Five takeaways from Auburn's close call

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Five takeaways from Auburn's close call with San Jose State

River Wells

4-5 minutes

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Auburn may have gotten the win on Saturday, but it might not be as happy as it thought it would be.

It was a close one in Auburn, Alabama, with the Tigers scraping by the San Jose State Spartans after being down at the half 10-7. Auburn ended up winning 24-16, but the game raised more questions than answers and put even more doubt on Bryan Harsin and his squad before they head to Penn State to take on the Nittany Lions next weekend.

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Here are five takeaways from the Tigers’ second tune-up game before its first real test against a Power 5 opponent:

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Across two games against the Mercer Bears and San Jose State, quarterback T.J. Finley has completed 22 of 34 passes, netted 298 total yards, two total touchdowns and three interceptions — all before the Tigers have played against their first Power 5 opponent.

That simply isn’t going to do it if Bryan Harsin wants to save his job, and after backup quarterback Robby Ashford threw an interception of his own against the Spartans and completed just one pass for one yard, Harsin may have to start thinking about seeing what Texas A&M transfer Zach Calzada or four-star freshman Holden Geriner has to bring to the table.

(Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

All of Auburn’s touchdowns in this game came on the ground, with Finley, Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter contributing to the cause. It seems as if this is the identity that the Tigers have carved out for themselves over the past two games, but time will tell if the ground attack will be enough to slow down teams of a better caliber as the season continues.

Ashford is still a threat in the run game, too, so the three-headed attack Auburn has been running could catch some teams off guard later in the year if implemented right. The Tigers rushed for 210 yards on Saturday.

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Auburn’s offense may not have looked graceful in victory, but the defense did everything it was asked to do.

Spartans quarterback Chevan Cordeiro was shut down through the air, averaging just 6.9 yards per attempt and scoring no touchdowns. San Jose State did manage a rushing touchdown in the second quarter, but the Tigers managed to keep them out of the endzone for the entire second half. The opponent may be up to standard, but holding the Spartans to 16 points was just what the defense came to do on Saturday night.

(Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

It wasn’t just interceptions that made the team look sloppy.

The Tigers fumbled three times over the course of the game — Ashford, Damari Alston and Keionte Scott all coughed up the rock on Saturday. Auburn was very lucky not to lose any of those fumbles, but it won’t be nearly as fortunate across the course of the season. With fumbles and picks abound against lesser competition, the Tigers are going to have to play a little bit smarter and a little bit cleaner if they want to have a chance against better competition.

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So here’s the skinny: Penn State played it close to Purdue last week and deftly handled Ohio on Saturday, and next week’s game against the Nittany Lions will be a great benchmark for the rest of Auburn’s season.

Auburn struggled on Saturday against a much-inferior G5 opponent. If that was just a bit of rust from playing a second tune-up game in a row, a good performance next week will reveal that. If the Tigers are truly a measured opponent with the Spartans, however, Penn State will expose them swiftly — Purdue handled its own gimme game on Saturday against Indiana State, so it’s likely that the Nittany Lions will be a true test for Auburn.

Win next week’s game and look forward to a possible bowl game at the end of the year. Lose, and Bryan Harsin may not be able to find another surefire win for the rest of the year.

[gabo4au 237]

Everyone always wants to focus on the QBs, RBs, and Receivers on offense.

 

But just like last year, the real problem is the OL. Against poor competition we cannot consistently run the ball or protect the QB. The run game gets some traction when we keep them off balance with play calling. But we can't just line up and run it down their throats because we don't have the horses up front to over power even lower talented teams.  I seriously doubt we will be able to run the ball at all against top defenses, just like last year.

 

That puts us in a pass happy offense, and our OL can't keep anyone off the QB. Even SJ St put consistent pressure on our QBs, what happens when we face real defenses? It's not going to be pretty.

 

Yes the QBs, RBs, and Receivers can improve. But with good OL play they would all look much better. TJ throws a great ball when he's not scrambling for his life. The RBs are good even with no holes, add some blocking and they would be all world. Receivers can get open and catch passes if they have enough time to run routes before the QB gets flushed.

 

I heard that under Gus we got the reputation of the style of offense not really preparing them for the NFL and thus it became hard to recruit good OL. At that same time we had a couple of top OLinemen that bombed in the NFL, solidifying that reputation. So far, even with a new coaching staff, we don't seem to be turning that trend around. We desperately need a couple of linemen to go to the NFL and become stars to help shed our poor OL reputation.