Had a few minutes today and figured I would share my thoughts. This won't be anything that @jhead34382 didn't already hammer, or @Jay G. Tate didn't already touch on, and @yy4u has made some really good posts in replies about. It's not @BrianStultz level, but here are my 2 pennies.
-Mike Elko had every tendency and tell that Auburn had put on tape this season drilled all the way into his group. That was as complete of a defensive performance as I have seen this year. While there was a substantial talent advantage up front for the Aggies, the dominance was at the second and third levels. The safeties and 'backers cut down everything in space or past the LOS in a hurry, there were no open field misses and few/if any bad reads. The corners and safeties got physically up in AU's sh** and gave them no room to breathe, playing a physical brand of man coverage nearly 80% of all snaps. Auburn got no separation. Elko also blitzed at a much higher frequency on first and second down than he normally has all year, and it definitely disrupted AU. Bobo's play calling became that of someone trying "not to lose" instead of someone trying to win. Now, Elko created alot of that, buy selling out sending a rusher and stacking an extra safety as a spy. It was really really good stuff!
-Nix got rattled and everything suffered; communication, mechanics, accuracy, and attitude were all that of someone in a state of panic. The aggressive defense, lack of any open receivers, and frequent number of blitzers in the backfield in a hurry created a situation that got too hot for him by the middle of the third quarter. AU just doesn't have another winning option. The later in the game it got, the more Nix defaulted to "escape now" mode as soon as there was any presnap pressure indicator.
-One thing the did surprise me was Auburn going away from the multiple TE under center sets. They game the Aggies some serious alignment problems and were the genesis of the few productive plays AU had.
-Auburn simply can't move people at the point of attack. This OL has passive DNA for the most part. They simply can't displace defensive linemen and thus never get anyone to the second level to block linebackers. Elko played man, with his safeties screwed down to 5 to seven yards, no run play had a chance without substantial movement up front, and that simply didn't exist. Both guards frequently "got their face crossed" by the interior DL, Leal and 34. The AU blockers aren't bad in space, one they pull, or release on a screen, they generally find and engage effectively, they just get it pushed in where it counts the most. It will take new bodies with different mind sets and skill sets to fix that.
-Pappoe was active as a tackler. Played with great effort. But, he's lost as a Mike LB. He's a Sam/Nickle by nature and just doesn't have the read discipline to excel inside the box. Problem is, nobody else does yet either. CW makes me wonder if he even knows what the objective of playing defense is on half of his snaps. When he's good he's good, but he's wrong so often AU could be playing with 10 and possibly better off bc he wouldn't be in someone else's way. Not sure why or how they are struggling so bad reading their keys. Even ZM takes a lot of false steps, but his quickness and instincts seem to get him back into position in a hurry.
-As mentioned before, a ton of AU's pass concepts are all "option" routes, where the route is determined by the defender's alignment and leverage or initial movement. TAMU was attacking the AU receivers with physical man coverage and it wrecked their ability(or willingness) to make the right route-running decision. Two instances: one a third and seven where the defender aligned tight with inside leverage, Jackson kept running an occupied vertical route and Nix threw the ball to where he should have been on a nine yard out route. Nix made the right throw, receiver wasted the play. On the throw to Hudson in the endzone, many fault Nix (and yes he was bad) but Hudson has to know that he was being played with outside leverage and the receiver inside him occupied the safety so the ball should be thrown to his inside shoulder. It was damn near a perfect throw, but his eyes stayed outside, looking directly into the defender covering him. Kobe has potential to be an in-space weapon, but he is far from having acquired the nuances needed to be a good receiver.
-Sadly Carlson has become a liability instead of an asset. Game should have gone to the 4th 9-6. Oscar Chapman on the other hand is playing Ray Guy level football, and did a great job, along with the cover teams, negating the A&M return game.
-As has been said frequently in the last 48 hours, this AU team isn't yet built to defeat defenses that have strong fronts, and defensive backs that can effectively play man coverage. Until you can move people up front, and create separation in the pass game, you can't do either well enough to open the other up against a good team. Look for MSU to follow the exact same blue-print this weekend. The Auburn staff will need to do their best coaching job of the season this week, so that a one game loss , emotionally and schematically, doesn't beat them twice.
TLDR
SIW
-Mike Elko had every tendency and tell that Auburn had put on tape this season drilled all the way into his group. That was as complete of a defensive performance as I have seen this year. While there was a substantial talent advantage up front for the Aggies, the dominance was at the second and third levels. The safeties and 'backers cut down everything in space or past the LOS in a hurry, there were no open field misses and few/if any bad reads. The corners and safeties got physically up in AU's sh** and gave them no room to breathe, playing a physical brand of man coverage nearly 80% of all snaps. Auburn got no separation. Elko also blitzed at a much higher frequency on first and second down than he normally has all year, and it definitely disrupted AU. Bobo's play calling became that of someone trying "not to lose" instead of someone trying to win. Now, Elko created alot of that, buy selling out sending a rusher and stacking an extra safety as a spy. It was really really good stuff!
-Nix got rattled and everything suffered; communication, mechanics, accuracy, and attitude were all that of someone in a state of panic. The aggressive defense, lack of any open receivers, and frequent number of blitzers in the backfield in a hurry created a situation that got too hot for him by the middle of the third quarter. AU just doesn't have another winning option. The later in the game it got, the more Nix defaulted to "escape now" mode as soon as there was any presnap pressure indicator.
-One thing the did surprise me was Auburn going away from the multiple TE under center sets. They game the Aggies some serious alignment problems and were the genesis of the few productive plays AU had.
-Auburn simply can't move people at the point of attack. This OL has passive DNA for the most part. They simply can't displace defensive linemen and thus never get anyone to the second level to block linebackers. Elko played man, with his safeties screwed down to 5 to seven yards, no run play had a chance without substantial movement up front, and that simply didn't exist. Both guards frequently "got their face crossed" by the interior DL, Leal and 34. The AU blockers aren't bad in space, one they pull, or release on a screen, they generally find and engage effectively, they just get it pushed in where it counts the most. It will take new bodies with different mind sets and skill sets to fix that.
-Pappoe was active as a tackler. Played with great effort. But, he's lost as a Mike LB. He's a Sam/Nickle by nature and just doesn't have the read discipline to excel inside the box. Problem is, nobody else does yet either. CW makes me wonder if he even knows what the objective of playing defense is on half of his snaps. When he's good he's good, but he's wrong so often AU could be playing with 10 and possibly better off bc he wouldn't be in someone else's way. Not sure why or how they are struggling so bad reading their keys. Even ZM takes a lot of false steps, but his quickness and instincts seem to get him back into position in a hurry.
-As mentioned before, a ton of AU's pass concepts are all "option" routes, where the route is determined by the defender's alignment and leverage or initial movement. TAMU was attacking the AU receivers with physical man coverage and it wrecked their ability(or willingness) to make the right route-running decision. Two instances: one a third and seven where the defender aligned tight with inside leverage, Jackson kept running an occupied vertical route and Nix threw the ball to where he should have been on a nine yard out route. Nix made the right throw, receiver wasted the play. On the throw to Hudson in the endzone, many fault Nix (and yes he was bad) but Hudson has to know that he was being played with outside leverage and the receiver inside him occupied the safety so the ball should be thrown to his inside shoulder. It was damn near a perfect throw, but his eyes stayed outside, looking directly into the defender covering him. Kobe has potential to be an in-space weapon, but he is far from having acquired the nuances needed to be a good receiver.
-Sadly Carlson has become a liability instead of an asset. Game should have gone to the 4th 9-6. Oscar Chapman on the other hand is playing Ray Guy level football, and did a great job, along with the cover teams, negating the A&M return game.
-As has been said frequently in the last 48 hours, this AU team isn't yet built to defeat defenses that have strong fronts, and defensive backs that can effectively play man coverage. Until you can move people up front, and create separation in the pass game, you can't do either well enough to open the other up against a good team. Look for MSU to follow the exact same blue-print this weekend. The Auburn staff will need to do their best coaching job of the season this week, so that a one game loss , emotionally and schematically, doesn't beat them twice.
TLDR
SIW
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