Shotgun's Quick Thoughts on Auburn Game

Overall

HUGE WIN!!!

Road SEC wins are a very difficult, much less at Jordan Hare. Auburn played hard tonight & did not quit like I thought they might. They competed & didn't show internal turmoil.

One other good thing for us is that I don't think we wasted one of our 4 "emotional Games" of the year. This was an extremely business like win in which we came in, won, & left. Not like LSU last year. I thought Dan came in with an aggressive game plan & attacked Auburn how we all wished that he would. However, once we got up a few scores & Dan & Diaz had a chance to feel out Auburn's QB, they called off the dogs, went conservative, & just salted away a win. I don't agree with this approach as it reminds me of "Berry Ball", but it worked. So it's hard to complain.

Offense

- Dak is so good. He gives us a chance to win every game we play against anyone in the country. Extremely efficient & doesn't make mistakes.

- WR dropped a few passes tonight, but overall I thought they were open an awful lot. Must have been running good routes.

- Offensive line is really coming together. They certainly can improve but Dak ate a sandwich back there at times tonight. Jenkins has a chance to be a special player.

- I love how we are using Brandon Holloway & I am all for him continuing in that role. However, we have got to find another running back besides Shump. Shump receives well & blocks well, but I believe he is the slowest Mississippi State running back that I've seen in my lifetime. I don't say that lightly. We have got to find an every down back that can get 3rd & 2 or 4th & 1. Dak doesn't have a chance to run right now because no one respects our running backs on the zone read. We MUST find a way to find that back. Lee has to step up.

- Gus Walley..... HOLD ONTO THE 17ing BALL!!! I like your game, but you must be trustworthy

Defense

- I am split on our defense. Defenses are asked to do two jobs: 1) Keep the other team from scoring 2) Get the ball back to the offense as quickly as possible. In regards to preventing points, our defense is doing an awesome job, but in regards to getting the ball back to our offense, they are doing a mediocre job, & I only say that because they did well in the late 3rd & 4th quarter or otherwise I'd say poor. I want more 3 & outs so that our offense can run a higher number of plays. Our offense is rarely on the field. Overall, I think we have a solid defense that won't win or lose games for us. However, they did win it for us tonight. I'm talking more A&M, Ole Miss, & Bama though.

- Our pass rush was excellent tonight. Diaz dialed up some great blitzes & we were pressuring White all night long.

- Our rush defense was poor most of the night & we struggled to set the edge, but it seems as though we made some adjustments & found some success late in the game.

- Richie Brown played great tonight. That was his best tackling game. Good sign.

Special Teams

- Special teams were special. Graves is better Sobes from last year & our punting was outstanding. Nothing to complain about here.

Overall

Overall, we are in a pretty good position now. Going into the season, most thought we would beat LSU & lose at Auburn. Well, we did the reverse, but our record is 3-1 & right where most though we should be.

This is a great win tonight, but I don't love who we are right now. WE MUST FIND A RUNNING GAME IF WE ARE GOING TO WIN IN NOVEMBER. WE ABSOLUTELY MUST!!!! I also want to see us stop the run better. If we can accomplish both of those things, we have a chance to be one of the best teams in the country.

Going forward, we have a war ahead of us next weekend in College Station. They played a tough game tonight, &, if we can find a way to get out of there with a win next weekend, we will have two non-conference games, Kentucky, a bye week, & Missouri, who lost to Kentucky tonight, before the stretch run. This should provide enough time for Dan to become comfortable with our young running backs, for our offensive line to continue to gel, & for guys like Gerri Green, Peters, McLaurin, etc.. to get ready.

Unlike last year where we peaked early in the season, this team is building. We replaced a ton of starters & have a new DC. This team is building & has a chance to be awesome in November. WIN NEXT WEEK & WE GO INTO NOVEMBER WITH A CHANCE TO WIN THE WEST!!!!

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Overall

HUGE WIN!!!

Road SEC wins are a very difficult, much less at Jordan Hare. Auburn played hard tonight & did not quit like I thought they might. They competed & didn't show internal turmoil.

One other good thing for us is that I don't think we wasted one of our 4 "emotional Games" of the year. This was an extremely business like win in which we came in, won, & left. Not like LSU last year. I thought Dan came in with an aggressive game plan & attacked Auburn how we all wished that he would. However, once we got up a few scores & Dan & Diaz had a chance to feel out Auburn's QB, they called off the dogs, went conservative, & just salted away a win. I don't agree with this approach as it reminds me of "Berry Ball", but it worked. So it's hard to complain.

Offense

- Dak is so good. He gives us a chance to win every game we play against anyone in the country. Extremely efficient & doesn't make mistakes.

- WR dropped a few passes tonight, but overall I thought they were open an awful lot. Must have been running good routes.

- Offensive line is really coming together. They certainly can improve but Dak ate a sandwich back there at times tonight. Jenkins has a chance to be a special player.

- I love how we are using Brandon Holloway & I am all for him continuing in that role. However, we have got to find another running back besides Shump. Shump receives well & blocks well, but I believe he is the slowest Mississippi State running back that I've seen in my lifetime. I don't say that lightly. We have got to find an every down back that can get 3rd & 2 or 4th & 1. Dak doesn't have a chance to run right now because no one respects our running backs on the zone read. We MUST find a way to find that back. Lee has to step up.

- Gus Walley..... HOLD ONTO THE 17ing BALL!!! I like your game, but you must be trustworthy

Defense

- I am split on our defense. Defenses are asked to do two jobs: 1) Keep the other team from scoring 2) Get the ball back to the offense as quickly as possible. In regards to preventing points, our defense is doing an awesome job, but in regards to getting the ball back to our offense, they are doing a mediocre job, & I only say that because they did well in the late 3rd & 4th quarter. I want more 3 & outs so that our offense can run a higher number of plays. Our offense is rarely on the field.

- Our pass rush was excellent tonight. Diaz dialed up some great blitzes & we were pressuring White all night long.

- Our rush defense was poor most of the night & we struggled to set the edge, but it seems as though we made some adjustments & found some success late in the game.

- Richie Brown played great tonight. That was his best tackling game. Good sign.

Special Teams

- Special teams were special. Graves is better Sobes from last year & our punting was outstanding. Nothing to complain about here.

Overall

Overall, we are in a pretty good position now. Going into the season, most thought we would beat LSU & lose at Auburn. Well, we did the reverse, but our record is 3-1 & right where most though we should be.

This is a great win tonight, but I don't love who we are right now. WE MUST FIND A RUNNING GAME IF WE ARE GOING TO WIN IN NOVEMBER. WE ABSOLUTELY MUST!!!! I also want to see us stop the run better. If we can accomplish both of those things, we have a chance to be one of the best teams in the country.

Going forward, we have a war ahead of us next weekend in College Station. They played a tough game tonight, &, if we can find a way to get out of there with a win next weekend, we will have two non-conference games, Kentucky, a bye week, & Missouri, who lost to Kentucky tonight, before the stretch run. This should provide enough time for Dan to become comfortable with young running backs & for our offensive line to continue to gel.

Unlike last year where we peaked early in the season, this team is building. We replace a ton of starters & have a new DC. This team is building & has a chance to be awesome in November. WIN NEXT WEEK & WE GO INTO NOVEMBER WITH A CHANCE TO WIN THE WEST!!!!

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The last part of what you wrote is what I think we have to look forward to. Last years team had a lot of guys that had played a long time. Clausell, Day, Beckwith, Smith, Eulls, McKinney, RoJo, few others. Guys that had been playing or starting for 2+ years. How many 2+ year starters do we have right now? Dak and Malone are really the only ones on offense. Who on defense? Calhoun? That's it. This is a young team that is still finding it's way. I thought this team had a high ceiling because we needed some time to gel the missing pieces together and figure out who our core guys would be. We are getting there, especially on defense. Held LSU to 21 and Auburn to 9. I would say that's a pretty good start for a defense that lost everything according to the media.

Offense is the concern. Regardless of the win, we have to be a big concerned that we have scored 19 and 17 points in our 2 SEC games. However, Jenkins got a lot of reps tonight and he stuffed a good number of his matchups. Great work by him. But we've got to figure out the RB situation. That prevented us from ending the game significantly earlier than it did and it killed a couple of drives. No way Mullen throws it on 3rd and 2 if we've got a viable RB or a 90% healthy Dak. If we can figure that out we are going to be dangerous. We saw a lot of changes tonight in terms of personnel usage. Will we take the next step? Still saw Dale and Ward on the field too much on defense. Not enough Dear, Lee, and Aeris on offense but did see Jenkins quite a bit. Saw much more Green and JT Gray. Thought it was a good start and it looks like we are figuring out the pieces we can count on for the most part.

Why do you refer to yourself in the 3rd-person?

Agree totally. Special props to Dak, Richie Brown, Logan Cooke and Graves. Reallhy excited by the punter's performance. Made a huge difference in the second half.

Dak has a spy on him pretty much every play. It limits him running but it essentially makes the defense play with 10. Right now the option with Shumpert is worthless. He isn't fast enough to get the corner but doesn't break tackles either. We have to find another RB.

Great post Shotgun, one of your best. Can't find anything to disagree with...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Going forward, we have a war ahead of us next weekend in College Station. They played a tough game tonight, &, if we can find a way to get out of there with a win next weekend, we will have two non-conference games, Kentucky, a bye week, & Missouri, who lost to Kentucky tonight, before the stretch run. This should provide enough time for Dan to become comfortable with our young running backs, for our offensive line to continue to gel, & for guys like Gerri Green, Peters, McLaurin, etc.. to get ready.

Unlike last year where we peaked early in the season, this team is building. We replaced a ton of starters & have a new DC. This team is building & has a chance to be awesome in November. WIN NEXT WEEK & WE GO INTO NOVEMBER WITH A CHANCE TO WIN THE WEST!!!!

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My thoughts exactly. We need to find a way to win at any cost next week. Dak will probably need to have a Heisman performance.

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Originally Posted by Dawg496

Dak will probably need to have a Heisman performance.

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Maybe. I'm not totally sure how good A&M is. Arizona State is getting tanked tonight by a mediocre USC team & A&M had to go to overtime to beat an Arkansas team that seems to be terrible.

I'm sure A&M will be ready next weekend, but Kyle Field isn't the toughest place to play. The fans aren't as cut throat & they aren't as close to the field as some other venues like Jordan Hare. A&M has a big stadium, but Kyle Field doesn't have the reputation as a tough place to play.

I think we have a solid chance of winning this game. I don't think we'll be favored, but I wouldn't be shocked or even think of it as an upset if we went in there & took care of business.

I'd feel better if our running game issues were solved, since A&M really struggles with physicality.

Yeah I wouldn't think it of it as an upset and we can certainly beat them. If our running game gets going, we will certainly win I believe. We just had too many little mistakes on so many possessions that could've ended in points. And the review officials didn't help.

Overall we seem to be getting better as a team and Mullen seems to be playing more and more of the youngsters which is great. But you're right. If we can get through next week, we have a solid four weeks to team build and get the little mistakes corrected just in time for November.