Post Game Thread: Washington

[MomentInTheSun]

Gonna keep this short and simple with some player grades -

Stidham - solid. Great passer. Still makes doodoo head decisions when he's under pressure though. Throw the ball away or just take the sack.

Baby Kam - 22 carries for 80 yards behind a bad OL and against a good Washington d. Also played a decent role in the passing game. Pretty solid. Wish he was a bit more patient

Boobie Whitlow - Beast run to win the game. Didn't see much other than that but hope to see him more.

Chandler Cox - Auburn's leading receiver right now. Doesn't ever need to receive carries but he's effective as a receiver

Darius Slayton - same

NCM - nice catches. Best hands on the team

Sal Cannella - Nice catch. Nothing more. Looks like Nic Cage in con air

Seth Williams - future stud

Ryan Davis - still a stud and now added stud punt returner to his resume. Wish we'd use him in the red zone

Is this the first ever malzahn coached game where a WR didn't run a reverse or jet sweep? Really missed Eli Stove out there gaining big chunks of yards

OL - pretty trash

Defense

Marlon - maybe an unpopular opinion but I don't think he's ever gonna be a dominant player. Coming in as a five star and starting as a frosh gave people some unreal expectations for him. But I think he's just good. Not great. Needs to affect the QB a lot more

D Brown - Beast

D Russ - Beast

Nick Coe - beast but buck probably isn't his best position.

D Williams - good

D Davis - mini beast

Jamel Dean - good player, but never looks fluid out there to me and looks like a pass interference just waiting to happen. Still good though

Noah Iggy - still will never be good at returning kicks, but will become a great corner. Already looks like a stud out there

Dinson - stud

Daniel Thomas - was fine I guess. Someone tell me if they saw him blow a coverage or something but he led the team in tackles and looked aggressive stopping the run.

Punter - Aussie guy

Baby Carlson - monster kick offs. Monster leg. I'm sure he'll get the accuracy down on FGs soon.

Gus - red zone play calling is still ass. But got the best win in all of college football yesterday, so hard to complain too much

 

[AUISIT]

D looks like it could win a lot of games for us and that's a great thing if our O doesnt make major progress.

Our O has made major progress in previous seasons but OL will have to improve significantly.

Great win in an ugly game, a type game we haven't won recently.

11-3 or 12-2

War Damn Eagle.

 

[L I G E R]

Post game thoughts: recruiting still matters.

The positions we’ve recruited well played well. And then there’s JBG’s handiwork on full display. Just not talented enough there. Period.

KMart isn’t the full-time answer at RB. Want to see more Asa Martin and Shaun Shivers. Boobie seems to have great potential but is kinda feeling his way right now.

 

[Harvey Specter]

Agree on Marlon. Doesn’t dominate like I would hope but still plays pretty big at least.

Moultry is my biggest disappointment. Seems completely lost and even weak at times

 

[MomentInTheSun]

Agree on Marlon. Doesn’t dominate like I would hope but still plays pretty big at least.

Moultry is my biggest disappointment. Seems completely lost and even weak at times

Moultry strikes me as an emotional player kinda like Eltoro Freeman. After he got that stupid roughing the passer penalty then he may have gotten discouraged. But yeah I didn’t notice him after that.

Big Cat Bryant looks legit though

Didn’t see if Richard Jibournor played

 

[WDE_Tarp]

Pretty much agree with everything OP. To me Marlon's future is inside. He is explosive for his size but not explosive for a DE. He isn't anywhere near as good as Brown, but Brown might be the best DT in the country.

 

[Boytano]

my biggest takes from this game:
• there was enough talent on the field to win at the end.

• Some bad play calls and deficiencies on the OL really are killing what should be a fairly high scoring affair.

• Penalties are absolutely ridiculous and this team currently will not be able to overcome them against average SEC talent.

• Defense is stout but i think would flourish more if the O would give them more points to work with and not make them feel like giving up a big play could lose the game.

*bonus take Stidam still looks like a cuck (glad he's marrying well)

 

[Ser Sweater Vest]

Moultry strikes me as an emotional player kinda like Eltoro Freeman. After he got that stupid roughing the passer penalty then he may have gotten discouraged. But yeah I didn’t notice him after that.

Big Cat Bryant looks legit though

Didn’t see if Richard Jibournor played

This. Dude was in the backfield everytime he was on the field. He’ll get some stupid penalties this season, but he’s gonna make some damn plays. Dude is a headhunter. As is Daniel Thomas. He may be a liability in pass coverage, but he’s gonna lay the wood when they run at him.

 

[MomentInTheSun]

Pretty much agree with everything OP. To me Marlon's future is inside. He is explosive for his size but not explosive for a DE. He isn't anywhere near as good as Brown, but Brown might be the best DT in the country.

Yeah. With D Brown and D Russ leaving after this season, good opportunity to move Marlon inside and let Coe start back at SDE. This assumes that Coe doesn't go pro either

 

[MomentInTheSun]

• Penalties are absolutely ridiculous and this team currently will not be able to overcome them against average SEC talent.

One of the pass interference calls was absolutely ridiculous and should have been called on the WR. Also, the imaginary chop block call was stupid too. Trying to think of some other ones but it was a pretty poor night for the refs.

This. Dude was in the backfield everytime he was on the field. He’ll get some stupid penalties this season, but he’s gonna make some damn plays. Dude is a headhunter. As is Daniel Thomas. He may be a liability in pass coverage, but he’s gonna lay the wood when they run at him.

Yeah. Big Cat is legit and Darrell Williams is a really good pass rusher too when he gets his opportunities.

Also D Williams pass break up to prevent that TD was damn impressive. Dude is a stud

 

[charlie5]

I thought the OL played better than the box score shows

Our RBs showed zero patience or vision. The cut back lanes were gaping

In a zone blocking scheme the RB has to be patient and explode. Too many times our backs ran full speed into the pile vs finding a seam and exploding. Or cutting back against the flow

Perfect game this next week to tighten that up

JMO

 

[ThrustMaxwell]

Offense: C+
Coaching was beyond poor. Stidham looks good with no pressure, add a little pressure and he looks like he goes full retard. WRs looked good. OL looked OK but not special. RB, I'm gonna have to wait and see.

Defense: B+
Looked great everywhere accept Safety (in the passing game).

Season Prediction: 8-4.

 

[MomentInTheSun]

I thought the OL played better than the box score shows

Our RBs showed zero patience or vision. The cut back lanes were gaping

In a zone blocking scheme the RB has to be patient and explode. Too many times our backs ran full speed into the pile vs finding a seam and exploding. Or cutting back against the flow

Perfect game this next week to tighten that up

JMO

yeah. When Baby Kam actually finds the hole, then he's a very very effective running back. He all too often just ran into a OL's ass and then fell down. Hopefully he can improve on that. Otherwise Boobie is gonna be the man soon

 

[Boytano]

One of the pass interference calls was absolutely ridiculous and should have been called on the WR. Also, the imaginary chop block call was stupid too. Trying to think of some other ones but it was a pretty poor night for the refs.

agreed, but there were plenty that were legit calls. Need to be more mindful and not put themselves in a hole.

 

[Boytano]

yeah. When Baby Kam actually finds the hole, then he's a very very effective running back. He all too often just ran into a OL's ass and then fell down. Hopefully he can improve on that. Otherwise Boobie is gonna be the man soon

there were several times that he just stopped at the line and killed his momentum. Granted often there was no gap, but shit you don't stop running at the line of scrimmage.

 

[wcw3au1]

Big win. D is so good and will hopefully stay healthy and keep getting better. They give us a chance to beat anybody.

 

[MomentInTheSun]

BTW, was there any news on Javaris Davis? Did he come back in and play? I can't remember but I do remember Jordan Peters out there

 

[Ser Sweater Vest]

BTW, was there any news on Javaris Davis? Did he come back in and play? I can't remember but I do remember Jordan Peters out there

95% sure I saw him in the 4th quarter. I pointed it out to my brother.

 

[Harvey Specter]

BTW, was there any news on Javaris Davis? Did he come back in and play? I can't remember but I do remember Jordan Peters out there

He came back out very briefly shortly after injury, but came back out and don’t think he went back in hardly at all. I would say he probably took 2-3 snaps after injury

 

[cookedw]

Gonna keep this short and simple with some player grades -

Stidham - solid. Great passer. Still makes doodoo head decisions when he's under pressure though. Throw the ball away or just take the sack.

Baby Kam - 22 carries for 80 yards behind a bad OL and against a good Washington d. Also played a decent role in the passing game. Pretty solid. Wish he was a bit more patient

Boobie Whitlow - Beast run to win the game. Didn't see much other than that but hope to see him more.

Chandler Cox - Auburn's leading receiver right now. Doesn't ever need to receive carries but he's effective as a receiver

Darius Slayton - same

NCM - nice catches. Best hands on the team

Sal Cannella - Nice catch. Nothing more. Looks like Nic Cage in con air

Seth Williams - future stud

Ryan Davis - still a stud and now added stud punt returner to his resume. Wish we'd use him in the red zone

Is this the first ever malzahn coached game where a WR didn't run a reverse or jet sweep? Really missed Eli Stove out there gaining big chunks of yards

OL - pretty trash

Defense

Marlon - maybe an unpopular opinion but I don't think he's ever gonna be a dominant player. Coming in as a five star and starting as a frosh gave people some unreal expectations for him. But I think he's just good. Not great. Needs to affect the QB a lot more

D Brown - Beast

D Russ - Beast

Nick Coe - beast but buck probably isn't his best position.

D Williams - good

D Davis - mini beast

Jamel Dean - good player, but never looks fluid out there to me and looks like a pass interference just waiting to happen. Still good though

Noah Iggy - still will never be good at returning kicks, but will become a great corner. Already looks like a stud out there

Dinson - stud

Daniel Thomas - was fine I guess. Someone tell me if they saw him blow a coverage or something but he led the team in tackles and looked aggressive stopping the run.

Punter - Aussie guy

Baby Carlson - monster kick offs. Monster leg. I'm sure he'll get the accuracy down on FGs soon.

Gus - red zone play calling is still ass. But got the best win in all of college football yesterday, so hard to complain too much

I will probably get killed for this assessment, but I actually didn't think the red zone playcalling or playcalling in general was that bad (of course other than the Cox cat pass on the 2 pt conversion). We had a lot of opportunities both inside and outside the red zone to blow that game open and didn't take advantage.

Stidham had a couple of plays that opened up a wide open WR that for some reason or another, he either didnt look at him or did and didn't throw it.

 

[wcw3au1]

I will probably get killed for this assessment, but I actually didn't think the red zone playcalling or playcalling in general was that bad (of course other than the Cox cat pass on the 2 pt conversion). We had a lot of opportunities both inside and outside the red zone to blow that game open and didn't take advantage.

Stidham had a couple of plays that opened up a wide open WR that for some reason or another, he either didnt look at him or did and didn't throw it.

Very reasonable. We all get frustrated at times during the game but it’s always a combination of things, not just Gussie gussing. Peterson had 6 red zone trips and got a TD and 3 FG’s. That’s not very good either but we all know he can coach.

 

[DufnerFanBoy]

Thoughts: we beat what I think is a really good team. And that team had what I worried was a very good recipe to stop our run game. Their interior DL just caused havoc for us all day. We never could get seals or create creases for the RBs to run through. I agree with @charlie5 that the RBs missed opportunities to cut back or bounce out and make some plays. But Washington did a good job of clogging the middle and making us want to spill outside. Their LBs cleaned up running plays really well.

The passing game early was great. Once it became apparent we couldn’t effectively run the ball, their pass rush secondary had a lot more success against our pass. The RPOs that we’re effective early didn’t have the same success later. Also really happy to see our offense put together a come-from-behind drive late in a game to take back a lead. I don’t think we’ve done that in a while (at least, I can’t remember one right now).

The defense is pretty dirty. We’re going to have issues defending those fades and slot fades all year though. IMO our DBs are good, but we don’t seem to have any real ball skill/ball hawk types in the secondary. And we need some guys to step up in the edge rush Department. I think that will Ben Big Kat, but I want to see more from him. We didn’t create a lot of pressure bringing 4 from what I remember.

Overall, very happy with the win, especially considering how much we struggled to establish the run. If we can get the run game corrected enough to be effective, this offense can really flourish. But I think a combo of technique/execution and play calling is needed to help fix the OL. It’s going to be a work in progress.

 

[Harvey Specter]

I will probably get killed for this assessment, but I actually didn't think the red zone playcalling or playcalling in general was that bad (of course other than the Cox cat pass on the 2 pt conversion). We had a lot of opportunities both inside and outside the red zone to blow that game open and didn't take advantage.

Stidham had a couple of plays that opened up a wide open WR that for some reason or another, he either didnt look at him or did and didn't throw it.

Stidham stills gets a case of the “stops looking downfield too quickly” sometimes.

His checkdowns to Cox yesterday were great though, needs to keep that up

 

[DufnerFanBoy]

He came back out very briefly shortly after injury, but came back out and don’t think he went back in hardly at all. I would say he probably took 2-3 snaps after injury

At least he was able to go back in. That tells me he could probably be ready to go by LSU. Fingers crossed that my medical assessment is correct.

 

[cookedw]

Stidham stills gets a case of the “stops looking downfield too quickly” sometimes.

His checkdowns to Cox yesterday were great though, needs to keep that up

Agree. There was one play in the red zone I believe, where Stidham was rolling to the right in the 2nd quarter amd had Canella running wide open across the middle. Would have walked into the endzone. Never even looked at him.

 

[WDE_Tarp]

I haven't rewatched game but from memory it felt like the problem was we were too predictable with runs on 1st and 2nd and then a tough attempt at 3rd and long.

 

[Harvey Specter]

Replay coming on SECN in 3 minutes

 

[WDE_Tarp]

Thus far I've been right about red zone offense being run on 1st and 2nd down.

 

[MomentInTheSun]

Noticed Anthony Schwartz on the field late in the first half. Surprised they never gave him one of those speed sweeps

 

[ALLTIGER85]

Noticed Anthony Schwartz on the field late in the first half. Surprised they never gave him one of those speed sweeps

Gotta keep your game 4 plays for game 5. Wouldn’t want anyone preparing for it.

 

[jeramye]

I haven't rewatched game but from memory it felt like the problem was we were too predictable with runs on 1st and 2nd and then a tough attempt at 3rd and long.

It was less of a problem than it's been in the past. We still started a few possessions that way, but we did mix it up better overall compared to typical Gus stuff.

The OL is obviously the biggest issue. I'm not sure just how bad that was, because I'm not sure how great the Wash DL is. At best we are mediocre right now. If the only other DL's we will see that good are UGA and UA and we can improve weekly we are probably fine. If that line was no better than MSU, LSU and others we've got some real problems and if it's possible we are total garbage on the line and if that's the case we're screwed.

I'm pretty anti-Gus but I'm not going to kill the play calls. Yeah we had a few I'd like to see changed but I watched other games and I saw quite a few big name offensive guys do a helluva lot worse. We threw it over the middle some. We executed a nice TD pass in the RZ. It was better in the pass game overall. Now the question is what the staff does from here.

It looked to me like a few young guys were super anxious and it impacted their play. Boobie couldn't even see the space he was so anxious. Moultry looked entirely too excited. Both need to calm the hell down and I'm sure there were others.

 

[FormerlyKnownAsSOLLY]

Tale of different quarters ie: Either team coulda put up mega points in RZ, so it had to be frustrating for them as well (moreso since we got the Leather Headgear Award). Lots of good points here and you can ONLY get that on The GREG. Looked at the Bunker yesterday & of course it was Post Only. Weak minds & all.

 

[Harvey Specter]

 

[WDE_Tarp]

Been half watching the replay. Final TD came on this playcalling: inside zone, smoke draw, inside zone. Probably were playing for the FG there and got lucky.

 

[MomentInTheSun]

Been watching the replay as well. Big Cat Bryant probably a little too aggressive and over pursuing on his rushes. He allowed Browning to get some first downs. But that dude is the most athletic pass rusher AU has. Dude is dropping back in coverage. And making tackles all over the place. He's gonna be a beast

Didn't realize either that Smoke Monday was the guy that got the final sack. Pretty telling that they trusted him to be in there on Washington's last drive

 

[WDE_Tarp]

Been watching the replay as well. Big Cat Bryant probably a little too aggressive and over pursuing on his rushes. He allowed Browning to get some first downs. But that dude is the most athletic pass rusher AU has. Dude is dropping back in coverage. And making tackles all over the place. He's gonna be a beast

Didn't realize either that Smoke Monday was the guy that got the final sack. Pretty telling that they trusted him to be in there on Washington's last drive

Big Cat has tons of potential.

 

[Harvey Specter]

Don’t know if y’all saw the quote but Kevin Steele basically said the reason he brought the house on 4th down was because if it failed horribly, it may would’ve given AU the ball back with more time on clock.

I thought only those of us that played Madden thought like that, thought it was funny hearing Steele say it

 

[WDE_Tarp]

Don’t know if y’all saw the quote but Kevin Steele basically said the reason he brought the house on 4th down was because if it failed horribly, it may would’ve given AU the ball back with more time on clock.

I thought only those of us that played Madden thought like that, thought it was funny hearing Steele say it

I like it honestly.

 

[Harvey Specter]

I like it honestly.

Same, I appreciated his candor about it too

 

[Slippin Jimmy]

Don’t know if y’all saw the quote but Kevin Steele basically said the reason he brought the house on 4th down was because if it failed horribly, it may would’ve given AU the ball back with more time on clock.

I thought only those of us that played Madden thought like that, thought it was funny hearing Steele say it

Did the same thing against Clemson a couple of years ago and it backfired spectacularly