Cam Newton did not beat us tonight - we simply beat ourselves.

[Sutterkane]

2 turnovers a piece:

Auburn ST fumble - sets up an MSU TD
Auburn INT - is basically a punt touchback

MSU INT - at midfield for an Auburn TD
MSU fumble - sets up Auburn FG (and the game winner)

Advantage: Auburn by 3.

Final score: Auburn by 3.

I would say special teams was bad, but we blocked a FG and recovered an onside kick. Outside of some poor return coverage ST was ok.

Defense did very well in the second half, but of course we didn't turn the ball over to them in our own territory either.

Let's face it guys, if one of us went back and time and said we held Auburn to 17 points it would be a unanimous call on this board that we blew them out by 2 touchdowns. Our offense looked like an MSU offense. We scored fewer points than Arkansas State did. They had more passing yards than we had total yards. Did we not watch any ******* film?

 

[Temple of the Dawg]

Did we not watch any ******* film?

Arky St had success with short, underneath passes. So, what did we do? We went vertical most of the night trying to pick up 20+ yards on pass attempts. Why the hell we did that with two inexperienced QBs is beyond me. For the life of me, I can't figure out why we avoided the read option like the plague either. We had some success with it when we used it, but it was so sporadic that it did us no good.

So, we abandoned what Relf does best and did not use what Arky St proved would work in the passing game. For as craptastic as our recievers were at dropping passes as well as craptastic our QBs were at being able to hit wide open recievers, Mullen & the coaching staff get the lion's share of the blame on this one for not using what Relf does well or for using what Arky St showed works well.

 

[MSUDawg25]

But then I looked at the stats. It felt like he lit us up, but he didn't really. Passed for less than 60% and averaged less than 4 yards per carry.

 

[MrHooch]

but special teams struggled. They have a shining moment or two but on the whole they under-achieved, imho.

 

[JimHalpert.nafoom]

but the timing of his runs. I watched on tv, and it seemed like every time he scrambled on second or third down, he would get hit right at the yellow line and somehow manage to power for another yard or two and keep the chains moving.

It happened at least three or four times.

I thought Cam looked good, but not awesome. He doesn't have much touch on deep passes. He's better when he has to throw a bullet.

And yes, if Leon Berry catches that pass or that defensive back doesn't drop a guaranteed touchdown, y'all probably win this game.