Early Evaluations Part 1

Defense wins Championships

 The title seems to be a joke of sorts since Auburn President Jay Gouge has decided to wait until after the season to evaluate the state of the football program. I don't have to wait, and I see no reason to wait, so I will give my honest evaluations now. 

 Your criticisms and comments are welcome below, all you have to do is click on the  word comments.

 This is "Part 1" and we will break this team down by groups, so we don't have a multiple page post. Hopefully this is better for you, as I know it is for me. On to it...

 Let us start up front with the defensive line where we anticipated a much improved unit, and a steady stream of sacks and tackles for losses. None of that ever actually happened, and many AU faithful are asking themselves "why?"

 We have seen the results and listened to commentators talk all year of our defensive linemen being out of position during plays. Why are they still out of position, and not making plays? Does the current coaching staff not see these problems? Were we not promised an "unleashed" defensive front, that would supposedly cause havoc in the backfield? Who is to blame for this failure? Most importantly, how do we fix it? Tough questions.

 It's evident that our Defensive front is still not strong enough to compete throughout the entirety of the game. We went into the 4th quarter of several games this season with a reasonable chance to win. The defensive front for Auburn has been pushed around all season long, period!

 After the first couple of games, most of these nuances have normally been corrected, yet we continue to see the same mistakes game after game. Why?

  So far this season, Auburn only has 56 tackles for a loss. The defensive line is credited with 26.5 of those losses. Out of 719 plays so far, only 26.5 tackles for a loss. So much for the havoc being created in opposing backfields. PATHETIC!

 The start of every half has seen an opposing offense march up and down the field scoring with ease, and putting this team behind. While that may seem to be a coaching problem, and I am sure some of it may be, there also has to be an attitude amongst the defensive players that no team will score on us. That attitude is sorely lacking. Why can't the coaches get our defensive front to play with aggression?

 We have seen so little of this attitude from the linemen on defense this year, that I have to grade the entire unit as a failure. I'll let you decide if it is because of scheme, coaching, or lack of effort. I know one thing for sure, in all my days watching and cheering for Auburn football, I have never seen a more porous defensive front.

War Eagle!