Well after two weeks the Tigers of Auburn are 2-0 with over 1,000 yards of total offense over 2 games. Proving that last weeks numbers against a WAC team were no fluke, the Tigers came out and hung nearly half a hundred on the Bulldog's of Mississippit St. For the 2nd week in a row Ben Tate and the freshman phenom Onterrio McCaleb went over the 100 yard mark. Mario Fanin could have made it 3 backs over a hundred but he only finished with around 75 yards on the ground. Chris Todd is trying to show his surgically repaired shoulder is fine with a couple of nice deep ball in this game. What concerns me is that once the team gets into the red zone they are pulling Chris Todd out and bringing in Kodi Burns to run the red zone offense. Burns hasn't dissappointed though as he had 3 rushing and 1 passing TD in this contest to go along with his rushing TD last week.
Coach Malzahn is making this offense unpredictable and as these guys get more and more familiar with the playbook the numbers are likely to improve because they still are not running the offense at the pace which Malzahn wants. The scarry part is that this team has only played two good 2nd halfs of football this year after so-so first halfs. What will the production be like once they can put in 60 minutes of good football? I can't wait to see.
The defense which has always been a staple of Auburn teams still has me a little concerned. They had yet another personal foul for face masking in this game which would be like their 5th or 6th one in two games. They seem to be playing to much of a bend but don't break philosophy which is fine if you are trying to protect a lead, but the rest of the time they need to pin their ears back and be aggresive in my book. On a good note junior college transfer Eltorro Freeman saw his first action of the year. He didn't play the whole game as the defensive coaches are trying to ease him back into playing time while hopefully not aggravating the injury that caused him to miss the opener and most of the preseason camp. On a positive note DE Antonio Coleman had a nice interception return for a TD so the news on the defensive side isn't too bad.
The Tigers get another measuring stick game this coming weekend with the Mountaineers of West Virginia coming to town. Last years game Auburn played really well in the first half, but the second half they totally self destructed and got blown out. So this game could show just how far they have come under the new coaching staff and could be a good confidence booster before they get Ball St the next week then kick off the rest of their conference games.
Maria Kirilenko
Ashley Allen
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Good to see the Tigers back. Just make sure teh SEC beats up on itself and leaves 2 BCS spots to the weak Big 10, k?
PSUinHolidaySpirit
Total Comments (11032)
Nice article WB. Let me point out that last year Auburn lost four games by less than a touch down. With a bit more offense those could have been four wins. Maybe this year they win the close ones.
norka
Bubba Spot, GA
Total Comments (4114)
Excellent point, Norka. I'm not on the War Eagle bandwagon just yet, but in the UTK-AU-MSU "new coach competition", so far Chiz has the lead in the results department.
GatorRobster
Houston, TX
Total Comments (3634)
It is nice to see Auburn back in the thick of things, though the transformation is so complete they are hard to recognize. Add one more team to the wild mix that is the SEC west.
josephplumber
Tampa , FL
Total Comments (1407)
I don't know if they are back in the thick of things just yet, but the offense is much improved and that much would have probably helped them out in the LSU, Vandy, Arkansas, and Georgia games last year.
wildbill21475
East, TN
Total Comments (4919)
I'm not ready to say they are back, but Chiz has the team at least pointed in the right direction. Hopefully he can keep Malzahn under contract for a long time because he is a good offensive coordinator. I am just glad Houston Nutt was to dumb to let this guy do his thing at Arkansas.
wildbill21475
East, TN
Total Comments (4919)
I can promise the SEC will beat each other up, I just can't promise its going to leave 2 spots open for the Big 10 +1.
wildbill21475
East, TN
Total Comments (4919)
Exactly, everyone forgets that Auburn only lost to LSU by 5, Vandy by 1, UGA by 4, and Arkansas by 3. So they were only 13 points away from having a 9 win season. It's not like they were just getting the crap kicked out of them in all seven of their losses. Ole Miss only beat them by 10. So really the West Virginia and Alabama games were the only ones they were really blown out in, and the West Virginia game they were actually winning at the half before melting down in the 3rd and 4th quarter. So truely Alabama was the only team that just had their way with them last year.
wildbill21475
East, TN
Total Comments (4919)
WVU has been plagued with mistakes on special teams, terrible penalties, and marginal defensive play so far this year and they have won 2 games simply with superior offensive talent. That will not cut it for us on the road in the SEC. I suspect that this will be a high scoring and possibly sloppy affair with Auburn winning 38-31 or so.
osumountie
Bedrock, WV
Total Comments (1701)
That's was a very good prediction dude. You were only 3 points off with the score and very accurate on the way the game was played good job.
wildbill21475
East, TN
Total Comments (4919)
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