The Good
Cam: Put yourself in Cam’s shoes. You’re the center of a very nasty and highly public investigation that if proven true could shake the world of college football to it’s very core. Your family is being dragged through the mud and people all over the country are calling you a thief and a cheat. Do you think you could come out and play a huge rivalry game with a potential birth in the National Championship game at stake? Well not only did Cam play, he excelled. As soon as he stepped foot on that field, he was excited and ready to go. You could tell he was mad during the game. There were a couple of “unnecessary” face swats that passed for stiff arms. I think he was pissed and he wanted to run people over. He lasered passes between UGA defenders and brought Auburn one step closer to the promised land. I was feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing on Friday. It was hard to get excited about a game that could very well be vacated in a few months. I can honestly say that I am now just enjoying the ride and if we happen to go down, they will have to pry a national title from our cold, dead hands.
Lutz: Two great TD catches including one in traffic. I have no doubt that Cam Newton can throw a ball that leaves bruises on the hands. Lutz made it look easy when he caught that pass while being surrounded by defenders. When other receivers were dropping easy catches, Lutz was making the plays that needed to be made. It’s been a few years since tight ends were a factor at Auburn but he is quickly becoming a great option for Cam.
Onterrio: 3 TDs. While he never tore off a long run, he did manage to make the most of his attempts in the red zone. UGA loads up the box at the goal line thinking that Newton is going to plow ahead. All he has to do is hand it off to Onterrio and he just takes it around the outside and barely makes it to the pylon. Only someone with his speed can get there.
Third Down Conversions: This stat goes a long way in determining how a game goes. 9-14 does it every time.
Punting: 42.5 average including a 50 yarder. We have been rough on the punters this year but they performed liked they actually knew what they were doing. They were only called on twice, but Shoemaker earned his keep this week.
Red zone scoring: 6 of 6. And all of those were touchdowns. I remember the days when Auburn had a whole lot of trouble scoring in the red zone. We were settling for field goals or throwing interceptions. When you get down there, you have to score. And last night, Auburn was perfect.
Beating UGA: 4 years is too long.
The Bad
Blake’s drop: The normally sure handed Blake lets one go through his hands and creates an INT. Not only does this give UGA excellent field position, but it also messes up Cam’s stats. It was a perfect throw that hit him right in the hands. He made up for it later in the game by catching everything else that came his way. Give Cam some credit too for shaking it off and still looking Emory’s way.
Mario’s TD drop: Wow. This would have been an easy 6. While Mario fumbles a lot, he is usually a very sure handed receiver. In fact, the majority of his big play highlights in his career are great catches. I think it is obvious that all of this fumblities has gotten to him. Athletes tend to rely on instinct and muscle memory. He has been catching those passes since middle school. It didn’t hurt Auburn. But man, that’s tough to watch.
Personal fouls: We shot ourselves in the foot in the first half. Three personal fouls that gave UGA free yards. Nick Fairly had a horrible roughing the passer call that negated a defensive stop on third down.
Defense against A.J. Green: Well we just gave him some more clips for his NFL Draft highlight film. Poor Demond is going to be shown from now on getting beat by 3 yards on those two TD plays. On one play, he acted like he had safety help over the middle so you can put that all on him. The other had a small push off but it wasn’t called. Green is just hard to guard. Whatever.
The Ugly
Fight at the end: So this was a lame way to end a game. Blanc and Goggans get ejected for throwing punches and have to sit out the first half against Bama. The UGA blogs are making quite the show today of how they think Fairly had a bunch of dirty hits (and they blissfully ignore their own chop block against Fairly that started this whole thing). Three UGA players went after Fairly and started choking him while he was on the ground. They don’t call an ejection for this. I don’t blame Auburn players at all for sticking up for him. If UGA is so classless as to try and do a 5 against 1 to retaliate for our DT being blocked into their QB than that’s their deal. I only wish they hadn’t thrown punches. They are back ups and it won’t hurt us that much I suspect, but it still doesn’t look good. Auburn is better than that.