Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
What does a road loss to a top ten team mean?
Auburn fell on the road to a top ten team yesterday, and was in it for nearly the entire time. A couple big plays allowed, four turnovers, and a rough offensive effort doomed the Tigers as they lost 24-13. They’re now 5-1 midway through the season. Would we have taken that if offered preseason? Probably. So what do we think about all of this?
SNAP JUDGMENTS
Honestly, this game reminds me of the Miss State game in Starkville last year. Auburn had plenty of opportunities to win this game. Bo was rattled from Play 1 and played like a true freshman today. It happens!!! Remember he’s a TRUE FRESHMAN! Bo will learn from this game and get better. The defense did all they could but ran out of gas because the offense couldn’t stay on the field. Derrick Brown was on another planet today! I know Auburn fans are pissed but it’s 1 game. Lot of football left to be played and now they’ll have 2 weeks to get right for Arkansas. Don’t let 1 loss turn into 2 like last year.
-Will McLaughlin
I don’t believe this game or performance means anything outside of this game. This doesn’t mean Aggy sucks or MSU sucks. It just means on October 5, in Gainesville, Auburn was worse than Florida at football. It doesn’t mean we are going to lose to Alabama or Georgia. It doesn’t mean Bo nix should get benched. It means that today we lost to Florida. That sucks enough. Let’s not make it bigger than that.
-Son of Crow
I’ll co-sign what Crow said. Rough game today. We didn’t play well enough to win. So it goes. Obviously I hoped for better, but that was a tough place to play. We made it harder on ourselves with mistakes and turnovers. The margin of error is gone.
Lost in all this is one of the best games ever by Derrick Brown. He played well enough to win today.
About as bad if an offensive performance as we’ve seen. 2-14 on 3rd down will get you beat every single time. We’ve seen Gus coached teams have these same kind of performances in Baton Rogue over the years and bounce back afterwards. That said, we still have to go to Baton Rogue this year. Would I trade this loss for a win in Red Stick? You are damn right I would. But every single one of Auburn’s deficiencies were highlighted today, and the recipe for our demise is now out on the open market. Let’s hope everyone involved from the coaches to the Quarterback can take this film and learn from it and go on a run from not through January.
-AU Chief
Gus Malzahn didn’t have his offense ready to play today. Tigers were a mess out the gate. When they finally got something going, Bo Nix couldn’t cash in. By far his worst game this season. Up until this point he’s been doing a great job of managing the game. He might not have always been perfect but he wasn’t losing the game for the Tigers. That changed today. But while I am disappointed in his performance, I don’t think it’s fair to levy full fault on his shoulders. Fact that AU couldn’t count on their all senior OL to consistently open holes in the run game but instead but it all on the arm of a true freshman is telling. In the end though, it comes back to Gus Malzahn. It’s his offense. He got the credit he deserved for an outstanding game plan two weeks ago. He’s gonna get criticism this week that’s well deserved too.
I hate it most for this defense. Yes, they gave up two HRs you wished they didn’t but they also gave the offense the ball 4 times. Derrick Brown is one of the greatest AU players to don the orange & blue. They deserve better from their head coach. Two weeks now to regroup & find answers. This loss doesn’t doom all hope for the future but it does dampen it some. No matter what though it’s War Damn Eagle
-AU Nerd
It was disgustingly hot outside, but everyone had a great time. The bride and groom were beautiful and the wedding was a perfect reflection of them. They’re hitched, and even though I spent 4 hours 7 hours in a suit outside, it was a great day. My wedding streak is over, though.
-Ryan Sterritt
Auburn played a really poor game of football and nearly beat a top 10 team on the road. We’re watching our true freshmen quarterback grow up right before our eyes. Unfortunately he had to do it in front of 90,000 hostile fans with crazy blitz packages.
I hate this for Derrick Brown. I can’t recall a better performance than the one he gave us today.
If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that Auburn totally controls their own destiny from this point onwards.
The bye week couldn’t come at a better time. Take the week off, heal up, beat the crap out of the Hogs, then get ready for LSU.
-Josh Dub
Well, Bo Nix is a true freshman. This offensive line has a ceiling. Gus Malzahn is still Gus Malzahn (good and bad). What a weird game. Florida had 3 touchdown drives that were a total of 5 plays. Auburn’s offense left roughly 21 points on the field today. Frustrating as this loss is, this is not Tennessee or Mississippi State from a year ago. Not a lot of failures from today are things that you can’t correct, and I’m sure that when the staff/players see the film, it’ll make them sick. Auburn has dictated the outcome in 6 straight games. They’ll dictate the outcome in a 7th in two weeks in Fayetteville. Then comes the hellacious fury of Baton Rouge. I was telling folks prior to this game that I thought this team was a 10-2 football team with losses to LSU and Alabama. My gut tells me we’re a 9-3 team with a win over Georgia. If not, we’re no worse than 8-4. As disappointing as that feels, with this schedule, it’s not unexpected. But this team can surprise us, and the big 3 we have left on our schedule. They fought hard today and just couldn’t execute. No blame on Nix/Gus/defense today. The team lost. And it’s a team I think we’ll continue to find a lot of reasons to hang in there with until the end.
Looking back, maybe we should have seen this coming. Gus wasn’t his sassy pre-MSU self this week, but much more guarded and quiet and we really didn’t hear much about how big of an opportunity this was. The first couple of plays on both sides really did tell the tale. Florida’s defense was fired up, and our defense may have been a little distracted by the atmosphere. The defense settled in, and played fantastic (short of the two long plays), but the offense never did. Our scoring drives were short and only came when we had good field position to start. On the actual best drive of the day — the one that started at our own 4-yard line — it ended in an interception. Yes, much of the blame can be placed on the inaccuracies of Bo Nix’s arm yesterday, but that’s what you get when you start a true freshman. I don’t fault him for not being able to handle the Swamp.
On the positive side, Derrick Brown will be an All-American and should win the Outland Trophy. He’s the best defensive tackle in the country, and he’s getting more disruptive as the season goes along. Our defense forced the turnovers that we haven’t seen yet, and they stepped up in huge situations. The offense was given every opportunity to succeed, but the miscommunications and poor blocking in all aspects was frustrating to see. Sometimes you just don’t execute.
I think we need the week off, and I think we’ll benefit from the time away. Regroup, destroy Arkansas, and let’s make a miracle happen in Baton Rouge.
-Jack Condon
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