Question: What did you take away from last night's Fla St victory?

Bamabuzzard · Jan 7, 2014

At the end of it I was happy Fla St won and the cowpatties' "destiny" season came crashing down. My heart grew three sizes larger.

But as I watched the game I saw Fla St do things that I believe we will need to do going forward to beat Auburn's offense. First of all and it kills me to admit this. But Fla St has more overall defensive speed than we do. There's no denying that. Especially at the DL and LB position. Those guys were able to quickly get pressure in the backfield while still being able to clog the middle. When Marshall scrambled he simply didn't have the time to scan the field for an open receiver. The Fla St DL'men were pressing down too fast on him.

Better tackling in open space. I saw on more than one occasion where a Fla St player made an unassisted tackle in space on an auburn ball carrier that if it wasn't made the play would have gone for seven possibly ten more yards.

Better secondary coverage. Early on Fla St got out of position on several occasions but it seemed the second half they settled in and clamped down. We need better coverage on the back end.

No, there's no need for a major overhaul of our defensive scheme. But there definitely needs to be some tweaking and evaluating of personnel type. Because giving Gus' offense unmolested time is a death nail. We got to be able to (as Fla St did) to hold the middle yet get faster with our front seven.

Alasippi · Jan 7, 2014

I thought FSU was better before the game than they actually turned out to be. Auburn controlled the majority of the game with their defense, and they're defense is far less than stellar.

Tide1986 · Jan 7, 2014

Alasippi said:
I thought FSU was better before the game than they actually turned out to be. Auburn controlled the majority of the game with their defense, and they're defense is far less than stellar.

Poor ACC bowl play made me nervous about how good FSU would really be. They certainly played in a very weak conference.

JBama_in_PCOLA · Jan 7, 2014

Mostly right, however Auburn lost it FLA ST didn't win it. I don't believe they covered well all night. Auburn dropped a bunch of passes, as did FSU, but still AU should have blown the doors off last night. Hats off to FSU for not giving up!

Sent from my iPhone

BamaMoon · Jan 7, 2014

I posted in Jess' thread, but my take away is:

1. Auburn's offense can't score if they aren't on the field. FSU gave them multiple opportunities until the FSU pro-style sytem started moving the stick and scoring some points.

2. Agree with you on defense...we've got to get quicker phsycially and mentally to off set the hurry up. But defense still wins championships. In the end, the weakest SEC defense of the BCS era could not get a stop.

3. Special teams and fundamentals have a major impact on games. Ironically, AU lost because of a missed fg and they gave up a 100 yard return.

We return to a ball control offense, good fundamentals and an improved, tweaked defensive philisopy and we return to the top!

bamaslaw · Jan 7, 2014

Get a dominating NT and everything changes. Jernigan was consistently getting a push up the middle, which in turn helps the ends. On run plays, he won enough battles to help keep Auburn "behind the sticks" and in to 3rd and 4+.

Yes he got a little gassed, but he made an impact when it was his turn to do it. That's all you can ask.

92tide · Jan 7, 2014

i did not follow anything at all about the game but when i woke up this morning and saw the barn lost, i felt warm inside. so i guess after all, i did care about this game a little bit.

skipster63 · Jan 7, 2014

Better have great athletes who are fast and have great discipline. Mind the little things like staying in your lane on kickoff returns. Stay focused and being able to react fast is a must. The kickers need to be consistent because of field position is critical and a 3 can be the difference. And do not make stupid mistakes!

BamaMoon · Jan 7, 2014

92tide said:
i did not follow anything at all about the game but when i woke up this morning and saw the barn lost, i felt warm inside. so i guess after all, i did care about this game a little bit.

You really missed a great game. BTW, I'd say the same thing if the Barn would have won.

BamaMoon · Jan 7, 2014

Another thing we can learn; actually from Auburn:

What they are doing on defense with putting quick pressure on opposing pro-style attacks has played a big part in disrupting our offense.

Give Elis Johnson credit: our struggles against the Barn and OU were a result of how quick the DL was getting into our backfield. Same happened last night for FSU and that is why they struggled most of the game on offense.

So our O-line has got to get better real fast too and I'd like to see us mimic this style with a faster, penetrating type defensive rush. I certainly believe this will be one of CNS's adjustments going forward in his defensive scheme. It may take us out of the 3-4 and we may start seeing more 4-3 and 5-2 looks.

Con · Jan 7, 2014

My take away was that even though we had a down year according to our standards, we were better than the two teams that played last night. FSU does have better speed on the front line and they affected the QB play of Marshall, which shows you just how good we truly are. We didn't bother him as much and still had a great chance to win that game against the boogs. I sat there watching and was thinking about what could have been if we would have made a first down, or a field goal or two.

CraigD · Jan 7, 2014

bamaslaw said:
Get a dominating NT and everything changes. Jernigan was consistently getting a push up the middle, which in turn helps the ends. On run plays, he won enough battles to help keep Auburn "behind the sticks" and in to 3rd and 4+.

THIS! I think our team this past season was missing a few elements that our championship teams have had:

1) an anchor in the middle of the defense
2) great team speed on defense (not good, but great -- we had good speed... needed great speed)
3) outstanding tackling from the secondary. It was good at times, but not consistent enough and not intimidating enough.

Lastly I observed last night that both Auburn and FSU got really good pressure on the opposing team's QB -- and not just when they blitzed. When, oh when, will be have this? I want us to be able to rush four and at least collapse the pocket or have one of our guys get a hand on the QB. I can't recall the last time Bama had this consistently. Wallace Gilberry?

alabama mike1 · Jan 7, 2014

I took away a few points from last nights game:

1. FSU made plays when they had to make them.
2. You cannot give up big plays or stops on special teams.
3. Poor CB play, especially late in the game will get you beat.
4. You must have a solid defensive middle.
5. Sometimes lady luck just runs out.

Bamabuzzard · Jan 7, 2014

bamaslaw said:
Get a dominating NT and everything changes. Jernigan was consistently getting a push up the middle, which in turn helps the ends. On run plays, he won enough battles to help keep Auburn "behind the sticks" and in to 3rd and 4+.

Yes he got a little gassed, but he made an impact when it was his turn to do it. That's all you can ask.

He's under 300 lbs as well and I think this is the key. He's quicker and able to cause more disruption. Until the HUNH starts to go away (which ultimately it will) the big behemoth 310 lb DT's will only be effective against traditional style offenses.

10Bama54 · Jan 7, 2014

One thing I noticed is that most of the time they kept someone on Marshall shadowing him and it was effective.

selmaborntidefan · Jan 7, 2014

The only thing anyone should take away is that Florida State would not have been there if they played in the SEC. Defense faster? Then how come they gave up more defensive points and yards than we did despite seven weeks prep?

The only real difference is FSU executed just enough when they had to / that's all. We'd have beaten them with ball control.

GreatDanish · Jan 7, 2014

It is just simply amazing that Auburn not only went to the championship, but had the lead for virtually the whole game except the final minute, with a team that was winless in the SEC last year, and lost some of their best players from that pitiful team.

Bamabuzzard · Jan 7, 2014

selmaborntidefan said:
The only thing anyone should take away is that Florida State would not have been there if they played in the SEC. Defense faster? Then how come they gave up more defensive points and yards than we did despite seven weeks prep?

The only real difference is FSU executed just enough when they had to / that's all. We'd have beaten them with ball control.

Giving up more points or yards doesn't mean they weren't faster/quicker. Unless it had something to do with the uniform color or my HD tv was playing tricks on me there was no doubt their front seven came off the ball much quicker than ours and had better pursuit. I watched with my own eyes the Fla St defensive line (especially Jernigan) being able to beat the Auburn OL to the gaps or simply over power them. Something we could not do.

CraigD · Jan 7, 2014

Bamabuzzard said:
Until the HUNH starts to go away (which ultimately it will) the big behemoth 310 lb DT's will only be effective against traditional style offenses.

I am not sure this is exactly correct. I won't argue that a player like this wouldn't be effective, but I am not sure a player that fits your description is the only type that would work at the NT position. In our defense the NT's job is to eat blockers. A big guy (Cody) can do this even if he isn't all that mobile. If he consumes two blockers then that means that a LB is blocker-free. Even if the NT isn't making plays, he has a significant impact just by being there (by being a threat that requires multiple blockers).

Auburn gashed us up the middle. I don't think they'd have done that with Cody in the middle.

CraigD · Jan 7, 2014

selmaborntidefan said:
The only thing anyone should take away is that Florida State would not have been there if they played in the SEC. Defense faster? Then how come they gave up more defensive points and yards than we did despite seven weeks prep?

The only real difference is FSU executed just enough when they had to / that's all. We'd have beaten them with ball control.

True enough. I thought our defense held up well enough (could it have been better? Yes.), but our offense didn't step up when it needed to. Same with the Sugar Bowl. Defense wasn't great, but offense failed to come through.

Question: What did you take away from last night's Fla St victory?

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