Auburn vs. Ole Miss: The Strive for Consistency Continues

Blame it on what you want. Lack of depth. Penalties beyond belief. Chris Todd’s arm is done. Ted Roof has no clue what he’s doing. Maybe Chizik bit off more than he can chew. Yeah, at this point, in the midst of a three game losing streak, those have all been thrown around with reckless abandon.

If you take a closer look, can you really pinpoint one thing that has gone wrong?

Sure, there’s the offense that couldn’t be stopped by the Chicago Bears through Week 6, and couldn’t punch the ball in the end zone twice against Kentucky.

They’ve fumbled inside the five with the game on the line, committed false start penalties on drives that could’ve altered the season and Guz Malzahn’s bag of tricks doesn’t look so magical anymore.

The defense has been night and day in terms of when they decide to make a stop, but with four scholarship linebackers, the position that tends to anchor a defense, much more can’t be expected.

There are players playing out of position every week, and when the competition became harder per say, the defense got exploited.

Neiko Thorpe for example has been picked on by opposing quarterbacks in the past few weeks, but what defensive back won’t get occasionally get burned when he’s on the field for as long as he is, and having to make tackles that should’ve already been made in the backfield?

When they’ve shown flashes of brightness, they’ve turned right around and made foolish mistakes that cost them ballgames. Putting together four quarters of consistent offense and defense has been virtually nowhere to be found.

They are still the Auburn Tigers. They are still the same team who battled with everything they had in front of 87,000 rain soaked fans against West Virginia in a game that many thought would set the tone for the season.

This is the same team that took Mississippi State out to the woodshed. Yeah, the same MSU team that had Florida at its wit’s end last Saturday. This is still the same Auburn team that went into Tennessee with some 25 plus players on the road for the first time, and came out victorious in stylish fashion.

In Knoxville, the offense was still there. Onterrio Mccalebb was at least somewhat healthy. Now, the offense has seemingly disappeared, along with Mccalebb, who darted out of bounds on one of his three carries last week after a seemingly short gain that could have been much more.

Right now, things aren’t like anyone expected after a 5-0 start.

That is anyone except Gene Chizik. He told you everyone from the get go they needed to realize what the Tigers would be up against this season. Chizik said depth would play a huge factor, and you were crazy to believe it wouldn’t with the toll the SEC takes. He didn’t expect an SEC title.

Did he have thoughts of one after Week 5? Probably so.

Did he think things would go as south as they did so quickly? Probably not.

What he did know, was that when you have as many things against you as the Tigers do this year, things can’t be good forever. Arkansas finally oppressed that.

With Ole Miss rolling into town for the proclaimed “Navy Nightmare,” Gus Malzahn will look to fool his old boss in Houston Nutt, and get the Auburn offense back into form.

Ole Miss has turned it on as of late, and seemingly destroyed Arkansas last week. Stopping Dexter McCluster will be key, as the Razorbacks saw too much of the back of his jersey last week.

If the Tigers can shut him down, they have a very good chance at stealing this one from the Rebs.

Jevan Snead is a capable quarterback, but one also prone to make the mistake throw. Auburn would love to pounce on that like they did in the early weeks, and provide a spark that the defense has so desperately needed lately.

Ben Tate has been constant for the Tigers, but with a banged up Mccalebb, Mario Fannin will look to enter the picture more this week.

Something must give for the Tigers to improve on offense, and Malzahn will look to have fresh look on Saturday morning.

Auburn won’t let this season go down the drain. It’s not over. It starts again on Saturday at 11:21 am.

Gene Chizik will have them ready, and after three weeks of underachieving, hopefully will be ready to execute for four quarters of football.

With just four games left, this marathon is far from over. Bowl eligibility is on the line, and one big win could spark this team to a highlight reel finish.

As the players know, this is Round 9. What do October wins get you? Respect. The
Auburn Tigers will look to take that word to heart Saturday and get back in the winning column.

Auburn Vs. Kentucky: Gut Check Week For Chizik and The Tigers

While last week did not go the way Tiger fans hoped, take a step back and realize not all is lost.

Arkansas is a much better team than they received credit for, and the defensive schemes they threw at the near unstoppable Auburn offense proved to be extremely successful despite being ranked last in the SEC in total defense.

Auburn has a chance to get back on track this week, and with Kentucky coming into town, they have a chance to do that in a huge way.

The Tigers are still barely outside the Top 25, and technically hold their destiny in their own hands.

Win out, play for the SEC Championship. While it’s a tough task, and one that may not be feasible, no many expected to be able to say that after Week 6 of this season.

The Plainsmen have been able to do this with a defense that has been living on the wild side all season, and in Fayetteville last week, that was finally exploited.

A team cannot live off of turnovers alone, and when you don’t get stops, you won’t win games. It’s not that there isn’t any talent for Defensive Coordinator Ted Roof to work with; he just doesn’t have much “healthy” talent to throw out there.

Freshmen are being rushed to take on even more hefty roles than they originally thought, and any time you take a glaring four scholarship linebackers into a road SEC contest, one is just asking for trouble.

Eltoro Freeman, a highly touted linebacker who was expected to make a significant impact this season may finally be back this week. Chizik has yet to officially announce that, but he is back practicing after not traveling last weekend.

The Defense could take another significant hit this week with secondary leader Walter McFadden possibly sitting out after suffering an injury last week.

Luckily, the Kentucky Wildcats aren’t exactly a group that strikes fear into teams. While they always seem to surprise one team every year, it will be tough from here on out without injured starting quarterback Mike Hartline, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn MCL.

Kentucky had a chance to knock off South Carolina in Columbia last week had Hartline not gone down early in the second half. The Wildcats fell 28-26 in a game they held the lead in at halftime.

While this doesn’t mean Kentucky will be a pushover win, it does give Auburn somewhat of a sigh of relief. This is exactly the type of game the depleted Tigers need to get back on track.

A night game, on the Plains, nationally televised, and with a something left to prove are all the right reasons for the Tigers to come out Saturday night and show the country the first five weeks were no joke.

Auburn better get ready, because after this, it becomes an uphill battle. LSU, Ole Miss, UGA and Alabama will take advantage of mistakes even more hastily than Arkansas did. Like Coach Chizik said to the team after the loss last Saturday, “This can be the best thing to happen to this team, or it could be the worst.”

We’ll find out how the Tigers respond to their first bit of adversity Saturday. From what we’ve seen so far, Auburn knows how to make adjustments, and one should expect them to do just that.

It only takes one game to get back on track, just ask Florida about their two national championship seasons.

This is the week the Tigers make that adjustment, and this is the week the Tigers prove to the country that we won’t lay down in the second half of the season. As Gene Chizik would say, go out and “DO WHAT WE DO.” The rest will take care of itself.

Auburn vs. Arkansas: 2006 spelled disaster, will this week be the same?

Opening up your road schedule with an SEC win is never something to complain about, especially with a team that carried 27 players on the road for the first time ever.

Not only was it their first time on the road, it was the first time in overwhelming Neyland Stadium.

If you’ve never been to Knoxville, trust me, that place is loud. Regardless of how powerful the Vols are, the crowd alone can sometimes be enough to will Tennessee to victory.

Last Saturday this was not the case, as a stronger Auburn squad continued their offensive success in a 26-22 “misleading” victory over the Vols. While the scoreboard may have seemed close, for those who watched the game, you know otherwise.

A touchdown as time expired, coupled by an Auburn defense giving up more fourth quarter points led to the final tally.

The Tiger victory led to some eventual respect, with a front page story on ESPN.com about the jump into the national rankings. While Auburn sits at 5-0, this is no time to get complacent, as Gene Chizik knows.

Facing a much improved Arkansas team on the road will be yet another tough task for the Tigers to embark upon.

The Razorbacks have showed promise at times, losing a shootout to UGA, yet being dominated in Tuscaloosa by Alabama.
Bobby Petrino’s squad bounced back quickly, thwarting Texas A&M’s hopes at victory last week with a 47-19 blowout win.

Armed with 6 foot 7 quarterback Ryan Mallett, the Razorback offense is ranked 7th in the country in passing offense and will no doubt be the toughest unit the Tigers have faced thus far through the air.

The Tiger defense has been somewhat susceptible to the big pass play this season, ranking dead last in the SEC in first downs allowed.

Despite that, they still rank in the Top 10 in passes intercepted, even without intercepting a ball from Tennessee’s pick-prone Jonathon Crompton last week.

If Auburn wants to win in convincing style this week, a few forced turnovers may be key.

While there’s always the chance of an SEC upset, the Tigers are the better team. Arkansas has the home crowd on their side, and Auburn hasn’t always performed well in morning games.

This year, that is completely out of their element after opening with four straight night games.

Arkansas has played the role of Auburn spoiler before, knocking the number two Tigers out of national title contention in 2006 with a 27-10 lopsided loss.

The similarities this time around? An unranked Arkansas team, a 5-0 ranked Auburn team, and an 11 am start time.

The Tiger’s aren’t ranked in the Top 5, and certainly aren’t on anyone’s short list for the national title, but no matter how you cut it, an Arkansas victory could derail this Tiger team.

Sure, the 11 am start has the potential to spell disaster, but not this time around. Gene Chizik will once again have his team ready to roll, even if it means making halftime adjustments to come back and win the game as we have seen so many times before.

We all know Auburn’s offense will score, and Gus Malzahn’s unit has the capability to hang an astronomical amount of points on Arkansas this weekend.

If they can shake off the early morning rust, expect them to do just that.

Auburn vs. Tennessee: Can the Tigers become Road Warriors?

After a Saturday of solid, yet less than inspiring football against an overpowered Ball State squad, the Tigers head north to invade the Land of Lane known as Vol Country.

While Auburn is no Florida, Lane Kiffin has given Auburn credit this week for the way they’ve performed so far, opposed to the way he’s spoken out about Urban Meyer and the Gators.

Lane Kiffin knows he doesn’t have the tools to succeed quite yet. Given time, he just might. Gene Chizik, well, let’s just say he was told he didn’t have the tools to succeed. So far, he has.

The Tigers have no plans of letting up now. The mistakes that have continuously haunted Auburn in prior weeks have been special teams, as well as getting the defense off the field on third downs.

The coaching staff vowed to shore up the punt protection unit after a near costly punt block error against MSU, and through two weeks, they have lived up to their word.

Other than that, special teams have been below average at best. Going into Neyland Stadium at night, with a talented, yet very young team will require near mistake free football. One small blunder on special teams could turn the entire game around.
Both teams understand that.

Kiffin will be ready to pounce on an Auburn mistake, and Chizik will work to prevent them.

On paper, the Tigers have a better team. Offensively, Auburn has firepower that is incomparable to many schools in the nation. While the running attack has seen a dropoff in recent weeks, Chris Todd has played smart and efficient after two average outings to open the year.

It will be very interesting to see how Todd responds to the Volunteer crowd with the expectations as high as they are on the Plains for a 4-0 Auburn squad. Having a Heisman candidate to deal with on defense in Eric Berry will be another interesting task for Todd to undertake.

Jonathan Crompton, the UT signal caller, who was once the “future of Tennessee Football” has yet to find his niche in Knoxville.

Prone to interceptions, Crompton’s turnover numbers are a huge concern to Kiffin and the Vol nation. It will be an even bigger dilemma in facing a Tiger defense that is fourth in the country with eight interceptions in four weeks.

The Volunteers will look to capitalize on Auburn’s shaky special teams, while the Tigers will look to put pressure on Jonathan Crompton and force him into bad decisions.

This SEC East vs. West tilt has the makings of a heavyweight bout, but it’s just another night of the best college football in the country.

The Tigers and Vols will go under the lights in front of a national audience with two new head coaches with everything to gain Saturday night.

While Lane Kiffin tends to boastfully voice his opinion more than other coaches, that doesn’t always translate into victories on the field.

We all know Gene Chizik is very guarded and methodical in what he says, and so far, that has led to success on the field for the Auburn Tigers. Look for another victory this week in Knoxville.