This loss is on Muschamp.

[Raven_tiger 5]

Inconsistent offense, lack of a running game (3.1 ypc is horrible), inability to sustain drives, and as someone else stated a culture of poor habits are to blame for this year's poor defensive showing. It will take Muschamp years (several recruiting classes)to fix this mess. Maybe Gus isn't the offensive genius that many of us made him out to be. Zero player development on offense, zero.

[tomcat 616]

Lot of opportunities to win this game...should have had a first quarter lead but for the dropped passes. At the end of the day the game was lost in the last OT by the dismal play calling.

[ertrader 218]

Defense not good but under Gus prior to this year we were 15-1 in sec games when we held opponents to 24 points or less in regulation. This year we are 0-2.

[AUbritt 615]

Defense not good but under Gus prior to this year we were 15-1 in sec games when we held opponents to 24 points or less in regulation. This year we are 0-2.

Solid stat, there. Sad, too.

[leglessdan 1,934]

Defense not good but under Gus prior to this year we were 15-1 in sec games when we held opponents to 24 points or less in regulation. This year we are 0-2.

The O is coming around. Slower than we all expected but the QB play, the play calling is all improving.

[Raven_tiger 5]

Defense not good but under Gus prior to this year we were 15-1 in sec games when we held opponents to 24 points or less in regulation. This year we are 0-2.

But how many points did we average of offense? I bet a much higher average than this year,even with this 4 OT scoring anomaly factored in.

[AUbehemoth 30]

Frost is the worst player on defense we have yet he was out there for 99% of the snaps. I have no clue how he stays on the field. I swear if you go back and watch the game again and concentrate on him it will make your head explode!! In the OTs he was consistently in the wrong spot and his responsibility scores almost all of their points in OT. Only the Arkys last OT possession TD wasn't on him. The 2 pt conversion was on him. He seems to like to stay in no mans land where he does absolutely nothing.

I could've sworn it was Jeff Hollands man on the 2 point conversion

[aufla 3]

Here's how I see it. I'm definitely an outsider so this is only my opinion. I think Gus is soft. Even though Ricardo made clutch catches at the end, I would have benched him after the 3rd or 4th drop. In addition, the play calling at the end was horrendous; defenses were gassed but we chose to throw low percentage fade routes.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Any team with a decent passing QB is going to give us grief. Our DBs aren't up to par and we get poor pass rush.

[Mikey 16,781]

Its a both/and, recievers were terrible, defense couldn't do anything, and play calling was as usual iffy...

When nine (count 'em, nine) well thrown passes are dropped it doesn't matter who called what plays, you lose the game. Even six of those passes get caught and Auburn wins going away. Play calling can't be faulted in this one.

[AUFAN78 4,174]

Its a both/and, recievers were terrible, defense couldn't do anything, and play calling was as usual iffy...

When nine (count 'em, nine) well thrown passes are dropped it doesn't matter who called what plays, you lose the game. Even six of those passes get caught and Auburn wins going away. Play calling can't be faulted in this one.

True dat

[AUwingsfan 1]

We have dropped passes for years. There is no accountability. Craig has not done a great job .

For years? Really? Sammy Coates is still dropping passes in the NFL. Who else are you pointing towards to justify this?

Every receiver drops passes, just like every QB misses passes. Can't blame it all on the coaches. Not sure it makes much sense to blame all of everything on anyone. I will agree with folks saying the drops were bad -- really bad. I'll also agree that they probably were a huge factor in costing us the game. But what's the point of placing the blame on any one person?

I agree with these sentiments. I just don't understand how we as a fanbase can lay that on the feet of the coaches. The coaches can't catch the ball for you. You can practice in front of receiving machine all week, but if you don't have sure hands, the amount of practice won't matter. I think of people like Darvin Adams and Emory Blake who were sure handed receivers. Great technique, catching the ball with their hands and great hand to eye coordination. I think the biggest problem with Auburn is that we have a lot of athletes playing positions. Sammy Coates is an athlete playing receiver. RL is an athlete playing receiver. They don't come off as your atypical receivers. They really don't. All the athletic ability in the world can't give you the hand-eye coordination of a Jordan Matthews.

During the first half this was all I could think about. We seem to have a large number of guys who were QBs playing receiver. I get that a converted QB may have a better mind for how the whole offense works, but I also think there's something to be said for having played WR for years before doing it in the SEC.

In terms of the original intent of the thread, I see your point about the defense not holding, but don't necessarily agree. Blaming Muschamp forgets to take into account the fact that the defense held strong in first half when their offense was doing nothing to help them. We didn't earn our first 1st down until our first scoring drive. To have held them to 14 points with receivers dropping balls to move the chains was impressive, knowing how fragile our defense is.

Arkansas is a big, physical team. Playing 4 quarters against them, with almost half without help from your offense, then extra time is going to wear you down. Let's also not forget in OT defense had to go out on back to back series. They just ran out of gas. I don't blame them.

The bottom line in all of this, you can't get down multiple scores on the road from the get go and expect to win. The Arkansas game this year felt a lot like MSU last year. We started super slow and recovering was too tall of a task.

[FoundationEagle 637]

This loss isn't on Muschamo, this is on the previous staff for coaching some of these players into the ground. Kris Frost just doesn't have the football IQ to be a good linebacker and a multitude of others have absolutely terrible habits. I believe we will pick up slack in coming years with recruits who fit scheme and will be coached well.

Have you seen this years recruiting class? Currently about the worst in the last 15 years...

Its October and we have half the "I mighy play for you" recruits that everyone else does. I have seen this so many years and by the time ink hits the paper AU pulls a top ten class.

Just saying... Anyone bringing up our recruiting rankings in October is just wanting everything to whine about

Anybody that actually follows recruiting knows that our recruiting this year has been quite a bit worse than recent years. Does that mean it won't turn around? No, but it's highly unlikely we break the top 10 this year. When talent is what everyone seems to blame our issues on, recruiting must be the answer right? Not looking likely this year. It is very unlikely we move from 28th in recruiting to where we all expect it to be. Sticking your head in the sand on the issue won't change it. Coaches are gonna have to recruit their arses off to make this even a decent class, let alone a good one. There is a small hope it will happen, but the later it gets, the more big dogs commit elsewhere and the harder it gets to turn it in our favor. The play on the field is not helping either.

[collector527 0]

I don't see how people keep blaming the defense. I got a suggestion. How about the offense actually keep the other teams offense off the field by continuing some drives. This team has been built around a high scoring offense for years and now that we have a good coach on the defensive side who is playing with out one of the best d lineman in the country and no real depth and having to rely on freshman and redshirt freshman while learning a new system and people say that the problem is the defense. How about the fact that the offense keeps putting their tired butts back out there because they are no where near the level we were 2 years ago or the first half of last year. The D is not good but I see improvement. The offense has not looked solid since before the Miss State game last year.

[AUbritt 615]

I don't understand why people can't resist finding somewhere to lay the blame.

[TitanTiger 21,665]

This thread was dumb from the start and only continues to give a place for more dummies to out themselves. Locking.