Sorry about the late post this week but I have been doing my civic duty and have been stuck at jury duty all week. Sitting, reading, sitting some more, playing on the phone, sitting. Yeah, loads of fun. It has been nice being able to sleep past 0500 in the morning and being able to take my daughter to school in the mornings; however, it is pretty boring just sitting all day. I was called to be chosen for questioning for a jury three times only to be unchosen at the last minute. Oh well, it was my first experience at jury duty and I'm sure not my last.
Now, on to the Florida game. I also say a win is a win and I would take it no matter what (sort of like the 3-2 MSU game a few years back), but I'm not real sure what to make of it. Auburn looked great at times and awful at times. Trotter started the game slow, as usual, and really never got it going. Auburn would move the ball some, but a holding or a false start or a terribly thrown ball would cause AU to have to punt. Auburn got some huge breaks in this game, mainly that Demps could not go and Brantley was hurt and out. Two of Florida's best players kept out of the lineup definitely helped Auburn's chances, but not to the point of making it completely one-sided. Auburn was without their two best receivers, Blake and Reed, and had Cooper leave with a hurt leg.
Auburn scored first on a free play, UF jumped offsides, with Trotter hitting Benton in the endzone on a great throw and catch. This happened after Rainey muffed a punt at his own 30 yard line. Over the next quarter, Auburn gave UF 30-45 yards of additional yards by two facemasks and a late hit that led to two UF field goals. Auburn led 7-6 at half, but neither team really had anything going for it. Auburn looked really bad for most of the first half and needed a boost of some sort. Chizik decided to start Moseley in the 2nd half to provide just that spark.
Auburn, despite the multiple 15 yard penalties, played really really well on defense. Limiting UF to only 6 points and holding them with only 1 third down conversion was awesome, especially compared to how they played earlier in the year. Tackling was much better and T. Bell intercepted an underthrown ball on the 2nd play.
Moseley came out in the 2nd half and started off with two runs and then a badly overthrown ball to a wide open receiver. He did complete a safe pass to Lutz on a thrid and long but the team seemed to respond to the new QB and the spark was there. Auburn defense held strong and McCalebb scored a TD on the first play of the 4th quarter. Auburn was up 14-6 and after trading several punts, Auburn had the ball on inside their own 20 with about 5 minutes left. Of course, they couldn't get a first down to run out the clock, so they had to punt. And for the fourth time, Rainey dropped another punt and Auburn recovered and was able to kick a field goal with 38 seconds left to go up 17-6. That is how the game finished. Auburn is now 5-2 and 3-1 in the SEC. Who would've thought AU would be 2-1 so far in October? I didn't think is was very probable.
This young team is getting better, but they have experienced the injury bug pretty harshly. Blake and Reed are still questionable for LSU and Jared Cooper and Ladarious Owens are out for the year. Auburn has 3 upperclassmen (juniors or seniors) on defense! That's all. The whole defensive line is sophomores and freshmen. Unreal that AU has had any success at all! Remember, Dyer, 3 now 4/5 OL and the new starting QB are only sophomores along with Blake, Reed and Stallworth. Lutz, McCalleb, Benton and Trotter are the only juniors getting any playing time. There is only one senior on the entire offense and two on the entire defense. This team will get better and better and will be great sooner rather than later. However, this year, they need to grow and get better and learn how to play. I expect this team to play well and play hard, but probably won't beat the more elite teams (mainly LSU and UA).
LSU preview coming soon
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