There really is nothing much I can say about this game. We started out great. Our first series was beautiful. Seventy yards in ten plays for a touchdown. Unfortunately, that was the last time we scored all night. On the other hand, our defense gave up 412 yards and 34 points. We had a couple of turnovers and a couple of penalties that hurt us, but we can't blame a 27 point loss on those things alone. Our offense just couldn't get anything going, and our defense, while getting some great stops consistently throughout most of the first half, just couldn't sustain that level of play through the entire game.
I think the worst thing about this game was that our guys visibly gave up at the end. You could see them sitting on the sidelines looking like, "Can we just get out of here already?" I haven't seen that defeatist attitude since 2012, and I can't say I'm real excited for it to resurface. I just don't get what's going on with us lately. I don't know if it's play calling, execution, some kind of mental issue, or a combination of the three (or something else). I know we had some issues with execution. For example, Nick Marshall threw a couple of near-perfect (and maybe actually perfect) passes that were inexplicably dropped by the receivers. We also had some moments on defense when we appeared to have a runner contained but, somehow, no one was able to make a tackle. But I'm not blaming anyone in particular because, really, it was very much a collective team loss.
There are a lot of so-called fans (I HATE when these come out of the woodwork) who are calling for coaches' heads. I'm sure these people were the stars of the community grasscutter coaches' association, but I would highly doubt they have coached anything above a middle school level. I've never been a football coach, much less an SEC football coach. So I'm not going to judge the coaches. Sometimes I wonder why in the world they call a certain play (a run play on 3rd and Minnesota always sends me into a fit), but I trust that they have their reasons and that they know better than I do what play is most likely to result in success. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are 100% guaranteed to result in success, obviously. So until people who are smarter about these things than I am (and no, armchair quarterback, that doesn't include you) decide that a coach is doing a bad enough job that he needs to be fired, and until a coach is actually fired and no longer a coach at Auburn University, I will support him to the death. Sometimes, I will continue to support him even though he's no longer at Auburn, because of what he did for the Auburn Family during his time here (I still love you, Tommy Tuberville - Go Bearcats!). Our team and our coaches want to win just as badly as we do. Actually, even though it feels sometimes like no one could want it more than I do, I realize that the players and coaches probably do want it more than I do. It helps nothing when you fail to give your support. I am 1200% solidly on the Gus Bus, and if he has confidence in his coaching staff, I'm 1200% confident in them as well.
I mean, seriously. What is wrong with people? Assuming we beat Samford Saturday, the worst we can finish this season is 8-4. Ask Tennessee fans how it turned out for them when they fired their coach for some 7-5 and 8-4 seasons. No, we're not going to the National Championship this year. Or the SEC Championship. That sucks, because obviously that's our goal every year. But Gus got us to a National Championship in 2010, and he got us 13 seconds away from a National Championship in 2013. It's just impossible to get there every year (yes, even for Bama). I'm never going to be down on my coaches or my team for having a winning season. I love to win games as much as (or more than) anybody, but 8-4 (or hopefully 9-3 - I'm not giving up on beating Bama) is not a reason to panic. Get a grip, people. And if you can't, then go cheer for that team to the northwest. They're used to bandwagon jumpers.
Anyway, one thing (the only thing?) that makes me smile about this game is that Philip Lutzenkirchen is smiling in Heaven because he's proud of his good friend Hutson Mason. I know he hated for Auburn to lose but that he's still happy for his friend. I think everyone should try to be more like Lutzie, so I'm going to try to channel my inner Lutzie and be happy for Hutson as well.
Also, I was fortunate enough to watch this game with a small group of like-minded fans in a comfortable home, away from any opposing fans or, worse, Bama fans just hoping for us to lose, with lots of good food and beverage. I've discovered that if I watch a game on my couch by myself, I get much more worked up, almost to the point of tears (and, let's be honest, sometimes past the point of tears). If I watch with people who aren't Auburn fans and don't really care about the outcome, it's not much better. I never watch with opposing fans, so I don't care to think about how that would feel. But I'm comforted by the camaraderie of people who have the same stake in the outcome as I do. Watching in the stadium surrounded by 87,000 of them is the best option, but for away games, sequestering myself with a few other Auburn fans is a pretty close second.
There wasn't a whole lot of Weagle-worthy stuff in this game, but I am going to give a Weagle to Cameron Artis-Payne. He was a big workhorse with 86 rushing yards (which is low for him, but significantly higher than anyone else). C.J. Uzomah also gets a Weagle for making a couple of great catches - I was glad to see him more involved in this game. Finally, I'm going to give Jeremy Johnson a Weagle for making some solid dart passes when he came into the game near the end. Jeremy doesn't have (or at least I haven't seen him have) the scrambling ability that Nick Marshall has, but he is a super confident passer. It'll be interesting to see what the next couple of years have in store for him.
This game is over. I'm moving on.
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