The fake punt call.

[RC3]

First of all, that was a huge WTF. There is simply no justification for that call

Looking at the replay, it appears that the pass was set up to go to Richie brown, which probably would've worked if Richie hadn't tripped. He recovered, and got back up but by that time logan had rolled to far out and had no chance. I guess maybe if it had worked it wouldn't have been a big deal but this was a huge momentum killer. That deep in your own territory? Silliness. Glad it wasn't the difference in the game

[Jack Lambert]

If it works he's a genus if not it was dumb just like every fake play every done. We had the lead, we had momentum and our defense was playing their ass off. I don't have a problem with it.

[RC3]

No if it had worked I still would have questioned that decision. Dumb to take that chance and give them the ball with a short field. Punt and make them drive a long field

[SDDawg]

Wasn't a great call, but let's not forget to talk about the good plays. Like the option to the weak side with the shovel pass to Malcom Johnson. That was a well executed play that Auburn simply could not defend for short yardage. I like how Mullen kept his foot on the gas and on defense we did not go into a prevent style. Good stuff.

[godlluB]

As we lined up for the punt, my son leaned over and said "We should fake it", to which I replied, "We have a big lead early in the game, deep in our own territory, you'd have to be a moron to fake it here..."

Moments later, he may or may not have learned some new curse words.

[Ralph]

I didnt mind the call. It wasn't necessary, but catching your opponent off-guard or doing something unconventional (regardless of its success or failure) can pay dividends in future critical situations. Puts a lot more doubt in a D coordinators mind. If it weren't 21-0 he wouldnt have done it at that time. Strategic calculated risk. I liked it even at the time.

[RC3]

Mullen called a very good game. No doubt and complaining about what amounted to a meaningless stupid fake punt call is nit picking but it was still really really bone headed

[Bubb Rubb]

Mullen called a very good game. No doubt and complaining about what amounted to a meaningless stupid fake punt call is nit picking but it was still really really bone headed

I don't agree with this. I think he struggled with some playcalling today. I think we threw the ball way too much. It worked out and I'm glad it did, so I'm not complaining too much.

[BogeyGolfer]

I
Wasn't a great call, but let's not forget to talk about the good plays. Like the option to the weak side with the shovel pass to Malcom Johnson. That was a well executed play that Auburn simply could not defend for short yardage. I like how Mullen kept his foot on the gas and on defense we did not go into a prevent style. Good stuff.

The inside pass to Johnson was a tremendous call. I think the pass to JRob to set up the TD was a great call as well. The fake punt was dumb as hell.

[Percho]

Well from reading this thread it appears the plays that work are great calls and the plays that do not word are dumb calls.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

[RC3]

No there are good plays that don't work. Sometime you have bad play calls that end up working out. Here we had an atrocious play call that should've cost us

[ckDOG]

Situationally, that was one of the dumbest play calls of all time. OF ALL TIME!!

[NCDawg]

I

The inside pass to Johnson was a tremendous call. I think the pass to JRob to set up the TD was a great call as well. The fake punt was dumb as hell.

I agree the inside pass to Johnson was a great call. I didn't like the fake punt, but if Richie Brown hadn't tripped, it would have probably worked.

[drunkernhelldawg]

Mullen's gotten way better, but he still can't help getting cute sometimes. There was also that crazy mess up on the two yard line. We got away with it. I guess the bottom line is Mullen gonna Mullen.

[DLGDawg]

Was it a smart call? No.
But I think Dan smelled blood in the water and wanted to score on that drive bad. You go up 28-0 and it would be VERY difficult for AU to come back.
BIG hats off to the defense. Holding AU to just 3 after that huge.

[HoopsDawg]

Bottom line, it was a horrible call at the wrong time. We also didn't work the clock well in the 4th quarter. I have mentioned this problem in the past. And I think J-rob should have gotten 5 more carries.

[Ralph]

Dan still has some perceptions to change. Only at Msu do you pistol whip the #2 team in nation after beating 2 top 10 teams and bash the play calling. Keeping the other team on its toes is part of the game, you know.

[DudyDawg]

Problem is that Cooke is a left handed thrower and right footed. Mullen gives them the option to hit it if no one is open, but it being Cooke and not bell and him rolling away from his right leg took the option out of it. Still a bad call though, but that definitely hurt the play

[Coach34]

If it works he's a genus if not it was dumb just like every fake play every done. We had the lead, we had momentum and our defense was playing their ass off. I don't have a problem with it.

Agree.

Mullen was going for the jugular. We get that and we really could have put them away in 1st Q. Aubarn is well-coached and it didnt work. Thats football

[quickstrike2]

I think Mullen mad some good calls for sure. The fake punt in my opinion was the only thing that you could have done at that moment to let Auburn back in the game and give them momentum.

[BulldogBear]

II like the play call actually! So, I agree, I just wish he'd have see/had time to get to a wide open Brown.

[Todd4State]

I don't agree with the fake punt call. But I do think that part of the reason that we did it was because of something that we were noticing on the sideline. Overall, I would prefer to be conservative in that case.

[Churchill]

It appeared to distract the team and we seemed to lose our focus and the momentum for a while. I thought it was an awful call.

[Joe Schmedlap]

I thought it was an insanely stupid call. Even had it worked, it would have been a stupid call. The Dogs still had a long drive ahead of them to get into the red zone even had the fake punt picked up a first down.

Having said that, at least we didn't go full conservative on offense and prevent on defense and piss the game away in the 4th quarter the way we did at Auburn last year.

[RC3]

Problem is that Cooke is a left handed thrower and right footed. Mullen gives them the option to hit it if no one is open, but it being Cooke and not bell and him rolling away from his right leg took the option out of it. Still a bad call though, but that definitely hurt the play

Good point

[Dawg61]

Was it a smart call? No.
But I think Dan smelled blood in the water and wanted to score on that drive bad. You go up 28-0 and it would be VERY difficult for AU to come back.
BIG hats off to the defense. Holding AU to just 3 after that huge.

It was a horrendously stupid call and an even worse fake. It took us two full quarters to get the momentum back because of that call alone. Huge huge huge mistake made by Mullen there. We really didn't play well after the first 6 minutes until the fourth quarter. Dak made a bunch of bad decisions in the passing game too. We got super tight after the 21-0 lead. It obviously didn't cost us as far as national perception and ranking but if we want to make it to Atlanta we've got to put 4 quarters together not 20 minutes. We are still learning and that includes Dan and now we have even more to learn as we are now the hunted not the hunter by everyone else.

[CadaverDawg]

I haven't read this whole thread yet, but here are my thoughts on the fake punt....

That may have been one of the worst calls I've ever seen. Ever. And I've seen some really dumb calls. Not only was it a terrible call, with a big lead, against a team that doesn't need a short field.....it was also a Freshman punter throwing it to a LB or Safety. Yes, a punter rolling out trying to hit a LB or Safety for a first down. It just doesn't get much dumber than that.

That being said, it didn't cost us the game, so that's awesome. And of course, I would much rather Dan learn during wins, than during losses. I'm not going to beat him up until these dumbass calls cost us a game, which I hope never happens.

I think my biggest complaint with Mullen is that he doesn't just make the dumb decisions all young coaches make....he doubles down on them and does them deep in our own territory and allows the opponent a way of getting back into a game they have no business getting back in to. But again, as long as we win, it will just be "discussion" and "constructive criticism" instead of "you're an idiot coach and you just cost us a shot at perfection".

[Dawg61]

My biggest issue with the awful decision is Dan not owning it later as awful. Say it was dumb and that you got greedy and be done with it. He didn't own his stupid though. He shrugged it off and was cocky about it. No Dan you were dead wrong there and selfishly cost your team two quarters against a team you had no business giving a free momentum swing to. Own your stupid.

[CadaverDawg]

I am proud of most of Mullen's calls yesterday, but as long as we're nitpicking....

There were 3 instances that could have cost us the game yesterday, that were 100% all on Dan.

1) The fake punt

2) 1st and 2 when we need to eat clock, and Mullen calls some dumbass delayed QB draw that gets stuffed. You power that damn ball up the middle with Dak 4 straight times if you have to, and you get that 2 yards. Don't get cute and run delays where your runner isn't going down hill. I about lost it on that series.

3) when you have the ball 1st and goal at the 1 1/2 yard line....just like above....you don't get cute when you have a lead. You run power up the gut 4 times if you have to. We could have easily scored a TD on that drive with 3-4 straight QB runs up the middle. That is unacceptable with our QB and OL. It was shades of Tyson Lee vs LSU on that one series. And you sure as hell don't try a jump pass, which is what we were attempting on 3rd down but thank God Dak tucked it.

Bottom line....Dan can't help but to try and put his personal stamp on a game. He's got a big ego. And honestly, most great coaches have big egos, so I don't mind it....until it costs us a game. He tends to want to try his cute shit every game so he can say "look what I did". But what he needs to realize is that if we demolish teams by doing what we do well...he still gets that credit. Much like he is right now. I give him tons of credit, and I love the guy, even though he makes my head explode sometimes.

[CadaverDawg]

My biggest issue with the awful decision is Dan not owning it later as awful. Say it was dumb and that you got greedy and be done with it. He didn't own his stupid though. He shrugged it off and was cocky about it. No Dan you were dead wrong there and selfishly cost your team two quarters against a team you had no business giving a free momentum swing to. Own your stupid.

I agree

(And before people say "only our fans would bash a coach that is #1"...just stop. We aren't bashing him. We're nitpicking. We're pumped to have Dan, and he did an awesome job yesterday. We're just discussing whatever negatives we may have had, because it's a message board, and that's what discussion is all about. So spare us the speech.)

[Barking 13]

I'm probably of the other perspective... I thought it was quite aggressive, but it just didn't work.. Dan was just trying to out-mazahn Malzahn...

I have come to the conclusion that a lot of times the coaching staff thinks that the way we play on both sides of the ball, it's ok to take a few chances. I think we actually let the other teams get some yardage and first downs to burn clock. kind of a bend but don't break thing.

[DudyDawg]

Like I said before, it's an option, but with Cooke it was an out and out fake due to him throwing left. It wasn't a good call to begin with, but that fact made it a REALLY bad call. I would understand it more with bell or a kicker who could actually run it as an option. Cooke can't bc of his handed/footedness

[DanDority]

It was a DUMB call! It allowed the other team to get back in the game and gain momentum which we lost at the time PERIOD

It was high risk VERY LOW reward. In my opinion.

[bluelightstar]

I just can't agree with anyone who says it's a good/okay call that just happened to not work out. It was a terrible call with a defense playing well -- especially up 3 scores at home.

[Vandelay Industries]

Awful call and seemed to take all our momentum away until the 4th qtr

[State82]

Situationally, that was one of the dumbest play calls of all time. OF ALL TIME!!

Yes it was. Maybe, MAYBE, you think about it on their side of the 50. But even that is a stretch in that particular situation.