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re: Auburn Fans: Maybe Clemson's Defense Was Just that good?
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:18 pm to CU_Tigers4life
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:18 pm to CU_Tigers4life
I've been saying that about y'alls D-Line. All 4 starters are projected as probable 1st rounders. Both DTs projected as top 10 picks, both able to take up multiple blockers, both better pass rushers than most DTs.
Without them providing the insane pressure that they did, Auburn would have won, and with our defense playing the way it was it probably would have been a comfortable win.
The back 7 was good as well. Not elite, but still better than most teams we'll face.
But there were still multiple factors on Auburn's end that allowed y'alls DL to dominate as overwhelmingly as they did.
Predictable playcalling, predictable snap counts, simple plays with bad routes that didn't allow the WRs time to get open. The OL played poor, especially the LT, Prince Tega, who is not just new to the position (only switched to offense this spring), but still fairly new to football altogether (an African immigrant who moved here in 2014 and played football for the first time ever as HS Senior. Although he was tons of potential, there couldn't possibly be a worse matchup to try and hone his raw skills and gain experience against.
And of course, Stidham played like scared. Even when he had the time to get the ball off, he was clearly rattled and allowed the defense time to get to him, or just flat out overthrew guys several times.
Not to mention we've had a terrible redzone offense for years now. That is 100% on Gus. We were inside the 10 three times and only came away with 6 points. Inexcusable. In a game where our defense only gave up 14, that's the difference. Come away with TDs there and we win, even with how poor all the other drives were.
TL:DR
Yes, your defense is "that good", but at that the same time there was plenty of fault on ourselves
Without them providing the insane pressure that they did, Auburn would have won, and with our defense playing the way it was it probably would have been a comfortable win.
The back 7 was good as well. Not elite, but still better than most teams we'll face.
But there were still multiple factors on Auburn's end that allowed y'alls DL to dominate as overwhelmingly as they did.
Predictable playcalling, predictable snap counts, simple plays with bad routes that didn't allow the WRs time to get open. The OL played poor, especially the LT, Prince Tega, who is not just new to the position (only switched to offense this spring), but still fairly new to football altogether (an African immigrant who moved here in 2014 and played football for the first time ever as HS Senior. Although he was tons of potential, there couldn't possibly be a worse matchup to try and hone his raw skills and gain experience against.
And of course, Stidham played like scared. Even when he had the time to get the ball off, he was clearly rattled and allowed the defense time to get to him, or just flat out overthrew guys several times.
Not to mention we've had a terrible redzone offense for years now. That is 100% on Gus. We were inside the 10 three times and only came away with 6 points. Inexcusable. In a game where our defense only gave up 14, that's the difference. Come away with TDs there and we win, even with how poor all the other drives were.
TL:DR
Yes, your defense is "that good", but at that the same time there was plenty of fault on ourselves
2
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:25 pm to antibarner
quote:
Auburn did not have the receivers to exploit any weakness in the Clemson secondary
That is 100% a coaching issue. We clearly have talent at the position. More than most teams. Several guys that are capable of making huge and impressive plays, and have flashed that ability.
The routes in our offense work against them. They are simple things that should be left at beginner level football. And there is inexcusable lack of quick release plays/ routes. Very rare that Auburn runs a quick slant over the middle. Watch our offense and the routes our WRs run take forever to develop. They usually don't have the chance to get open.
Kodi Burns is a poor position coach as well IMO. Despite all raw talent in our unit, there is a huge difference in the way that our guys go about things, and a team like Clemsons WRs do things. They put more WRs in the NFL than anybody, big time players, and yes they get talent but they are still clearly coached up exceptionally well. They aren't the only team that signs a lot of big time WRs, but theirs pan out more than anybody else and that's good coaching.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:26 pm to BowlJackson
The real test is what Auburn ( and Clemson) does offensively after this game. If either team really starts clicking offensively then you chalk things up to a tough defensive struggle. Of either teams offensive woes continue then you look at coaching (play calling) and personnel.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:29 pm to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
2010, 2013 and 2014 were all worse, and specifically were bad in the secondary and heavy at LB with no DL pass rush.
This one is very good in the secondary, good and fast at LB (when Evans comes back) but young and not as good in the front 4.
However, I think Clemson's is better due to their Front 4. Having elite dudes there covers up any slight weakness elsewhere.
2014 gave up 18.4 ppg
2013 gave up 13.9 ppg
2010 gave up 13.5 ppg
2014 may be a good comparison. Bama has Payne, Fitzpatrick, and Ronnie Harrison on defense..
That's nothing compared to what I'm used to seeing. SDH has impressed though.. he looks explosive.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:34 pm to bmy
quote:
2014 gave up 18.4 ppg
2013 gave up 13.9 ppg
2010 gave up 13.5 ppg
We always give up some PPG numbers. We suffocate bad offenses no matter who we have post 2009.
Our defenses are defined in games against the top 1/3 of offenses.
- 2010 was torched against Arkansas, South Carolina, LSU and Auburn
- 2013 was torched against A&M, Auburn and Oklahoma
- 2014 was torched against Ole Miss, Auburn and Ohio State
quote:
Bama has Payne, Fitzpatrick, and Ronnie Harrison on defense..
And Averett and Evans, who will be Top 2 round picks. And a host of freshmen figuring things out who are as athletic as any kids we've had (Moses, Wilson, Allen).
The schedule works well for this group post-injuries. I expect we'll be a pretty good unit by October. Losing Lewis and Miller was a big blow.
Having Pruitt is a big help IMHO. He's better than Kirby was at creating pressure and adapting, and that's something we'll need.
This post was edited on 9/11/17 at 7:37 pm
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:36 pm to CU_Tigers4life
No one wants you here
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:41 pm to BowlJackson
You tell em bowl. It is all the Clemson d. The auburn offense is really good. Lol.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:44 pm to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
Our defenses are defined in games against the top 1/3 of offenses.
- 2010 was torched against Arkansas, South Carolina, LSU and Auburn
- 2013 was torched against A&M, Auburn and Oklahoma
- 2014 was torched against Ole Miss, Auburn and Ohio State
Bama D has given up big points ~2-3 times per season for the last 4 years. Pretty much exclusively through the air.
Not saying they are bad.. just not the machine they normally are
This post was edited on 9/11/17 at 7:45 pm
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:48 pm to bmy
quote:
Not saying they are bad.. just not the machine they normally are
I agree, and mostly because of the D-Line. If Lewis and Miller hadn't gotten hurt I'd still be really high on them, but with the youth there has to be a bit of wait and see.
I feel pretty good about the back end and linebackers, though. Evans and SDH plus a rotation of young raw studs is pretty good. A lot depends on the performance of R. Davis and Buggs.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:49 pm to CU_Tigers4life
quote:
Maybe Clemson's Defense Was Just that good
Exactly. Auburn's got a top-5 offense and Stidham is going to win the Heisman. Clemson is just so good that NOBODY will EVER score more than six points on them.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:54 pm to Captain Crown
I really don't give a shite what you think... 
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:59 pm to bmy
You guys just messed up a perfectly good make fun of a Auburn thread.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 7:59 pm to borotiger
quote:
You guys just messed up a perfectly good make fun of a Auburn thread.
LOL
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:04 pm to Nuts4LSU
Somebody might score more than 6 points against Clemson's defense, but I seriously doubt an offense quarterbacked by Danny Eitling could do it
This post was edited on 9/11/17 at 8:12 pm
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:08 pm to Dawgfan128
quote:
You tell em bowl. It is all the Clemson d. The auburn offense is really good. Lol.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:29 pm to CU_Tigers4life
quote:
The real test is what Auburn ( and Clemson) does offensively after this game. If either team really starts clicking offensively then you chalk things up to a tough defensive struggle. Of either teams offensive woes continue then you look at coaching (play calling) and personnel.
The offense will improve. It's silly to think otherwise. Anybody who says or thinks that the Auburn offense will look that bad all year is either trolling, or not very bright and fooling themselves.
First off there isn't another DL outside of the NFL who is as talented all the way across to cause half the mayhem in Auburn's backfield that Clemson did.
Secondly, this OL may never become the typically top tier Auburn OL that we are used to, but they will improve and end up at least above average. Auburn's offense always seems to struggle before gelling and hitting their stride around week 4.
The running game will still be good, and more than likely still finish in the top 3 of the SEC. Even against Clemson, with only Pettway and him being roughed up, and the OL not being able to block anything, the running game was still effective enough to move the ball. I still have no idea why Gus decided to completely abandon the running game in a one score game. Inexcusable.
Get Kerryon and Pettway healthy at the same time and we won't need to pass much.
I don't see the passing game improving much overall though. We will be able to make big plays from time to time, and without the every down pressure causing Stidham to look like he has ptsd, and wreaking general havoc every single play, we should even be able to put up decent stats against a lot of teams.
But any team with a pulse in the secondary will be able to stop our scheme. The elite secondaries like Bama and LSU, possibly UGA should be able to render our passing game overall useless.
The WRs have talent, but are given terrible coaching... And the passing scheme and routes. Middle schools run more complex schemes than we do. Our routes take so long to develop and are so predictable that our WRs aren't given a chance to get open most of the time.
But all in all, the offense will probably perform about like last season. The teams in the middle of the season with weak defenses, the Arkys and Mizzous, and Mississippi schools, we will abuse and give the fans false hope that things are fixed when they aren't.
The teams with enough talent on defense to match us, and that are well coached (LSU, UGA, Bama) we will still struggle mightily. I don't think it'll be as bad as last season against UGA and Bama. We essentially had no healthy RB and no QB at all against either of them. Even if the injury bug is as unlucky as it was last season, we still have much better depth and should be able to not be nearly as effected.
But our defense will have to win us those games. They will keep us in the games at the very least.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:36 pm to CU_Tigers4life
quote:
Do you really want to go there slick?
Get defensive much?
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:37 pm to BowlJackson
If going by word count, Bowl owns your asses.
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:42 pm to borotiger
quote:
If going by word count, Bowl owns your asses
It's unfortunate that 99.9% of posters here either don't have the attention span to read more than three sentences per post, or in many cases, posses the mental capacity to process more information than can be held in a single tweet.
But posters here are more interested in trolling and flaming shite talk than actual discussion and gaining perspective.
This post was edited on 9/11/17 at 8:59 pm
Posted on 9/11/17 at 8:44 pm to BowlJackson
quote:
BowlJackson
Did the Clemson performance adjust some of your expectations for Auburn this year?
Your analysis above seems pretty spot on to me, espefially compared to the preseason.....stuff.
I still think Auburn is a 9 win team.
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