A more reasoned perspective.......

[homersapien 11,685]

Maybe this is more of a glass half full perspective, but it made me feel a little better.

 

 

Here's their immediate, post game reaction. 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by homersapien

[Randman5000 4,245]

For sure. The collapse was bad. The inefficiencies are glaring, but fans do need to relax. There's alot of promise for this staff and it is nice to see tight ends catching balls, WR running routes, and QB play under center and making adjustments. Realiity is coaches and Mason got schooled by Mike Leach for sure. This program is going to take some work. 

[PUB78 1,372]

7 hours ago, Randman5000 said:

For sure. The collapse was bad. The inefficiencies are glaring, but fans do need to relax. There's alot of promise for this staff and it is nice to see tight ends catching balls, WR running routes, and QB play under center and making adjustments. Realiity is coaches and Mason got schooled by Mike Leach for sure. This program is going to take some work. 

I hope you are right, but after the results of the last two games, you will have to admit the confidence level in Harsin and his coaching staff is very low at the present.

[woodford 3,688]

18 minutes ago, PUB78 said:

I hope you are right, but after the results of the last two games, you will have to admit the confidence level in Harsin and his coaching staff is very low at the present.

Two back to back historic losses. You don’t really have to do too much diving into the numbers. Offense was absolute garbage last week and the defensive just quit playing in the second half on Saturday. 
 

There are glaring problems with the program and it’s not just the talent. I know it’s a transition year but this is unacceptable. I know Mason and Bobo were probably brought in for recruiting but if they can’t finish strong on the trail then they both need to go. 

[tomcat 571]

The lack of consistency is the troubling (and obvious) thing. We get glimpses of what we hope this team can be, such as the first half of Miss St, only to nose dive into incompetence. What changes? Same coaches, same players, but a failure to execute. For some reason when these guys take a couple of solid counter punches they do not respond well.

[weagl1 1,793]

After seeing that mess unfold Saturday any confidence I ever had in this staff is gone.  I became an Auburn supporter in 1957 when my sister started school there.  I was a Boy Scout usher in the early 1960’s.  I was a student 72-76.  I’ve been to so many games over the years I wouldn’t even begin to try to count.  Now that I’m older I never miss a game on TV and still attend occasionally.  My reasoned perspective is that Derek Mason has made a mess out of our defense.  Bend but don’t break with a 3 man rush and zone in the secondary is not the Auburn way, especially when they end up breaking anyway.  Auburn defense is to bring it,  man up, push the pocket back in the QB’s face, bring the heat.  That mess Saturday made me sick!  On offense it just looked like the line quit at halftime.  We are wasting some great talent in the RB room because of the lack of development in the O line.  They don’t know who to block so they don’t block anybody.  The coaching on this team is pitiful.  Recruiting is in the tank.  Bammer and UGA get whoever they want and Auburn gets what’s left over.  We will be much better off if the HC just quits rather than get the COVID vaccine.  He keeps playing games with that rather than answer a straight question and he makes himself look like an idiot. Hopefully he will take the AD with him and we can start over.  It’s clear to me it’s going to come to that eventually so we might has well get it over with rather than face years of this incompetence.  We need a coaching staff to breathe some new life into this proud program not suck all of the air out of it.  That’s my reasoned perspective.  

[tbone4jc 2,250]

Patience people. For the love of football y'all are premature and impatient.  Everyone is embarrassed about the game. That does not take away from the facts that there has been so much positive to take away from this season. We had a minor setback in what I see as a major upgrade in our program.  

Impatience is but another form of unhappiness. It is true, it is true. I have never met a happy impatient person. -Author unknown

[aubiefifty 17,488]

i wish harsin would explain more about what is happening. it would probably keep fans from panicking as much. gus gave us "a good week of practice" and harsin repeats the fundamentals thing which is not telling us anything. i think harsin is a great coach but it takes a special kind of coach to come into the sec and have great success. so many good coaches have failed in the sec. i am still behind harsin because it is the first year and he was handed some huge problems that i am thinking will take two or three years to work out. this alone bums me out. but if harsin is not the answer then we go through all this mess again.

[Randman5000 4,245]

2 hours ago, PUB78 said:

I hope you are right, but after the results of the last two games, you will have to admit the confidence level in Harsin and his coaching staff is very low at the present.

It's pretty low. Especially w/o Bo, Anders and possibly Shenker. If we lose to bama it will be even lower. But we should beat Scar with a backup. The staff has to recruit their butts off and close well. That starts up front. We need help for sure. Our pass game is so much better though. The staff realizes this isn't good enough. They need a bowl win for something positive going into next year for sure. However they have done some good things with wins at LSU and against good Arkansas and Ole Miss team. I don't think losses at A&M and a decent Miss St ruins the year. Every team in the West has improved over last year. Last year everyone was pretty bad. Regardless this was a rebuild even though we wanted it to be better. Imo

Edited November 15, 2021 by Randman5000

[e808 3,028]

16 minutes ago, tbone4jc said:

Patience people. For the love of football y'all are premature and impatient.  Everyone is embarrassed about the game. That does not take away from the facts that there has been so much positive to take away from this season. We had a minor setback in what I see as a major upgrade in our program.  

Impatience is but another form of unhappiness. It is true, it is true. I have never met a happy impatient person. -Author unknown

So having a reaction to back to back historical weeks of the wrong kind is nothing. U could even argue for every positive there has been a negative. When people see historical things that never have happened before it’s not so simple to act like it didn’t happen. That game was a historical low for Auburn and a historical high for Mississippi State

[SRBautigerfan 1,040]

7 minutes ago, Randman5000 said:

It's pretty low. Especially n with Bo, Anders and possibly Shenker. If we lose to bama it will be even lower. But we should beat Scar with a backup. The staff has to recruit their butts off and close well. They need a bowl win for something positive thing into next year for sure. However they have done some good things with wins at LSU and against good Arkansas and Ole Miss team. I don't think losses at A&M and a decent Miss St ruins the year. Regardless this was a rebuild even though we wanted it to be better. Imo

At this point, I’m not confident we’re capable of beating SC this weekend with or without Bo.  

[80Tiger 904]

54 minutes ago, tbone4jc said:

Patience people. For the love of football y'all are premature and impatient.  Everyone is embarrassed about the game. That does not take away from the facts that there has been so much positive to take away from this season. We had a minor setback in what I see as a major upgrade in our program.  

Impatience is but another form of unhappiness. It is true, it is true. I have never met a happy impatient person. -Author unknown

I am not really seeing the positives from this year. Once you pull the cupcakes out of our schedule and compare to last years all SEC schedule, we are scoring less per game, giving up more points per game, gaining about the same amount of yards per game and giving up the same amount of yards per game. It is not about impatience or unhappiness, it is about results.

[Hank2020 3,233]

1 hour ago, weagl1 said:

After seeing that mess unfold Saturday any confidence I ever had in this staff is gone.  I became an Auburn supporter in 1957 when my sister started school there.  I was a Boy Scout usher in the early 1960’s.  I was a student 72-76.  I’ve been to so many games over the years I wouldn’t even begin to try to count.  Now that I’m older I never miss a game on TV and still attend occasionally.  My reasoned perspective is that Derek Mason has made a mess out of our defense.  Bend but don’t break with a 3 man rush and zone in the secondary is not the Auburn way, especially when they end up breaking anyway.  Auburn defense is to bring it,  man up, push the pocket back in the QB’s face, bring the heat.  That mess Saturday made me sick!  On offense it just looked like the line quit at halftime.  We are wasting some great talent in the RB room because of the lack of development in the O line.  They don’t know who to block so they don’t block anybody.  The coaching on this team is pitiful.  Recruiting is in the tank.  Bammer and UGA get whoever they want and Auburn gets what’s left over.  We will be much better off if the HC just quits rather than get the COVID vaccine.  He keeps playing games with that rather than answer a straight question and he makes himself look like an idiot. Hopefully he will take the AD with him and we can start over.  It’s clear to me it’s going to come to that eventually so we might has well get it over with rather than face years of this incompetence.  We need a coaching staff to breathe some new life into this proud program not suck all of the air out of it.  That’s my reasoned perspective.  

I don’t see this as a reasoned response at all. I would describe it as knee-jerk hyperbole to an acknowledged terrible 2nd half. It was a perfect storm of a wounded QB on one side and the other QB playing lights out.

[e808 3,028]

6 minutes ago, 80Tiger said:

I am not really seeing the positives from this year. Once you pull the cupcakes out of our schedule and compare to last years all SEC schedule, we are scoring less per game, giving up more points per game, gaining about the same amount of yards per game and giving up the same amount of yards per game. It is not about impatience or unhappiness, it is about results.

That’s been my point Auburn . Last year Auburn won 6 SEC games in which there were no cupcakes. There is debate whether the refs helped or not. IMO refs screw up every game it just depends if u are on the positive or negative side of it. ASU was a slow start and GA State needed a comeback. Then u have bad plays called at the worst times. Special teams get a block in the back almost every other play. IDK there is a lot to digest

[tigers23 679]

The other QB was playing lights out because he had all day to throw to wide  open receivers. Thats the cause of everyone's concern.

[autiger88 3,777]

Hey one bright side atleast is we aren't Texas and that mess of a program 🤣 I mean we aren't much better on the field,  but man the back ground is bad and I mean bad from boosters to the players. So there's that 🤷 Yes even a monkey and a stripper. 😉 

[gctiger 951]

As a fan, I don’t know if you ever get completely over this kind of loss.  It’s nearly impossible to erase the bad memory.  I know when Kevin Steele was named the DC at Auburn, my first thought was the game where Clemson let LSU hang about 70 points on them. Those thoughts always linger in the back of my mind, wondering if/when it will happen again.  It’s really hard to try to determine the root cause of Saturday’s meltdown because all 3 units and the coaching staff were all major contributors.  Leading 28-3 and allowing 40 unanswered points makes it even worse!  Losing our QB and kicker makes it even worse than worse!  I wouldn’t have a guess where you begin to pick up the pieces, and the roster changes make it an even more complex problem.  The only time I can remember a game going this far sideways was when Georgia had 3 RB’s go down in a single game and lost.  I think it was to USCe in 2012 but not certain.  

[keesler 5,934]

35 minutes ago, 80Tiger said:

I am not really seeing the positives from this year. Once you pull the cupcakes out of our schedule and compare to last years all SEC schedule, we are scoring less per game, giving up more points per game, gaining about the same amount of yards per game and giving up the same amount of yards per game. It is not about impatience or unhappiness, it is about results.

Ehh, some of those cupcake games were iffy to be honest.  AlaState?  and that GaState game was abysmal until the very end when a comeback was needed to win the game.

This entire team is inconsistent, from the players to the HC to the coordinators, to the scheming. Week to week you never know what you're going to see from this team. 

 

[tbone4jc 2,250]

1 hour ago, e808 said:

So having a reaction to back to back historical weeks of the wrong kind is nothing. U could even argue for every positive there has been a negative. When people see historical things that never have happened before it’s not so simple to act like it didn’t happen. That game was a historical low for Auburn and a historical high for Mississippi State

There's reaction and then there is over reaction. The latter being fire the coaches and the first season isn't even over.  Acknowledged it was a bad loss and move on to see how we grow. But, you do you. 

[Auctoritas 2,835]

18 minutes ago, tigers23 said:

The other QB was playing lights out because he had all day to throw to wide  open receivers. Thats the cause of everyone's concern.

That's a root cause, but the proximal cause is the total lack of adjustment to fix it. Derek Mason tried nothing, and then was all out of ideas.

Saw a great analysis at Auburn Observer (which I have plugged before, its the best 6 bucks a month you'll spend):

"The Air Raid is designed to neutralize a pass rush. When an offense tries to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quickly, it’s tough for the defense to crank up the pressure — unless the coverage is air-tight. That creates a challenge for a defensive coordinator. If the ball is almost always going to be in the air, how many defenders do you need back in coverage? How many pass rushers can you send and still be able to cover everything?

Including plays that were wiped out due to defensive penalties by Auburn, Mississippi State had 59 true passing plays Saturday. On 33 of them (55.9%), Auburn only sent three rushers to the quarterback. On the other 26 (44.1%), it sent four rushers.

More often than not, Auburn’s wasn’t winning with just three going after Rogers. He attempted 29 passes against Auburn with a three-man rush and completed all but two of them for 305 yards and a touchdown. That’s an average of 10.52 per attempt. That means Auburn wasn’t getting any of the benefits of dropping eight in coverage. Rogers was extremely accurate and efficient, as he had plenty of time to find the open man and keep the ball moving.

With four pass rushers, Auburn had a slightly higher rate of pressures — the Tigers came up with two sacks, including the one in which T.D. Moultry was called for targeting, and linebacker Zakoby McClain swatted down a pass attempt on a blitz. Against four-man rushes, Rogers was 13/22 for 93 yards, which is an average of just 4.23 yards per attempt. Now, those numbers scream the obvious — why in the world did Auburn just send three rushers on more than half of its plays if rushing four worked?

But there’s some important context to be added here. Yes, Rogers only averaged 4.23 yards per attempt against four-man rushes. However, it’s important to note that five of his six touchdowns came against those rushes. Rogers’ touchdowns were all short, and Auburn brought that fourth man almost all the time with the short field of the red zone behind it. Inside the Auburn red zone, Rogers was 7/8 passing against the four-man rush for five touchdowns and an additional first down. (He was sacked once and pressured on another dropback.)

Now let’s take a look at what happened when Auburn sent four-man rushes on plays outside of its own red zone. On those plays, Rogers was just 7/14 passing for 62 yards — an average of 4.43 yards per attempt — and was pressured four times, including once for a sack. (Auburn also was called for defensive pass interference on two non-red zone plays in which it sent four rushers.)

Auburn could have been better with its chances to get after Rogers on the passes in which he wasn’t immediately dumping the ball off to a receiver.

Still, the Tigers could have afforded to commit a fourth man to the pass rush more often when they were between the 20s, especially considering their issues in coverage. Again, it’s not like Mississippi State wanted to rely on a vertical passing game."

If an Auburn beat writer can see it, if all of us at home on our couches could see it...why can't the guy making millions see it? And by that, I mean CDM to a large degree, but also our offensive-minded head coach, who should have been able to step in and say "Hey, DC, if you haven't noticed, this is what they're trying to do, maybe you should compensate." Unfortunately, it was straight up as vanilla playcalling as you can get without coaching peewee, and when it stopped working the players panicked and started trying to play hero-ball and started missing tackles and getting out of position. That is absolutely a discipline issue - do YOUR job - but it also is a coaching issue because CDM was putting those kids in a terrible mental position where they felt like they clearly weren't getting the support they needed to do their job correctly.

Often, we overreact and kneejerk. In this case, it's warranted.

[e808 3,028]

4 minutes ago, tbone4jc said:

There's reaction and then there is over reaction. The latter being fire the coaches and the first season isn't even over.  Acknowledged it was a bad loss and move on to see how we grow. But, you do you. 

For the record I never said fire the coach but to say people are overreacting is your opinion. Auburn giving up 40 consecutive  points to a team at most has equal talent and blowing a 25 point lead are historical. All losses aren’t created equally. IJS

[tbone4jc 2,250]

43 minutes ago, 80Tiger said:

I am not really seeing the positives from this year. Once you pull the cupcakes out of our schedule and compare to last years all SEC schedule, we are scoring less per game, giving up more points per game, gaining about the same amount of yards per game and giving up the same amount of yards per game. It is not about impatience or unhappiness, it is about results.

That's because you are harping on the negatives. Why are y'all stressing out over something you have absolutely no control over?

We all are here because of our love for Auburn and we all want to win every game but the reality is that we aren't as good as some think but we aren't as bad as some proclaim. Football is for entertainment purposes only. 

[tbone4jc 2,250]

1 minute ago, e808 said:

For the record I never said fire the coach but to say people are overreacting is your opinion. Auburn giving up 40 consecutive  points to a team at most has equal talent and blowing a 25 point lead are historical. All losses aren’t created equally. IJS

Do you really think this team has the players to be a great team? Do you think this defense has great players at any position besides LB? Did you see the size difference with their offensive linemen to our defensive linemen? What about all those missed tackles of late? Why do you think we went after so many defensive players in the transfer portal? Do you think you are better equipped to evaluate the strengths and weakness of players better then the coaches? We are not good on defense and it's not the X' and O's. It's the Jimmy's and the Joe's so you have to scheme accordingly. That is a fact of football. 

Again this is year one and people overreact game to game. Some always look for the negative....

[e808 3,028]

17 minutes ago, tbone4jc said:

Do you really think this team has the players to be a great team? Do you think this defense has great players at any position besides LB? Did you see the size difference with their offensive linemen to our defensive linemen? What about all those missed tackles of late? Why do you think we went after so many defensive players in the transfer portal? Do you think you are better equipped to evaluate the strengths and weakness of players better then the coaches? We are not good on defense and it's not the X' and O's. It's the Jimmy's and the Joe's so you have to scheme accordingly. That is a fact of football. 

Again this is year one and people overreact game to game. Some always look for the negative....

Besides Pickering what other Mississippi State players would play at Auburn. It’s pretty easy for an oline to block when it 3 versus 5. There is no excuse Auburn was up 25 points. Auburn was a ranked team playing a non ranked team at home. So u must think Mississippi State has more talent than Auburn. Just because it’s year one a debacle like that is acceptable along with some questionable decision making. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by e808

[TitanTiger 20,620]

11 minutes ago, e808 said:

Besides Pickering what other Mississippi State players would play at Auburn. It’s pretty easy for an oline to block when it 3 versus 5. There is no excuse Auburn was up 25 points. Auburn was a ranked team playing a non ranked team at home. So u must think Mississippi State has more talent than Auburn. Just because it’s year one a debacle like that is acceptable along with some questionable decision making. 

I think multiple MSU offensive linemen would play for us.