Did the play calling remind anyone of Rod Smith?

[Mission9]

There are a lot of plays that are tough to execute when your offensive line is getting beat.

[Mission9]

This was the best and fastest defense we will see all year long.  Once Ford is fully in Football condition, this offense will be scary good.  Watching the replay on ESPN Clasic.  I can see why Ford got tired in the second half.  he was plowing into some big heavyweights on almost every carry he had.  That won't be the case in just about any of the rest of the games.

I think the for the most part, the playcalling was good.

When a defense is that good, sometimes you are unable to do what you would like to do and have to adapt. 

[Who'sYourData?]

Can't fault Gregory at all.  We had ZERO turnovers.  It would have been nice to see the playbook more open, but the reality is that would have likely gotten us some turnovers against Auburn's D.  Remember, if we make most of our FG attempts, we win the game somewhat easily.

[Triple B]

There are a lot of plays that are tough to execute when your offensive line is getting beat.

Exactly .... The pass protection was great at times, but life threateing to MG at times, too... and it's not the play calling that is critical, it's the play execution and Auburn's defense had a big say in that .... except when it really, really mattered.

[Apis Bull]

That was by far the fastest defense we'll see all year (except ours, of course).  The plays were called to deal with their speed and our field position.  The no turnovers thing was huge.

[smazza]

I think we ran too much, especially late in the game. We ran that same HB draw with Ford soooo many times.

We won  the game, but we werent that impressive, but I guess there are two ways we  can look at it: either we were lucky Auburn sucked so we could squeak it out, or Auburn was lucky they kept it close because we sucked so bad.

Either way it was a win, and it looks goos for us.  Unfortunately, we left a lot of "we won, BUT" opinions. GO BULLS, and now time to focus on what really matters: winning the Big East and heading to the BCS

the play calling was typical

[smazza]

That was by far the fastest defense we'll see all year (except ours, of course).  The plays were called to deal with their speed and our field position.  The no turnovers thing was huge.

i dont agree with that

[usfgrad84]

That was by far the fastest defense we'll see all year (except ours, of course).  The plays were called to deal with their speed and our field position.  The no turnovers thing was huge.

i dont agree with that

He means that they are the fastest defense we will play all year, not watch on TV smazza.  There is no defense in the Big East is that is good and as fast as Auburn.  NC, UCF and FAU won't come close to this defense on our OOC.

[RSSMOOTH]

Just remember in the 2nd qtre they punted to our 1 yard line.  Then on the next series Allen intercepted and we started at 11.  We were in ball protection mode at that point.  We really couldn't do too much.  We needed to be conservative down there. 

The rest of the game we were pretty much in "no mistake" mode when we were down in their end of the field.  We couldn't run outside and they were getting on Grothe quickly.  My guess is the thinking was that Ford was big enough to just pound out the yardage.

What I don't understand is why we don't ever throw screens or use play action off of all the running we do.  The other thing I don't understand is when we are down close and we have a 5'10" DB on Amarri (who is 6'5") and Mitchell (6"4), can't we try a lob or a fade?  That drives me nuts.

Overall Gregory called a pretty good game.  He took what the circumstances dictated and we let the D win it for us.  If the Kicking comes through we winn by 12 or more points.

The pass to Hester was definitely a result of the runs into the line.  Smith would have panicked in this game and tried some wacky double pass or reverse or something that was too risky against such a fast defense.

Conservative playcalling is what our field position and circumstances called for.  Alvarado needs to come through on the chip shots, but he came through when he needed to.

I agree 100%. We were protecting the ball. Matt is still an inexperienced and it was a hostile environment, had Grothe thrown an INT, everyone would have been saying "why didn't we run the ball." Lets just put it this way, our kicking game was awful and in spite of Delbert Alvarado, we were still able to punch a SEC powerhouse in the mouth on their home field. Going into that game Auburn was 12-1 in night games at their place since 2000. Now they are 12-2, they will never forget the BULLS!

GO BULLS!!!!!

[Mission9]

There are a lot of plays that are tough to execute when your offensive line is getting beat.

Exactly .... The pass protection was great at times, but life threateing to MG at times, too... and it's not the play calling that is critical, it's the play execution and Auburn's defense had a big say in that .... except when it really, really mattered.

I thought the USF line did great considering the opponent.  I knew that they were not going to be able to control the line on a consistent basis and was hoping that they could play well enough to win.