Fitz: ?If anything, from this game we take it as a reality check.?

[TrapGame]

http://mississippistate.247sports.com/Article/*******-Monday-Musings-Bulldogs-Get-Ready-for-Auburn-107971216


"If anything, from this game we take it as a reality check," Fitzgerald said. "I feel like we were lackadaisical at times and weren't mentally locked in at practice. That's going to change. We're going to get locked in and focused like we did LSU week."


The LSU high is over. We came crashing down. It's time to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and go beat the shit outta Auburn.

[smootness]

I tried to overlook it at the time, but the truth is that it is extremely difficult to get up for a road game following a big home win. I thought the way we beat LSU would reduce some of the emotion that usually accompanies a win like that, but perhaps not. You always hope the team doesn't lose focus before a big game like that, and it's a concerning sign if it's true.

[msstate7]

I tried to overlook it at the time, but the truth is that it is extremely difficult to get up for a road game following a big home win. I thought the way we beat LSU would reduce some of the emotion that usually accompanies a win like that, but perhaps not. You always hope the team doesn't lose focus before a big game like that, and it's a concerning sign if it's true.

So, Georgia on upset alert? I really doubt it with the way Tennessee has been playing, but I do think it's pretty close

[RocketDawg]

So, Georgia on upset alert? I really doubt it with the way Tennessee has been playing, but I do think it's pretty close

I suspect that Tennessee was overlooking Mass and was looking forward to Georgia, but they darn near got beat. That would have been like us losing to Maine a few years ago. But I don't think they're very good ... Georgia should win easily. But they may be resting on their laurels after upsetting us. **

[confucius say]

I tried to overlook it at the time, but the truth is that it is extremely difficult to get up for a road game following a big home win. I thought the way we beat LSU would reduce some of the emotion that usually accompanies a win like that, but perhaps not. You always hope the team doesn't lose focus before a big game like that, and it's a concerning sign if it's true.

I said last week that was my number one key to the game. It's human nature. We had Lsu game circled for 6 months.

[Eric Nies Grind Time]

No excuse to not be completely focused for Auburn. Bye week after that then face a pretty bad BYU team. If the offense comes out flat again Mullen deserves a lot of flak.

[TrapGame]

No excuse to not be completely focused for Auburn. Bye week after that then face a pretty bad BYU team. If the offense comes out flat again Mullen deserves a lot of flak.

Based on this article I expect a different team playing in Jordan-Hare Saturday night. I'm not saying we win but we better come out with our hair on fire.

[Tbonewannabe]

I think if anything UGA showed the blueprint on how to beat Mullen. We don't have a WR that can win battles down the field. If you can just put corners out there and let a safety come up in the box then it makes it a lot harder to run. Fitz hasn't proven he can beat anyone throwing. Fromm caused us to respect the pass but Fitz didn't.

[Turfdawg67]

I think if anything UGA showed the blueprint on how to beat Mullen. We don't have a WR that can win battles down the field. If you can just put corners out there and let a safety come up in the box then it makes it a lot harder to run. Fitz hasn't proven he can beat anyone throwing. Fromm caused us to respect the pass but Fitz didn't.

Kirby has been showing that blueprint for the last 8 times he's played a Mullen offense. Rewatching the game, it was textbook Alabama defense and a poor MSU showing. Front 7 too good to run on straight up so Mullen wants to pass to loosen it up... and if that doesn't work (esp '15 & '16 Bama & '17 UGA) our high powered offense is stymied. Dak loosened it up in the 2nd half of 2014 and we were competitive.

[JoseBrown]

I think if anything UGA showed the blueprint on how to beat Mullen. We don't have a WR that can win battles down the field. If you can just put corners out there and let a safety come up in the box then it makes it a lot harder to run. Fitz hasn't proven he can beat anyone throwing. Fromm caused us to respect the pass but Fitz didn't.

"We don't have a wide receiver that can win battles down the field" maybe why "Fitz hasn't proven he can beat anyone throwing.", but that's just one thought. I thought Fitz threw the ball pretty decent overall. Sure he missed a few reads, but who wouldn't in his situation. He threw plenty catchable balls that weren't for whatever reason. A few drops, but mostly blanketed receivers. DB's hanging on WR's with one hand and the other between the receiver's arms, blatant PI against Gray and blatant PI against Carr in the end zone that neither were called.

Fromm completed his first pass on a trick play that worked very well against us. He completed less than ten passes. I remember against La. Tech at one point Fitz completed 9 passes in a row. Can't do that if he can't pass the ball. Against elite defenses, how is he to complete passes downfield if "we don't have a WR that can win battles down the field"? I think we really need Myles back, and Carr, Mitchell and/or Couch to get more than 2 targets. Again, against elite DB's we don't have any WR's to really compete for catches right now. I did see Fitz fit some balls in some pretty tight places, along with a few off the mark completely. There were quite a few passes that would've been caught by Ross though.

We're gonna get most of our receiving production out of the backfield and slot this year, we simply don't have the guys outside we need right now to compete against elite DB's.

[JoseBrown]

Kirby has been showing that blueprint for the last 8 times he's played a Mullen offense. Rewatching the game, it was textbook Alabama defense and a poor MSU showing. Front 7 too good to run on straight up so Mullen wants to pass to loosen it up... and if that doesn't work (esp '15 & '16 Bama & '17 UGA) our high powered offense is stymied. Dak loosened it up in the 2nd half of 2014 and we were competitive.

That 2nd half against Bama in 2014 is the only time we've had an offense work well against an elite team that I remember. Hope Mullen will study that half, and figure out what changed.

[JoseBrown]

Based on this article I expect a different team playing in Jordan-Hare Saturday night. I'm not saying we win but we better come out with our hair on fire.

I am too. The entire team will look quicker and more crisp against Auburn I think. Hope I'm right. That would be a really good win. We'll see how they respond.

[ShotgunDawg]

I don't know if we have the horses to beat Auburn, but I do expect us to play better than we did at UGA

[Commercecomet24]

I guarantee one thing. Knowing how Grantham coaches if there's not more fire on Saturday we will be seeing new players on the field.

[DownwardDawg]

We've got to throw to our TE's more, like we did against LSU and La Tech. It's really our only option going ahead.

[maroonmania]

I tried to overlook it at the time, but the truth is that it is extremely difficult to get up for a road game following a big home win. I thought the way we beat LSU would reduce some of the emotion that usually accompanies a win like that, but perhaps not. You always hope the team doesn't lose focus before a big game like that, and it's a concerning sign if it's true.

Being quite honest we really don't have a team that knows how to handle a huge win like we got against LSU. In some ways we would have been better off if we had won a nailbiter against LSU so we wouldn't have gotten so full of ourselves. Now saying that, Georgia is just a better team than us right now but it was pretty obvious from our energy level that we were not focused for the game.

[MaroonFlounder]

I just don't see a win at Aub. I hope I'm wrong. Aub is just as fast and physical on Defense as UGA.

And if Tolando Cleveland is on the field at corner it's over early. Stidham has been less than stellar, but he's ready to exploit our secondary after looking at film.

[MaroonFlounder]

That 2nd half against Bama in 2014 is the only time we've had an offense work well against an elite team that I remember. Hope Mullen will study that half, and figure out what changed.

What changed is no De'Runnya Wilson. We have no receivers that can win the 50/50 balls. No receivers that can get separation.

[Todd4State]

What changed is no De'Runnya Wilson. We have no receivers that can win the 50/50 balls. No receivers that can get separation.

If I'm Dan Mullen I'm telling Fitz that Jordan Thomas is our go to guy. He's the closest thing we've got to Bear right now. And when Gabe Myles comes back, I'd move Gray to the slot. Those are the best things we can do to help Fitz and our passing game out.

X- Thomas
Slot- Gray
H-Back/TE- Green
Z- Myles

If Myles is healthy that's our best group of receivers.

[TrapGame]

Listened to Will Sammon on OOB FB page last night and he echoed pretty much everything in the article. He talked to several players that thought they were something special after trouncing LSU and decided to mentally take the week off from practice. He also said Grantham was pissed by his defense's performance. He expects us to look much better vs Auburn.

[MSUDAWGFAN]

Listened to Will Sammon on OOB FB page last night and he echoed pretty much everything in the article. He talked to several players that thought they were something special after trouncing LSU and decided to mentally take the week off from practice. He also said Grantham was pissed by his defense's performance. He expects us to look much better vs Auburn.

If we do beat Auburn, and that's a big test, we would have a great shot at a NY6 bowl.

[smootness]

So, Georgia on upset alert? I really doubt it with the way Tennessee has been playing, but I do think it's pretty close

Only if Tennessee suddenly develops a fantastic pass rush. UGA is legit.

[Commercecomet24]

Listened to Will Sammon on OOB FB page last night and he echoed pretty much everything in the article. He talked to several players that thought they were something special after trouncing LSU and decided to mentally take the week off from practice. He also said Grantham was pissed by his defense's performance. He expects us to look much better vs Auburn.

Yeah knowing Granthams temprament his head was probably ready to explode Saturday night. I know one thing if they don't play with a little more urgency we will be seeing a lot of new faces on defense. Grantham is defintely NOT a passive DC.

[Commercecomet24]

Only if Tennessee suddenly develops a fantastic pass rush. UGA is legit.

And finds a QB.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I think you see the same team that played LSU energy and intensity wise saturday night vs auburn

[TrapGame]

I think you see the same team that played LSU energy and intensity wise saturday night vs auburn

I certainly hope so. Sammon talked to Braxton and, IIRC, Tolando about the game and they were pretty disgusted with themselves and said this week of practice was gonna be more intense than last week. The team realizes they screwed the pooch in Athens.

[NCDawg]

I don't know if we have the horses to beat Auburn, but I do expect us to play better than we did at UGA

I think the only way to possibly beat Auburn is to come out with a lot of emotion and not get behind early. In addition, we have to play much better defense than we played against Georgia. Letting a guy run untouched about 30 yards for a TD is totally unacceptable.

[MaroonFlounder]

I certainly hope so. Sammon talked to Braxton and, IIRC, Tolando about the game and they were pretty disgusted with themselves and said this week of practice was gonna be more intense than last week. The team realizes they screwed the pooch in Athens.

I don't want to hear anything from tolando. He is not an SEC corner. Neither is rayford. Those guys should only play vs UMass and BYU.

[Todd4State]

I don't want to hear anything from tolando. He is not an SEC corner. Neither is rayford. Those guys should only play vs UMass and BYU.

Dan has to do a better job of balancing playing time between the "hard workers" and the guys that can play. And I will admit it has gotten better.

[Todd4State]

Here's my thoughts for Tuesday.

I don't think we're nearly as bad as we were against Georgia. Maybe we aren't as good as we were against LSU, but if I had to guess based on the LSU game, Charleston Southern, and La Tech we're probably a lot closer to how we looked against LSU than how we looked against Georgia. Basically Georgia caught us at the right place and the right time. I don't know if we will beat Auburn- but I bet we do a LOT better than we did against Georgia. Our team more than anything has to learn how to handle success and winning and I think they have learned some good lessons on that the past two weeks. We'll see how much they learned this weekend.

The fact of the matter is we are starting to get some respect around the SEC because we're becoming a more and more consistent winner. We're not going to be able to use the underdog/sneak up on someone mentality on as many opponents. We have learn to be able to match the intensity of our opponents and overcome that every time out.

[biggun]

Fitz has to do a ton better reading defenses. Against LSU he hit a couple of big TD passes but they were set up perfectly by play action and the WR's were wide open. But against the Georgia's, Auburn's, Bama's, he is going to have to complete the 3rd and 5 or longer for us to have the year we all want to have. He was fooled several times by Georgia's coverage schemes and almost got Donald Grey killed in the 2nd qtr when he read man but they were actually in zone. Must improve his pre snap reads and Dan could help him a ton by getting him some better WR's for his senior season!

[TrapGame]

http://mississippistate.247sports.com/Article/Bulldog-DC-Todd-Grantham-Shifts-Focus-to-Auburns-Offense-108001049

Some good insight from Grantham.

http://mississippistate.247sports.com/Article/Senior-LB-Dez-Harris-MSU-Defense-Seeks-to-Get-Back-on-Track-108026969

Dez Harris knows what's up too.

After these three articles in this thread if we come out looking like shit Saturday night I'm gonna be pissed.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I don't want to hear anything from tolando. He is not an SEC corner. Neither is rayford. Those guys should only play vs UMass and BYU.

Hes made plays in SEC games. How much eligibility do you have left

[Dawg61]

We are big at TE and we are deep. If our WRs can't get separation just load the field with TEs and beat the shit outta Auburn physically. We will be able to run better with 9/10 big dudes blocking everyone and if we can't we will at least beat them up making our WRs quicker when we do put them in. Oh yea and wear on them with Gibson too. Just be huge basically.