Leroy, it’s been far too long. I wish you had something good to write about. Oh well…
Week 7 – Kentucky
by Leroy Jenkins
Not good at all. I am very glad that I was in the box for this game. The heater was running well, but the Auburn offense was anything but hot. What has happened to Chris Todd? All of the sudden he looks like last year’s Chris Todd. Is it nothing more than a sudden lack of confidence? Or are opposing defenses finally figuring out Malzahn’s scheme? We have lost two straight games to teams with less talent than us. That comes down to coaching and execution.
One bright spot was the play of the defense. Aside from a crucial big run late in the game, our defense played very well. If we can get a game when our offense and defense both play up to their potential, we can beat anybody in the country. So far, that has not happened. We will need that to happen this weekend if we want to avoid a three game losing streak.
One glaring stat in the game is penalties. I believe we had ten penalties and Kentucky had zero. That seems mighty fishy to me. We had one drive late in the game where we could have put the game away, but we had four or five consecutive penalties on offense. It backed us out of field goal range and killed the drive. On the final drive, we ran the old “swinging gate” trick play, and we got called for a false start. I watched the replay later and let me assure you there was no false start. If we could have gotten that play off, we would have most assuredly gotten the first down and maybe more.
The officiating was just bad the entire game. Pass Interference calls were nowhere to be found (on both sides). Maybe this crew will get suspended like the crew that worked the Florida/Arkansas game. Despite the bad breaks on calls, we still should have won the game. It came down to the fact that Kentucky made the plays when it counted, and we did not.
I am hoping that this team will rebound this week, and not pack it in for the year like we did last season. We shall see this Saturday night.
