Football season is here and week 1 is in the books. It was an exciting week especially considering this was Paige’s first Auburn game. I think she even said “War Eagle DaDa!” while at the game (or something that sounded nothing like that unless you are a proud daddy holding your girl as AU scores a touchdown). Anyway, Paige and LeeAnn have heard my analysis of week 1 but for all those sitting around waiting, here goes.
In week 1, Auburn beat a very feisty and scrappy Arkansas State team. If you are a glass half-full kind of person then you see 52 points and a QB with some ridiculous stats. If you are a glass half-empty kind of person then you see a defense with some significant weaknesses. So which is it? I’ll try to clear that up.
While it is hard to really get a good picture of this team from playing Ark. St. in week 1, I would like to start with 5 observations of this team:
1. We have a QB! Cam Newton is the real deal. His arm strength is ridiculous and he has great speed. Combine this with some great composure in the pocket and you have a great QB. That being said, he will not be able to make those runs against SEC opponents, but I can’t wait to see him try. As a side note, just look at this guy’s size. He may be bigger than ¼ of our DL and LBs.
2. We have a punt returner! Q. Carr is a breath of fresh air returning punts and made some great solid catches and returns. Still room for improvement though as he caught a couple he shouldn’t have and called for a fair catch once when had plenty of running room.
3. I was worried about RB depth. Well, HELLO MIKE DYER! This true freshman will be special if he continues to develop. Deceptively fast and strong. Reminds me of a young Ronnie Brown. Hopefully like Ronnie he will learn to not dance around and instead hit the hole hard.
4. Onterio McCalleb is still very important to this team. Most underrated player on this team in my opinion. If he wore number 24 and an extra 15 pounds I’d probably confuse him with a certain Cadillac. His speed and cuts are amazing and once he gets those shoulders turned up field he is hard to stop. I look for him and Dyer to be the featured backs by the end of the year however we ideally need 4 RBs so Mario will also play a huge role especially with catches out of the backfield.
5. True freshman on the D-line are just ridiculously good. Whitaker (has the body of a NFL lineman) and K. Carter on the interior may be the best 2 linemen we have and with experience will be significant contributors to this team. Lemonier has a sick first step of the line at DE and there is a certain Ark St. right tackle still looking for his shoes after Lemonier put a move on him in the fourth quarter and juked him out of his shoes. Craig Sanders is a very undersized DE and will need to get bigger and stronger. That being said his contributions to the special teams were amazing and it will be hard to keep him off the field.
The Good – In addition to the above, the offense in the Ark. St game was simply amazing. Over 600 yards! 400 of those were by Cam Newton. On the flip side, it was against Ark. St. so I’ll hold Cam’s Heisman till he beats MSU. I highlighted some defensive positives above and would like to add that Savage is a great open field tackler and is an asset in the secondary.
The Bad – Overall defense giving up 23 pts to Ark St. That being said, Ark St is actually pretty good on offense and we played a very vanilla defense. On the other hand our secondary needs to significantly step up this week. Our safeties looked timid at times, but they both are coming off injuries. The corners were giving a lot of ground and overall they all need to play a little stronger and get off blocks better. This was a problem and will continue to be with stronger teams and receivers. Additional worries include the punting, with a 39 yd avg.
The Rest of the Story - The OL could have played better overall and will need to step up this week. However at times they gave Cam Newton about an hour to find an open receiver and opened some big holes. When a defender did come thru the line, Cam usually bought time with his feet and size. He is just going to be hard to bring down. He also had one play where he ran around for like 5 minutes before finally completing the pass.
The wildcat was effective at times and not at others. I look for us to open this up as the season goes on and receivers other than Kodi will get playing time here and I even look for Mario to take a snap or 2.
On Defense we have plenty room to improve and I expect we will. A lot of true freshman saw playing time and they will continue to grow. The true test comes this week with MSU. They put up 49 on Memphis and looked good doing so. We are going to have to pressure the QB and play strong in the secondary to keep them from repeating that point total. Additionally the offense will have to score points and may have to get creative to do so. I hope we get to see T. Reed this week and he may play a significant role.
I am going to pick AU to win on Thursday night in Starkville but I think it will be very high-scoring and VERY close. I think it will come down to turnovers and whoever is positive in that category will win. I honestly see it going either way and I am going to call it that this may be one of the hardest games we play all year. Starkville is not an easy place to play (although a fun place to watch a game!) and MSU is much improved under Mullen. They will make noise this year in the West and will beat someone they are not supposed to this year; I just hope it isn’t us. WAR EAGLE!
In week 1, Auburn beat a very feisty and scrappy Arkansas State team. If you are a glass half-full kind of person then you see 52 points and a QB with some ridiculous stats. If you are a glass half-empty kind of person then you see a defense with some significant weaknesses. So which is it? I’ll try to clear that up.
While it is hard to really get a good picture of this team from playing Ark. St. in week 1, I would like to start with 5 observations of this team:
1. We have a QB! Cam Newton is the real deal. His arm strength is ridiculous and he has great speed. Combine this with some great composure in the pocket and you have a great QB. That being said, he will not be able to make those runs against SEC opponents, but I can’t wait to see him try. As a side note, just look at this guy’s size. He may be bigger than ¼ of our DL and LBs.
2. We have a punt returner! Q. Carr is a breath of fresh air returning punts and made some great solid catches and returns. Still room for improvement though as he caught a couple he shouldn’t have and called for a fair catch once when had plenty of running room.
3. I was worried about RB depth. Well, HELLO MIKE DYER! This true freshman will be special if he continues to develop. Deceptively fast and strong. Reminds me of a young Ronnie Brown. Hopefully like Ronnie he will learn to not dance around and instead hit the hole hard.
4. Onterio McCalleb is still very important to this team. Most underrated player on this team in my opinion. If he wore number 24 and an extra 15 pounds I’d probably confuse him with a certain Cadillac. His speed and cuts are amazing and once he gets those shoulders turned up field he is hard to stop. I look for him and Dyer to be the featured backs by the end of the year however we ideally need 4 RBs so Mario will also play a huge role especially with catches out of the backfield.
5. True freshman on the D-line are just ridiculously good. Whitaker (has the body of a NFL lineman) and K. Carter on the interior may be the best 2 linemen we have and with experience will be significant contributors to this team. Lemonier has a sick first step of the line at DE and there is a certain Ark St. right tackle still looking for his shoes after Lemonier put a move on him in the fourth quarter and juked him out of his shoes. Craig Sanders is a very undersized DE and will need to get bigger and stronger. That being said his contributions to the special teams were amazing and it will be hard to keep him off the field.
The Good – In addition to the above, the offense in the Ark. St game was simply amazing. Over 600 yards! 400 of those were by Cam Newton. On the flip side, it was against Ark. St. so I’ll hold Cam’s Heisman till he beats MSU. I highlighted some defensive positives above and would like to add that Savage is a great open field tackler and is an asset in the secondary.
The Bad – Overall defense giving up 23 pts to Ark St. That being said, Ark St is actually pretty good on offense and we played a very vanilla defense. On the other hand our secondary needs to significantly step up this week. Our safeties looked timid at times, but they both are coming off injuries. The corners were giving a lot of ground and overall they all need to play a little stronger and get off blocks better. This was a problem and will continue to be with stronger teams and receivers. Additional worries include the punting, with a 39 yd avg.
The Rest of the Story - The OL could have played better overall and will need to step up this week. However at times they gave Cam Newton about an hour to find an open receiver and opened some big holes. When a defender did come thru the line, Cam usually bought time with his feet and size. He is just going to be hard to bring down. He also had one play where he ran around for like 5 minutes before finally completing the pass.
The wildcat was effective at times and not at others. I look for us to open this up as the season goes on and receivers other than Kodi will get playing time here and I even look for Mario to take a snap or 2.
On Defense we have plenty room to improve and I expect we will. A lot of true freshman saw playing time and they will continue to grow. The true test comes this week with MSU. They put up 49 on Memphis and looked good doing so. We are going to have to pressure the QB and play strong in the secondary to keep them from repeating that point total. Additionally the offense will have to score points and may have to get creative to do so. I hope we get to see T. Reed this week and he may play a significant role.
I am going to pick AU to win on Thursday night in Starkville but I think it will be very high-scoring and VERY close. I think it will come down to turnovers and whoever is positive in that category will win. I honestly see it going either way and I am going to call it that this may be one of the hardest games we play all year. Starkville is not an easy place to play (although a fun place to watch a game!) and MSU is much improved under Mullen. They will make noise this year in the West and will beat someone they are not supposed to this year; I just hope it isn’t us. WAR EAGLE!
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