Tuberville had the margin of victory correct. Unfortunately, he had the wrong team winning. Arkansas easily handled the former #17 Auburn 44-23 in Fayetteville yesterday. In what looked like a return to last year's form (or lack thereof), Auburn looked like a rusty team that was going to have trouble putting up some points. Maybe it was the playing during the day. Maybe it was the playing in Arkansas. Maybe. I think it was perhaps that Auburn has played enough games this year for teams to figure out how to stop them. In Auburn's lone bright spot, Ben Tate ran for 184 yards on 22 carries. Todd, however, looked like the lost, scared QB at the helm of last year's team, barely cracking 130 yards passing for a team that had averaged double that over the last five games. Arkansas had a game plan and stuck to it, holding Auburn to a measly 3 points and ending their run of scoring in every quarter of the season.Auburn tried to make the game interesting in the 3rd quarter, scoring 20 points and coming to within 11 of Arkansas. However, the 4th quarter played much like the first half, and Auburn allowed two more scores. Ryan Mallett looked like the hyped QB he was billed as, and Auburn's corners couldn't bat any pass away. Also, Arkansas was able to pick Auburn's weak zone defense apart, hitting receivers that were so open that they were probably actually surprised to turn around and have running room left for more yardage.
Auburn fell out of the new polls today to just outside the top 25 as was expected. They may make it back in if they show they can actually play a non-Mississippi State SEC team well next week against Kentucky. Don't hold your breath just yet, though. At this point I'd just like Auburn to play some defense...is that too much to ask?
Auburn seems to be as confused on defense as they are about which of the three mascots they want to be (or are?), maybe the defense are representing the PLAINsmans...cause that's definitely how they're playing
ReplyDelete