The good:
- Defensive adjustments/certain guys on defense like Faulk
- We turned the ball over five times against a power four opponent and only lost by seven points. That isn’t a moral victory that is legitimately impressive.
- It was a day where the ball just wasn’t bouncing our way (it’s going to happen again). Cal’s mediocre punter mastered the art of the coffin corner, managing to force our offense to start from our own 2 yard line twice in a row. Several missed calls from the refs and horrible spots throughout the game. Cal’s mediocre QB literally had the best half of any Cal QB in 20 years during the first half. Not even guys like Goff or Rodgers ever went for 19-21 and 2 TD’s in a half at Cal, just a bizarre situation but we didn’t completely implode like in 2021 against Penn State or last year against NMSU.
- Hugh went ahead and got his head scratcher turd of an L out of the way early in the season and against power four opponent. It isn’t any less frustrating but is significantly better for optics, which does matter. If you look through Hugh’s seasons as a coach he is a lock for one of these each and every year, it is just part of his thing as a coach I guess. These losses typically happen at random and have little to no bearing or relation to the rest of the season. They almost seem to occur in a vacuum. We will be 4-1 heading into the DSOR.
The bad:
- Some pretty pathetic drops from guys that shouldn’t be dropping the football. Cam Coleman, KLS, and Fairweather all had some really ugly drops, one of which caused a turnover.
- Took Durkin and Co too long to make necessary adjustments on defense. Was pretty obvious to most early on that rushing three down linemen and playing soft coverage on the outside wasn’t going to work against this Cal offense. Thankfully we did eventually adjust.
- Freeze’s demeanor and how he carries himself has to improve. To be completely honest I don’t give a shit about this but a majority of fans do and it doesn’t do him any favors after losses like this. He’s been fighting an uphill battle against perception since the very beginning, he has to be cognizant of this for self-preservation.
- A lot of fans didn’t even like Freeze to begin with and immediately took advantage of this loss to start taking victory laps. IMO it is pathetic and idiotic but it is the reality, bad for optics and bad for program momentum. Our fanbase sucks huge mega sweaty balls sometimes but that isn’t going to change.
- Wasn’t able to get pressure from the interior DL at really any point in the game against several backup OL playing for Cal. We don’t have any people eaters and/or dirty ass mfers at NT or DT yet and it is concerning.
The Ugly:
- The offensive game plan was a disaster. Looking back it kinda made sense as Hugh was trying to key on Cal’s aggressiveness on D but when it didn’t work we had no answers. Prob looked great on paper but Thorne isn’t a quick release guy and we just don’t have the pass pro to make it work yet. Hugh tried to adjust by running the football after half but we were playing from behind and he made some bad/anxious play calls trying to force the pass that absolutely killed drive momentum.
- Our OL is dogshit in pass pro and guys that we needed to play well will grade out extremely poorly (Connor Lew).
- PT remains what he has always been, a non-factor. He plays to the level of those around him, he neither elevates nor lowers a performance from the offense but when guys around him are struggling he meets them where they are rather than making checks to take some pressure off them. He threw picks yesterday because he cannot adjust or accommodate when things are going poorly, he’s throwing to ghosts from practice. Guy is milquetoast and that’s all he’ll ever be.
- Keionte Scott, what the hell, man? You are not nor will ever be an outside guy so why pitch a big ass fit over it in the off season? Did you really think you’d make an NFL roster as an outside DB? He was a head case and a liability today. Needs to stop running his mouth.
The Disgusting:
- Auburn fans, it is almost as if we yearn for mediocrity and agony. Somebody that called into the drain DEMANDED that Hugh write and submit a formal apology. What are you ****ing twelve years old? An unbelievable number of people already calling for Hugh’s head after the second game of his second season after all the momentum he has brought to this program and the unprecedented recruiting job he is actively putting together. Grow the hell up or get bent. We have a bottom feeder SEC roster at best and middling ACC roster at best. It’s going to take time, probably four or five years, to get where we need to be if we want to actually compete at the level y’all claim this program should be at and do it consistently. The porthole has proven that it is luck of the draw and you cannot put together wins consistently building a roster through it. I’m as tired of one hit wonders as I am wallowing in mediocrity, we’re not gonna have either if our fans can’t break from their psychosis.
Just going to leave this here, WDE:
- Defensive adjustments/certain guys on defense like Faulk
- We turned the ball over five times against a power four opponent and only lost by seven points. That isn’t a moral victory that is legitimately impressive.
- It was a day where the ball just wasn’t bouncing our way (it’s going to happen again). Cal’s mediocre punter mastered the art of the coffin corner, managing to force our offense to start from our own 2 yard line twice in a row. Several missed calls from the refs and horrible spots throughout the game. Cal’s mediocre QB literally had the best half of any Cal QB in 20 years during the first half. Not even guys like Goff or Rodgers ever went for 19-21 and 2 TD’s in a half at Cal, just a bizarre situation but we didn’t completely implode like in 2021 against Penn State or last year against NMSU.
- Hugh went ahead and got his head scratcher turd of an L out of the way early in the season and against power four opponent. It isn’t any less frustrating but is significantly better for optics, which does matter. If you look through Hugh’s seasons as a coach he is a lock for one of these each and every year, it is just part of his thing as a coach I guess. These losses typically happen at random and have little to no bearing or relation to the rest of the season. They almost seem to occur in a vacuum. We will be 4-1 heading into the DSOR.
The bad:
- Some pretty pathetic drops from guys that shouldn’t be dropping the football. Cam Coleman, KLS, and Fairweather all had some really ugly drops, one of which caused a turnover.
- Took Durkin and Co too long to make necessary adjustments on defense. Was pretty obvious to most early on that rushing three down linemen and playing soft coverage on the outside wasn’t going to work against this Cal offense. Thankfully we did eventually adjust.
- Freeze’s demeanor and how he carries himself has to improve. To be completely honest I don’t give a shit about this but a majority of fans do and it doesn’t do him any favors after losses like this. He’s been fighting an uphill battle against perception since the very beginning, he has to be cognizant of this for self-preservation.
- A lot of fans didn’t even like Freeze to begin with and immediately took advantage of this loss to start taking victory laps. IMO it is pathetic and idiotic but it is the reality, bad for optics and bad for program momentum. Our fanbase sucks huge mega sweaty balls sometimes but that isn’t going to change.
- Wasn’t able to get pressure from the interior DL at really any point in the game against several backup OL playing for Cal. We don’t have any people eaters and/or dirty ass mfers at NT or DT yet and it is concerning.
The Ugly:
- The offensive game plan was a disaster. Looking back it kinda made sense as Hugh was trying to key on Cal’s aggressiveness on D but when it didn’t work we had no answers. Prob looked great on paper but Thorne isn’t a quick release guy and we just don’t have the pass pro to make it work yet. Hugh tried to adjust by running the football after half but we were playing from behind and he made some bad/anxious play calls trying to force the pass that absolutely killed drive momentum.
- Our OL is dogshit in pass pro and guys that we needed to play well will grade out extremely poorly (Connor Lew).
- PT remains what he has always been, a non-factor. He plays to the level of those around him, he neither elevates nor lowers a performance from the offense but when guys around him are struggling he meets them where they are rather than making checks to take some pressure off them. He threw picks yesterday because he cannot adjust or accommodate when things are going poorly, he’s throwing to ghosts from practice. Guy is milquetoast and that’s all he’ll ever be.
- Keionte Scott, what the hell, man? You are not nor will ever be an outside guy so why pitch a big ass fit over it in the off season? Did you really think you’d make an NFL roster as an outside DB? He was a head case and a liability today. Needs to stop running his mouth.
The Disgusting:
- Auburn fans, it is almost as if we yearn for mediocrity and agony. Somebody that called into the drain DEMANDED that Hugh write and submit a formal apology. What are you ****ing twelve years old? An unbelievable number of people already calling for Hugh’s head after the second game of his second season after all the momentum he has brought to this program and the unprecedented recruiting job he is actively putting together. Grow the hell up or get bent. We have a bottom feeder SEC roster at best and middling ACC roster at best. It’s going to take time, probably four or five years, to get where we need to be if we want to actually compete at the level y’all claim this program should be at and do it consistently. The porthole has proven that it is luck of the draw and you cannot put together wins consistently building a roster through it. I’m as tired of one hit wonders as I am wallowing in mediocrity, we’re not gonna have either if our fans can’t break from their psychosis.
Just going to leave this here, WDE:
