re: Howard Richards Lays Blame On Missouri DC

"Gabe DeArmond ?@GabeDeArmond 15m
As best I could tell, Auburn ran for 160 yards in 20 carries against 3-man front for #Mizzou, ran for 330 on 40 carries against 4-man front"

So the 3 man front was actually .25 yards per carry more effective than the 4 man front?

That sounds about right. It was painful to watch. It also didn't help that the team had to play from behind most of the game - they hadn't had to do that all year, and it showed.

The other thing that I bet factored in was the lack of prep time. We didn't have the division clinched, and the coaches had to be focused on our last opponents. Plus, everyone expected Alabama to be in that game. I'd bet any prep for the SECCG was focused on Bama before last week, not Auburn. More prep time may not have made a difference, but it sure couldn't have hurt. In contrast, Auburn probably paid equal attention to Mizzou and USC. That could have been a factor. Not an excuse, though.

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How would you stop the Auburn run offense and why was Saban so stupid that he didn't utilize the exact same scheme you will now provide the college football world? Or was it not obvious the previous week that Auburn would run the ball?

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1. Saban has a different team. You may not have noticed but he coaches at Alabama.
2. Saban would not use the same scheme as should have been used by the Tigers because he has different tools.
3. You build your scheme around the tools you have - not the ones you wish you had.
4. I certainly would not have run that 3-3-5 against a running team. We needed more men in the box.
5. I would have blitzed on first and second down. We are a pressure defense. We should have brought the pressure and force Auburn to change because of us. During one series, we brought more men on the line and stopped them.
6. We allowed Auburn to set the game and we followed them. Had we brought our pressure defense and adjusted in their backfield, Auburn would have had to change things up to play our game.

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From all I can gather, the blame has to be shared between the coaches and the players. Some of those critiquing the strategies of the coaching staff make good points, but I think they also missed some things the staff did try.

I saw a lot of missed tackles and assignments on the players parts, some bad angles and failure to get off blocks. Because of that, I'm not going to hammer either the kids or the staff-because it looks to me like they just didn't execute the gameplan, so I don't know how to judge it. One week and 3 practices is not enough to get ready for that offense, either, for either the coaches or the players.

Auburn was just better. Tip our hats to them and move on.

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Yeah. I saw a coaches show where Mike Belloti showed film of Missouri (and Alabama) defenders biting on what he called Auburn's "eye candy" of slight of hand and giving up their gap responsibility.

He also added that it takes lots of practice to ignore it and maintain discipline. And that Florida State has the kind of time needed to work out the kinks.

So it does look like a shared responsibility between coaches and players.