Two keys to burn the barn

Last SEC game of the season. A return to the scene of the crime. "Oh, hello there Mr. Trigga. Who's been up for stroking your ego these days?"

1. This game will be won in the turnover margin. Last year’s score wants to tell you we curb-stomped them in Athens. Truth is they moved the ball pretty well and even converted 8 of 14 third downs. Auburn’s downfall was in the -3 TO margin - two lost fumbles and one interception. We’re not going to see the Auburn team that everyone was laughing at when they were under-performing earlier in the season. Their offense is going to challenge Pruitt’s just like last year. Hopefully we can create some plays and match their speed.
2. Keith Marshall. Look, it’s no secret that defenses aren’t afraid of Schottenheimer. He doesn’t have a downfield passing game to threaten them deep and Chubb is not in the huddle. What they may be overlooking is that Georgia still has plenty of weapons. Get #4 on the field with Godwin, Mitchell, Michel, and McKenzie. Just find a way to do that. Somehow. Some way. Then watch these plain men get burnt.

No one outside of Athens or Opelika cares about this game. Hell, some Dawg fans can’t stop bitching about how there’s nothing left on the table to eat. Poor bastards.

This game is about respect. This game is about the coaches having already removed their heads from their ass and are ready to get back to some winning ways. It’s about players who were there two years ago when “it” happened.

Win this game. Go out and win it!

Go Dawgs!

the Friday Misery is missing and Coach Dye may be implicated

Sometimes the Internet can be a magnificent thing. At other times it can take your 750 words, shove them in some mysterious cyber dumpster, and leave no traces of where your magnificent prose is.

In over seven years of blogging, I’ve only lost one post. Until yesterday. So, now there’s two out there somewhere and there will be no regular post today. Sure, we could sit here for a few hours and speculate about whether Cam Newton stole it and then threw it out of a dorm window, or whether Pat Dye mentions the post’s whereabouts in the Eric Ramsey tapes.

I don’t know. Maybe. I’m just tired of looking and wondering and fretting and stressing. If you need firing up, watch this YouTuber from Crazy Uncle Lou. He sent it to me the other day and I think it captures the basic essence of what we usually do here on Fridays.

Hey, let’s bat that shit down and beat Auburn this weekend. Go Dawgs!

Humpday Hilarity - Abuurn bros

Auburn bro 1: “Look at all the chicks looking at my chest!”

Auburn bro 2: “Those are dudes man.”

Auburn bro 3: “Yeh, this is lame and it's starting to get cold.”

Auburn bro 4: “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Auburn bro 5: “No way man. Last time we broke rank the B got in the wrong place.”
Auburn bro 6: "Yeh. We don't wanna look dumb."

Auburn week - early thought on the offense

Not that I know anything about offensive strategery, but we need to get Keith Marshall and Sony Michel on the field at the same time. As I said last night, I was pleased to see the "Wild Dawg" formations and how it utilized some of our greatest offensive speed in Godwin and Michel. I would assume we might even see them throw the ball some this Saturday on the plains.

Maybe. Just a thought.

Another one is to just take Lambert out of the huddle instead of splitting him out wide. Let Michel option to Marshall. And let Godwin and Mitchell speed sweep and aid in the misdirection of the defense. We're not utilizing #4 and #26 enough and it's clear the coaches have little to no faith in our quarterbacks' ability to stretch the field vertically. So do everything we can to stretch it from sideline to sideline.

Another reason why we should give the ball to Marshall more - he's better than Michel between the tackles. Sony gets there so fast. The blocking is virtually the same as we saw for Chubb, but no back in America has the vision Chubb does. Running Sony into the line has bursts of several yards. Use Marshall more on just some of those and he'll break one open...like we've seen in Opelika before.

Me too Sterling. Me too.

A tweet can cause is to sigh deeply.

Sterling Bailey on going to Auburn for 1st time since '13 ending: "We left something over there. I still think about it from time to time."

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) November 10, 2015

Perhaps it can motivate as well.

Kentucky, rewatched and revisited

I've had a chance to rewatch the televised version and wanted to share a couple thoughts.

First off, give the coaches and players credit for a total team effort in beating an SEC opponent soundly. I admit, the 10-3 halftime score had me a little worried even though our defense appeared in control of their depleted offense enough to control things. In what had to a monumental week of distractions, everyone focused on the task at hand and gave the fans a very welcome result for four complete quarters.

Speaking of the fans, we were definitely a subdued lot. That came through on the broadcast even more than in person. Still, the turnout was better than I expected. It was a late arriving crowd, but Sanford filled in pretty well.

The highlight was certainly Marshall's touchdown reception. For a coordinator that has struggled mightily with red zone play calling, that screen pass was the perfect selection. The blocking was perfect, especially on the edge where Malcolm Mitchell not only locked on his man long enough to set him up for THE STIFFARM OF THE CENTURY, but he also kept his position enough to force a difficult angle on another Kentucky defender.

From there Marshall took care of the rest. Great speed to turn the corner and powered through towards the pylon with nimble footwork and perfect product placement of the football (all the way down to the Georgia G showing on the endzone replay camera) for the replay officials to correct the call on the field.

The only nit to pick on the defense was some poor tackling at times. That needs to be emphasized and cleaned up the next three games especially.

Special teams. Until pooch kicks are outlawed, we will not rest easy my friend.

Lastly, the reason this post is over 24 hours late is because of this - how in the world did we not have that gamplan for Florida? I can't wrap my head around that level of egregiousness and inept game planning. Faton Bauta has taken a lot of criticism since Jacksonville, some of it carefully and appropriately worded, some of it out of Fran's mouth. However, if we utilize those simple read options with Bauta at quarterback, and allow Godwin and Michel to stretch the field laterally, the 2015 edition of the WLOCP is a different game altogether.

I'm bewildered. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that took much of the shine off of what was otherwise a great day to be a Dawg.