Tough to swallow

There's a lot of things for one to point at as a reason that the Tigers lost last nights game. A lot of people will wanna place the blame on the shoulders of Brandon Cox. I'm struggling with this one. Some I'm going to present 2 views; both positive and negative.

Positive

The Auburn defense is friggin STOUT. In the 3rd quarter it held USF on 12 straight downs inside the red zone to ZERO points. ZERO. They played 90% of the game without 4 starters. USF's supposed big time offense was pretty much held in check.

This Auburn team does not panic when they get behind. For the second straight week, they came back from behind, this week from 11 points back. That's a sign of a big time program.

Wes Byrum is a stud. 6/7 on the year with a long of 49. Impressive for a true freshman. This guy is our biggest recruit last year as far as impact goes.

Mario Fannin finally got some carries and was impressive. At one point he trucked his own offensive 300 lb O lineman (Antwon Daniels, who I later saw exiting the field with a trainer). Completely ran him over. 

Our receivers aren't half bad. Gabe McKenzie is money. He's had a big year thus far.

Ive been impressed with our DBs. All of them tackle really well in the open field when they break down.

Negative

It is completely ridiculous, in my opinion, that our kickers should have to make any tackles on punts or KO's. Byrum tweaked his ankled against K-State, and Shoemaker dislocated his elbow last night. The kick coverage setup USF's tying field goal allowing a 59 yd return into AU territory. 

As i said coming from behind to take the lead and not panicking was the sign of a big time program, another sign is keeping and extending a lead and not sitting on it...

Further related to that issue, is the tackling philosophy of this team. What happened to breaking down, wrapping up, and tackling through the opponent? Everyone now wants to "run into" the ball carrier, and fly around like a bunch of pin balls. Sure, sometimes it may work or even be necessary, but it doesn't work most of the time.

The offense does not have an attacking mentality. They just don't seem to want it (aside from those like McKenzie, Fannin, and maybe a few others). The plays run have been conservative and vanilla.

Brandon Cox has shown that he is a good quarterback. That's why his play has been so perplexing. He is a proven winner (20-6 as a starter) but he did not play well last night, or last week. The entire game he telegraphed his every pass, by locking on to his primary receivers and rarely looking elsewhere. He threw into double and triple coverage over and over again (resulting in 2 INTS). He also fumble on a QB sneak on a 4th down attempt. We cant place all the blame on him. But Im wondering what is up, because Ive seen him play incredibly (see 2005). Overall he made a lot of questionable decisions. I also know that I have no idea what its like to be in his shoes. But where will the line be drawn if play continues the way it has. This is a tough spot for coaches to be in. Its hard to bench a senior QB who has won a lot in the past. But if it keeps going this way, something needs to be done. I want him to turn it around and do well. It'll be great for him and the team, but if it doesn't happen, Id hope a change would be made. 

Our receivers and Tommy Trott dropped several passes.

I wonder why we ran the clock out when a few passes would've gotten us in field goal range...Byrum certainly showed he could've hit it.

So there are my thoughts. Its a frustrating loss. We should've won the game. Of course, USF missed 4 field goals. If they had made one of them, they would have won in regulation. The bottom line is that our offense needs to improve. We need to let Borges loose and start attacking. Quick drops from Cox are effective. Lets let our receivers gain some of our yardage. Keep the 1-2 punch of Tate and Fannin (hopefully Lester if he can return) going. It will open up our pass game. Lets see some trickeration. We need some flash. When we gain momentum on defense, instead of coming out and running, lets throw to the end zone. Each week, we get more and more predictable. I always tell my buddies sitting with me, we should throw a fade into the end zone here, and I always get the response, "you do know this is Auburn right?" Teams have found out that blitzing makes us fall apart. Try Kodi Burns as a change up every now and again. Something needs to change. To the defense: keep doing what you're doing. You can play with anyone in the country.