The Florida Review: A Five-Point Reality Check

For the first time in school history, Auburn lost a home football game while scoring 39 points in regulation. Too much was being made of it being a season-defining or season-directing game and the world is falling for some. Of course me saying that means I think everything is great. Anyway, let’s take a quick, realistic look at Auburn’s first loss in the Golesh era. A 5-point loss to a ranked team in a game they were predicted to lose. The horror.

😟 HOW I’M FEELING

Been better, but not on the ledge like some (they’ll be addressed on this week’s podcast). Auburn scored more points in an SEC game (in regulation) than they have in at least two seasons. The defense was atrocious, but so far that’s an outlier to DJ Durkin’s stint at Auburn. Florida just had a really good gameplan, mixed in with some things that can be fixed.

👍 WHAT I LIKED

I liked Auburn scoring 39 points. I liked them battling to the end. Neither of those things have really happened in a while. Much has been said about Auburn’s offense looking off to start both halves. They also scored touchdowns in half their drives. If Florida wasn’t scoring on 8 of 10 drives, Auburn’s offensive performance would’ve at worst been deemed acceptable, if not above average.

👎 WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

The lack of tackling by Auburn’s defense on three long Florida touchdown runs. One was a 3rd-and-long. One was a 4th down. If Auburn makes a tackle on either one of those, they probably win the game.

👀 WHO STOOD OUT

Elijah Melendez had what seemed like 800 tackles. But no really, I’m pretty sure he had nine before halftime. Dude is legit. He led the team with eleven solo tackles by the end of it.

🤔 STILL THINKING ABOUT…

Those three long Florida touchdown runs. We haven’t seen a running back run away from an Auburn defense like that in a while and it happened three times. I’ll give you a 3rd-and-long pass here and there, but wide open runs down the field are what hurt the most.

😬 STILL WORRIED ABOUT…

The offensive line. Auburn has given up the most sacks in the SEC and running backs are almost not part of the equation at this point. There has to be some sort of push or hole or something for us to not just be a Byrum-pass, Byrum-run offense.

📈 DID ANYTHING CHANGE?

Not totally. I was still mostly pleased by the Auburn offense in terms of sustaining drives and making plays to score. Downfield route-running and ability to get open and catch the ball is worlds better than last year. I am not totally worried about the defense yet. As I said, it is an outlier of a performance right now.

🏆 THE BLOGLE GAME BALL

I think I’m still going with Byrum Brown. He threw three touchdown passes and ran for one of his own. He had one interception on the 3rd play of the game, but it was honestly a good, tough play by the defender. He’ll get all the blame because he’s the quarterback, but his side of the ball scored 39 points, and his touchdown throws to Singleton and Spencer were elite.

➡️ WHAT’S NEXT

Diego Pavio-less Vanderbilt rolls into Jordan-Hare after being gifted the giftiest of all wins last week. They are nothing like the last few years. Auburn has the team to run them out of the stadium. We’ll see if the offense continues to improve and the defense gets back to where it was heading.