It's late and I'm a grumpy old man. Props to our defense. The guys left it all on the field - minus one silly play on the last drive when a player was never down and continued on. If anyone would have said our defense would only allow 22 points, we all probably would have mortgaged our homes to throw down in Vegas. While this was a NC game for the ages and I'm proud to be wearing yellow and green - our offensive play calling and run game was not getting it done. Seriously, Barner and James combine for around 80 yards? That isn't due to Auburn having this dominate run stopper of a defense. Yes, they are good -- but, not good enough to hold us like they did. Piss poor play calling and execution - COACH. I thought Thomas was everything and more that could be asked, for a first year starter in this kind of game. Honestly, I thought he was brilliant - considering the time he was NOT getting and how he was getting rushed and had Fairley in his grill half the night. There was nothing special about the play of our special teams. Disappointing. More disappointing is the showing by Duck fans. Pathetic. Most fans I spoke with thought it was about 2/3 Auburn. I was supposedly in a "neutral" section, but was surrounded by Auburn fans. They were loud and crazy and respectful. Very nice and classy folks. It was apparent the Southerners are a bit different with their football as most of the guys/men wore dress pants, boots or shined shoes and had polo or long sleeved button shirts tucked in. The girls were cute - lots of dresses, skirts, long boots. All this aside, it was almost demoralizing to see the stadium filled with Tiger fans - and to hear them. I thought the Rose Bowl was a poor showing - this was perplexing. All in all, I'm glad I went. I'm proud to be a Duck but I am asking, when is our team going to deliver and execute in a big game - correct me if I'm wrong here, but we have one BCS Bowl win in how long??
I'm just wondering if it's the state economy.... I for one would have LOVED to go, but I'm a starving college student. I couldn't pay for a ticket, let alone the trip and hotel. I'm wondering if others were in the same boat.
I do agree with the defense and the 22 points. I said the same thing last night. You hold Cam Newton & Auburn to 22 points, I would have bet everything that the crystal ball is coming back to Eugene. But poor play calling? Nah. Auburn's front 4 totally took us out of anything we wanted to do. There were no running lanes, there was no time to throw for Thomas, they just beat us up at the line of scrimmage. It hurts. I'm still really down about the loss. But I have no regrets about the game. Not the play calling, not the effort, no bone-head plays to wine about (like Blount kicking the ball into the end zone last year, or some of the muffed punts we've seen from Barner or Cliff Harris this year) - we played with heart, gave 100%, and played smart football. Just couldn't overcome that front 4.
Special teams was... not special. We didn't get a single good return and the punting left a lot to be desired. I think that the playcalling was OK... Auburn's defensive line just blew a lot of things up. Ed O.
OK play calling doesn't get it done in THE game. Anyone supporting the play where we gave up a safety is crazy. Why run directly at their strength? You have got to call Thomas on rollout with option to throw away if necessary. The safety was game changing.
by far my biggest bitch about the game was the field. Why the fuck was it so bad? From the opening kickoff where an Auburn defender lost his footing and was injured, guys on both sides were slipping and sliding throughout like we haven't seen all season. It seemed like someone left the sprinklers on all night in bone dry Arizona. of course the Ducks offense is predicated on speed... this did not help our cause at all STOMP
I was surprised that Kelly didn't have an answer for Auburn's front four. A simple quick pass or hot read would have taken advantage of their big push. Running into the interior time after time seemed suicidal. As for me, I actually was in the Auburn section as my friend who was an alum got me my ticket. The AL folks were actually quite nice. And I'll echo STOMP's comment. The field was a disgrace.
It wasn't their front 4, but their front 7 or 8. Play after p;lay they ran 7-8 players into every gap. We could only block so many players.
I'm still trying to get over that game. Seeing Dyer's ankle/calf being down hurts, but I still think Newton would have gotten them into FG range. I was totally surprised at how outnumbered we Duck fans were in the stadium. Yes, I was able to get a nosebleed seat for $575 right after kick-off, so on my original game ticket, I still came out $3925 ahead, which obviously paid for my trip, and also is paying for a family trip to Disneyland in March. Fairley was a monster, but he appeared to grab LaMike's facemask at least two times on tackles, and they weren't called, which was frustrating. That said, Auburn was the better team, IMO, but the Ducks played them better than any other conference champ from the Big Ten or Big XII have played the SEC champ in the last five BCS title games. It will be extremely difficult to get back to a BCS title game, and it may never happen again, so I am glad I made the trip. I didn't have anything to drink in terms of alcohol prior to the game, or even during the game, but my friends and I ended up getting hammered after the game and made an all-nighter of it. Since I had a 6:45am flight back to PDX yesterday, I feel very bad for the people who had to smell the mixture of heavy cologne/various types of booze escaping my pores on the way back home. Man, we were SOOOO close, it makes it hurt even more, doesn't it? Had we been given a beatdown like Oklahoma was given a few times, it would make it much easier to take.
Seriously..... WTF is up with this shit..... no props from the SEC at all. We were beaten by the SEC's best team by THREE FUCKING POINTS. Wow.... huge gap, eh? We played like shit and we almost won. I think that says something about the SEC, honestly.
I was a little disappointed in how many more Auburn fans were there then Ducks fans. I knew from our broker weeks before that we were going to be well out numbered. He is one of the bigger brokers and was getting 5-1 request from Auburn compared to the Ducks. I talked to a lot of Auburn fans and they seemed like money was no object and were not going to miss the game no matter what price the tickets were. I had a few diehard Ducks fans that just couldn't or wouldn't pay the high price for the tickets. I have some bama and other sec friends and all of them hate Auburn with dress pants and their polo or what ever they call their outfits. Those fans think Auburn is trying to be the sophisticated or classy(not sure what the word is) and dress like they are all better then the other fans. I was warned about them but I didn't really meet any bad Auburn fans and I thought they were good people. Of, coarse we are not one of their rivals and I think they were pretty sure they would win which makes it easier to be classy. If we get to one of the next couple BCS championship games(I'm not saying we will) it will probably be 90% the other team and 10% Ducks. They are both going to play in SEC country which will make it easier cheaper to pay more for tickets. I do think our defense was great. Nobody else has held Cam Newton down this well. I also agree some of the play calls were not that great IMO. I think the difference was Fairley and some of those other D line. Fairley was the difference in the game not Cam Newton. I'm upset but proud and happy I went. Everything was great except the finally score of the game!
