Auburn had little leverage on Georgia backs.
(AP Photo/John Bazemore.)
War Eagle everybody. It’s time now for the Acid Reign Report on a disappointing Auburn day, visiting the Georgia Bulldogs. The offensive line had little success moving the Georgia front, and a tendency to run the ball away from any lead blocking continued this week. If you think Auburn’s running game has been bad this year, wait till the team no longer has senior Chandler Cox, next season. Meanwhile the defense missed open field tackles, and at times got blown off the ball, as Bulldogs frequently moved effortlessly into Tiger territory. Auburn abandoned all of the elements of the offense from the miraculous comeback a week ago. Ryan Davis was ignored on crossing routes, and was not allowed to run many of them. After talking about less substitutions and more pace, Auburn instead had even more weird packages and substitutions that were ineffective.
Towards the end of the 2015 season, we began to see the light come on for the Auburn defense, and the team became able to stuff runners in the middle, and string wide plays out for little or no gain. The next 2 seasons Auburn became a team that played with leverage, and was quite difficult to run the ball on. This year, all of that progress has been lost. The leverage is gone, there is no help or gang tackling, and guys can’t stay in their lanes. Even if Auburn stopped Georgia on 1st down, invariably Georgia would run the ball again on 2nd down, knowing that Auburn is inconsistent in the front 7. Like Bulldogs, Volunteers and Aggies before them, Georgia continued to run the ball effectively against a defense that wilted as the game went on. Some of that is due to offensive ineptitude, also.
This was a terrible week on offense for the Auburn Tigers, for basically 3 quarters. Auburn had some nice misdirection dialed up on early drives. Once Georgia adjusted, the offensive brain trust reverted to milling around and sending a parade of different players into the game each snap. Gone is the deep ball, as Auburn no longer wishes to try and stretch the field. Virtually all routes run in this game were less than 20 yards. Georgia was able to camp 7 or 8 pass defenders in zone coverage, and snuff Auburn’s endless screen game out. This Tiger receiving corps can’t make it through a game without dropping passes on the ground.
Special teams took a step backwards, this week. Auburn was only able to force 2 punts this week. Meanwhile, Auburn regressed to a pedestrian 40.3 yards per punt average, and gave up a 41 yard kick return.
Unit grades after the jump!
Defensive Line: C. Playing short handed, this unit got pushed around again. The line managed 15 total tackles, and just 2.5 for a loss. Georgia piled up 333 rushing yards and averaged 6.6 yards per carry.
Linebackers: C-. The linebackers contributed 27 tackles, including 2.5 for a loss. Over-pursuit and missed tackles were the order of the day.
Secondary: C. Auburn gave up 223 passing yards in this game on just 23 attempts, which works out to 9.3 yards per pass. When a defense is giving up 6.6 yards per carry and 9.3 yards per pass, it is not going consistently stop the other team.
Punting: B-. Arryn Siposs and the punting unit were just middling, this week, averaging 40.3 yards on 6 punts, and did not allow any return yards. It looked like Auburn sacrificed yardage in order to keep the ball out of the hands of Bulldog return men.
Punt Returns: B. Georgia punted only twice in this game, pinning the ball at the 1 yard line once. Ryan Davis had a 13 yard return on the other punt.
Kick Returns: D. Auburn only got one chance at this, and Noah Igbinoghene made it only to the 16 yard line before coughing the ball up. Fortunately, teammate Jordyn Peters recovered it. Igbinoghene has fumbled on his last 2 kick returns.
Place Kicking: B+. Anders Carlson hit his only extra point and field goal attempts for the game, and nailed 2 touchbacks on 3 kickoffs. On the return, Auburn allowed 41 yards.
Offensive Line: B. Auburn did better this week, particularly in pass protection. Georgia managed zero sacks, and only 4 tackles for loss. In the running game, Auburn backs picked up 6.1 yards per carry.
Running Backs: B. While the backs had a good average per carry, they were only handed the ball 13 times in this game for 80 yards. One of those was an early 30 yard burst by Shawn Shivers. Take the 30 yarder out, and the average drops to 4.1 yards per carry. I can’t fault the backs for this, as our running play design has been very poor, of late. Again, the “packages” design hurt here, as well. If Malik Miller came into the game, you knew they were going to try a screen pass to him. You also knew that they were never going to look at Shivers in the flat.
Receivers: C-. The drops continue, and route-running is sloppy and uninspired. More than half of Auburn’s completions were little screen passes to Ryan Davis, who finished with 13. Davis did not get more than 10 yards on any of them. Outside receivers Darius Slayton and Seth Williams were held to 4 receptions for 46 yards, total.
Quarterback: B. Stidham again did not turn the ball over, but had some missed throws that I’m sure he’d like to have back. On the day, Stidham completed 24 of 36 passes, or 66.7 percent. Stidham only had 163 yards on all those completions. That works out to only 4.5 yards per pass. The downfield game never got going.
Auburn falls to 6-4 on the season, and likely will finish with a 3-5 record in the SEC. Only a couple of regular season games remain, against Liberty and in Tuscaloosa against Alabama. Auburn’s likely total record will be 7-5, and that will be a pretty common record in the SEC. Auburn will be compared to the likes of Missouri, South Carolina, Texas A&M, and Mississippi State for bowl bids.
Auburn hosts the Liberty Flames, next Saturday, which will be the last game of the year for the seniors at Jordan Hare Stadium. Liberty is 4-5 on the season, coming off a 45-24 loss at Virginia. Liberty has an offense that can move the ball vertically, but that defense… The Flames are giving up an astounding 39 points per game.
The Auburn vs. Liberty game will kick off at 3:00 PM Central Time, next Saturday, and will be televised on the SEC Network. That should give me a chance to get a good morning nap, and I’ll be well rested and ready for my usual play by play. We’ll have the thread up around 8:30 or 9:00 AM that day. War Eagle! It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger.
The post Auburn Tumbles Against the Bulldogs. (Grading Auburn’s 27-10 loss at Georgia.) appeared first on Track 'Em Tigers, Auburn's oldest and most read independent blog.
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