We Reviewing all 13 games. This week, the road trip to Lexington.
Now this was a fun trip.
Going in... Auburn had a road game at a fairly tough place to play, but we felt pretty good about it going in. We were looking forward to our Lexington stay with the my good buddy Jeff, also known as the most interesting man in the world.
What happened.... We discovered Kentucky fans cared more about tailgating for horse racing than football. We bet on some ponies and lost about three dollars. Cam Newton was again outstanding, but the Auburn defense looked suspect. We won the game, but lost our car (for a few minutes anyway), and headed home undefeated and the highest ranked SEC team (thank you Gamecocks!).
What did it all mean? Auburn to this point was still a question mark. We could score points with anyone, but were we elite? Honestly I wasn't ready to say that after the win in the Commonwealth.
This game defined our defense for the rest of the season. We were flaky against the running back who could get outside and our pass coverage was not stellar. However, as the game went on, the defense made adjustments which stopped the bleeding.
ReplyDeleteOur guys never panicked.
We could stop the run between the tackles.
So as we go into the championship game against Oregon, I feel pretty good about what we can do. Randall Cobb is a fair analog to the Ducks' running attack. We handled it, as well as Ingram and Lattimore.
Yeah, we will take a few hits outside, but stopping the run will pay huge dividends as Fairley softens up the quarterback, thus creating problems in the air. The term "wounded duck" will take on new significance.
I just hope nobody sat around eating buckets of chocolate chip cookies over the long lay off. While we went to awards banquets, they were practicing. That troubles me a little.
We must be in the best physical conditioning of the season for this game. Fortune smiles on the young, though, so hopefully there won't be too much drop off in stamina.