panic about the west yet. Of course Bama, A&M yet to play, and hard to get a read on OM based on who they played.
panic about the west yet. Of course Bama, A&M yet to play, and hard to get a read on OM based on who they played.
I've been impressed with all the west teams. Auburn is a little sloppy, but Louisville is decent
Auburn's defense is much improved. But amazingly the offense could be the weak link on this Auburn team. Ricardo Louis was their leading returning rusher and he plays WR. No Coates who lifted the lid big time on defenses last year.
But Johnson is the big difference here. He's raw and not ready yet, but his problem is he's not quite Cam Newton and he's not quite Nick Marshall. Cam had the big arm but was also a bulldozer. Marshall had a pretty good arm too but he had elite speed that saved him on plays that didn't open up. Johnson doesn't have that elite speed and doesn't have the elite arm yet. I think because of that his skill set actually doesn't fit Malzahn's style as well. Marshall is a better QB for that system because of the pure speed. I think Johnson can be very good but I'm not sure his skill set is the best for Auburn's offense.
OM is tough to read but you have to be impressed with the WRs. Kelly is better than Bo so that's going to be tough to stop. I think the OM OL is still going to be an issue, especially in Tunsil misses more time, so good DLs and an experienced secondary should be able to beat them. Mizzou isn't doing anything special against SE Missouri State. Arkansas is winning big with no surprise there. Interested to see how tonight goes.
The year of 15
Malzahn will tinker with the offense. Credit where it is due. Auburn, vile cheating cheaters that they are, will be proficient on offense by the time we play. Would agree though that they may be missing that fear factor - scary WR or home run running back that made earlier Malzahn offenses nightmares. QB won't be their big gun this year.
Auburn is worst on offense and the same on defense. They're playing man across the board. We're going to destroy Auburn playing that. That's exactly what they played last year and Dak carved them up.
For all the shit fans gave him for being a former DB, Marshall was a good passer. Certainly not elite, but he got the job done. Johnson may have the better pure arm, but Marshall is infinitely better upstairs. If it was just about arm strength, Jamarcus Russell wouldn't be one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
This is what the media does and it drives me nuts.
What evidence do you have of this?
Auburn gave up 14 points last year on the road at K-State, who had a better offense than this Louisville team.
I'm not saying that Auburn will or won't be better on defense, but anyone making this statement after watching Auburn's defense play well against a Louisville team playing a true freshman QB, is an incredible snap judgement that, at this point, has little to support it.
1st game snap judgements are of little use. The teams have no film on each other.
Remember when Kenny Trill was leading the Heisman race after the first week last year?
I think in week one people see what they want to see, and don't see things objectively
for example: we hear all off season how much better Muschamp will make Auburn's defense, thus before Auburn enters the 4th quarter of their first game, people are already saying that Auburn's defense is better. The same could be true for our game tonight. One bad play and all the media will say they were right on MSU. They are simply seeing what they choose to see.
Auburn tackled like garbage in that game against K State. They should have lost that game. But Auburn is tackling much better today and are pursuing the ball considerably better than last year. They are going to be better, especially since Lawson is back healthy. Him and Adams are beasts and they should be more disruptive on the DL this year because of that.
That being said, I don't think they will be world beaters, I just think they will be better. Their defense should be ridiculous with all of the talent they've recruited but I think they have severely underperformed on that side the last few years considering the talent they have supposedly recruited.
Maybe they will be better or maybe they won't be better. I know that Louisville has scored more points today than K-State did last year.
I've seen some Louisville guy running wide open as well.
Again, you may be right, but I don't believe there is enough evidence to make this statement at this point.