. ZERO pressure on Mallette. I had a bama friend text me yesterday and ask me why we weren't getting more pressure on him like the Tide did. My answer was and I quote: ???. I am fairly surprised we didn't try more with blitz packages and get Mallette moving. The other answer is we don't have Bama's personnel to do those things to Arkansas.
-Not sure why we have gotten away from the wildcat around the goal line. Kodi would have gotten us in when Tate fumbled. And what was that set we ran out of? It looked like the Mike Shula "Jumbo" set.
Take aways from this one: We were due a reality check and Coach "Penis with hat on" Petrino gave us one. (aside: I don't care how good he is, I am so happy this ass-clown never coached at Auburn). If we have 3 and outs, we are in serious hurt. Defense has got to stiffen and get better. (pretty tall order considering depth)
OK. So what's next? We bounce back and blast Kentucky is what. Anyone else happy to be 5-1 at the halfway point? Me too. War Eagle.
sounds like it was all about Auburn not performing?? anything to do with Arkansas finally starting to put things together....defensively?? I think reality finally hit home...
ReplyDeleteDoug, I wish I could say it was all Arky's d becoming coherant overnght. But we went absolutely bizerk on them in 3rd. The 1st half was poor execution to me more than anything else. (i.e. Todd's overthrow of Zachery)
ReplyDeleteI will say this about Ark's d, they did tackle better than previous games, but to quote Yogi Berra regarding AU's performance "We made too many wrong mistakes."
Thanks for reading...