Aubserver Mailbag 137: Is it crazy to not be worried about the Cal game?
This week: Offensive improvement, ugly wins, blitzing, seatbelts, Double Eagles, Gatorade, the Braves and foreign languages
WR Ja’Varrius Johnson (Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)
Call me crazy, but I feel good about the Cal win and the ugly way it went down.
It wasn't about effort or scheme. It was ugly because of mistakes that can be corrected... Penalties and Turnovers. This kept the offense from getting into any rhythm. And the defense demonstrated that we have some playmakers.
So the question is: Do I need professional help?
Alan
If there are two things I love about a mailbag question, it’s one that is sent well before I even ask for them… and it’s one that starts with the words “call me crazy, but.”
I was still standing in the airport in San Jose on Sunday afternoon when Alan sent this question to me, and I’ve been thinking about it for the last several days. It’s perfect, because I’m sure there are a good number of Auburn fans who were on the same wavelength as Alan after the Tigers’ 14-10 win at Cal.
Are you crazy for not panicking about the way Auburn looked at Cal? Absolutely not.
As I’m often fond of saying, this is a sport played by 18- to 22-year-old semi-professionals that use a weirdly shaped ball. It is very difficult to know what to expect from one week to the next. Each game takes a life of its own. It’s dangerous to speak in absolutes, especially this early in the season — and especially when Auburn is involved.
I agree with Alan that Auburn’s performance at Cal wasn’t about effort. The Tigers were playing quite hard, even the ones on offense who weren’t executing well. The offensive line, while sloppy at times, did a good job of going to work against Cal’s defensive front. Rivaldo Fairweather had two unbelievable efforts on that final drive to haul in catches. And the offense as a whole had to show a lot of fight to pick itself off the mat and finally score after missing all those chances throughout the game.
Scheme? I’ve never called plays outside of a game of NCAA Football or Madden, so take anything I say here with an entire bag of salt. I thought Auburn could have done a better job of getting Payton Thorne some easier reads and throws earlier in the game, and Freeze said something similar about the RPO usage earlier this week. Also, the back-and-forth quarterback rotation between the 20s never seemed like a good idea — and it sounds like the Tigers will go away from that. But I did think that Auburn figured some things out after halftime and had opportunities to improve.
The turnovers were part-bad luck, part-bad ball security. The Tigers could have easily had another interception on a Robby Ashford throw, but the fumbles were all extremely close calls that had to be replay-reviewed. Clean that up and have a little better fortune on the way the ball bounces, and Auburn should be fine moving forward.
The good news is that the defense responded to the criticism from Week 1 and played an excellent game. There were few breakdowns or busts, and several individual efforts — led by Eugene Asante — were outstanding. The defense gave the offense enough time to finally break through, and that says a lot about a new-look team still trying to figure it all out in Year 1.
Now, should you feel good about the game, as Alan said? I wouldn’t go that far.
It was ugly, and it came against a Cal team that will be fighting to just make a bowl this season. SEC play, which starts next week, is going to be a lot more challenging. Auburn’s offense hasn’t shown enough signs of life through the air to give much confidence for these upcoming conference games, but there’s still time to work things out. Week-to-week improvement is possible, just as we saw with the defense at Cal. You just need to start putting it together in the very near future.
However, Alan and any of you glass-half-full Auburn fans out there, you don’t need professional help. This is an optimistic yet healthy way to look at a game that showed Auburn has a lot of work to do to become a contender again. Don’t let the rough performance on offense worry you, but don’t be totally shocked if the Tigers struggle in similar ways down the road.
The good news is that Auburn has an FCS opponent this week to work on a lot of its errors from the first two games. Before we get to that on Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium, here’s this week’s mailbag.
Did Auburn’s offense get better as the Cal game went along? How do you know?
John
If you look at yards per play, there isn’t a huge difference between how Auburn started and how Auburn finished against Cal. The Tigers’ quarters went like this, in order: 2.5, 4.8, 4.8 and 4.6. Not a whole lot of change there, right?
But you also have to keep in mind that all yardage isn’t equal.