Auburn - Washington State Review

Wrapping up Cougar Week here at W.W.B.S. means reviewing the highlights and lowlights of Saturday’s game.

Highlights

1. John Vaughn – Four for five in the field goal department and a 52 yarder. I still hate kickers.
   
   
2. Kenny Irons – That run to start the second half showed why he is one of the best tailbacks in the country.
   
   
3. Run Blocking – The O-line put on a clinic. Yes, the Washington State defense was tired by the third quarter, but if you can do that every week O-line, I will book my ticket to Tempe.
   
   
4. Will Herring – My MVP. You can thank Will Muschamp for the move. Herring is much more capable of covering tight ends and backs out of the backfield as opposed to wideouts running down the middle of field and it showed.
   
   
5. TV Commentary – Probably one of best called games I have watched in awhile. Ron Franklin was Ron Franklin, great as always. The big surprise was the play-by-play from Ed Cunningham. He gave good insight, criticized at appropriate times, and really hit the nail on the head concerning the fake punt. Honestly, it was enjoyable to actually listen to these two call a football game. That is more than I can say for the three-headed beast of Musburger, Davie, and Herbstreit (not Herbie’s fault) calling the Ga Tech/Notre Dame game. God that was horrid.
   
   
6. Fake Punt – Awesome, just awesome. Great call. Risky? Yes. Stupid? No. Tuberville knew he had the better team. He also could sense that the team was coasting (Cunningham caught on to this as well) and needed to get a kick start. Everyone will say, “The Riverboat Gambler is back,” and the play was risky, but this was not an all-in, let-it-ride gamble. Tuberville knew Auburn was the better team, so he showed some confidence in his team and kicked them in ass at the same time.

Lowlights

1. Conservative Game Planning – I know you don’t want to give up too much, but 42 runs and three screen passes. No real determined effort to get the ball downfield. Vanilla looks on the defensive side. Muschamp did vary it up a little probably to see how his young safeties would respond. Overall, very conservative. It won the game, but let’s hope Auburn can turn it on when it needs to against LSU.
   
   
2. Poor Safety Play – This was expected and will improve as the season goes along. Washington State was able to exploit the middle of the field by using play action passing and dumping passes off in the seam. You can expect more of the same from Mississippi State and LSU.
   
   
3. Average Against the Run – The play action worked on the linebackers because Auburn’s defensive front had an average game against the run. Woolridge’s injury was unfortunate for Washington State because they were very effective on the ground. Without his hard running, it just wasn’t the same and their offense sputtered, except for one big pass play on a busted coverage (the touchdown pass to Boyd).
   
   
4. Terrible Pass Protection - I know two of the four sacks were coverage sacks, but there is no reason Auburn’s offensive line should give up even two sacks and allow Cox to be pressured most of the night by a defensive line playing without it’s best player (Ahmu). This wasn’t a miserable performance, just one that needs to be corrected. I will be very worried if we give up a sack to Mississippi State.
   
   
5. Third Down Conversions - Anytime you settle for four field goals, something needs to be fixed. If you turn two of the four into touchdowns, we are not even worried about this game after halftime.

Overall, this was a win. Not a great win, just a good, solid win. Auburn was the better team and played like it for the most part. Improvement needs to be made, but it was a typical first game, some mistakes, some good stuff, and a win. Bring on the Doggies.