I haven’t seen the broadcast, so thanks to Seth Emerson for this catch.
While the ink-stained media doesn’t get assistant coaches, the CBS crew does get Jim Chaney, who told Gary Danielson he had to be “non-emotional. … I can’t over-react to things that happen. I have to stick to my gameplan. And I want to throw later in the game when those pass rushers are a little tired. Early in the game they’re tough.”
After the game, a friend of mine pointed out that, while those sideline passes Chaney called may not have been effective purely from a yardage gained standpoint, they may well have served the purpose of getting Auburn’s defensive line to do more chasing than it wanted, with the goal of wearing them down. That, plus more time on the field in a game when Georgia held the ball almost forty minutes, appeared to have just that in mind.
And, boy, did it work. Auburn only ran 54 offensive plays Saturday night, its lowest number of the season. Meanwhile, Georgia ran 76 plays of its own, which on the surface may not seem like a lot, but when you’re grinding like hell in a game where both teams are doing what they can to establish the run (Auburn at least was trying to do that in the first half), it actually is.
For all the damage Adams and Lawson did in the first half, Auburn did not have a sack in the second half. Mission accomplished.
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UPDATE: Or, as Smart put it,
“The defense got to rest,” coach Kirby Smart said. “Going into this game that was my major concern was not getting to rest on defense because of their tempo….All the things we did wrong, we possessed the ball. “
Get The Picture 
I commented at the half that adjustments were needed or Eason was going to get hurt. I was pleasantly surprised.
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Gosh, this makes it sound like Kirby and his staff, like, outcoached Gus, but that must be wrong. Oh, Butler is working with the punters, too, apparently.
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Kudos to Kirby and staff, absolutely. You can tell the team was enjoying itself, both during and after the game. Truly great to see a team developing confidence, playing with discipline (even when getting hosed by the refs) and having fun at the same time.
Really enjoyed seeing Tucker’s adjustments to stop the outside runs and bring more pressure. He may be the quite type, but he is serious business. A ying to Kirby’s yang, hopefully.
I have been sore at Chaney this season for his lack of creativity/flexibility. Who knows if it is a) Chaney trusting Eason more, b) Kirby trusting Chaney more, c) the whole team understanding Chaney’s O more, d) Chaney moving up to the box, e) Chubb and Sony’s “meeting”, or f) some combination of the above, but there seems to be a much brighter light at the end of the tunnel after Saturday with respect to the type of offense we could be become in time with an experienced QB and hopefully more stable OL.
As for special teams, Butler may be saving Beamer’s job, and while I love the improved performance, I still don’t know if that’s a good thing. Beamer’s other job is TE, and Nauta certainly looks ahead of schedule for a FR.
Just happy for the win and for the team.
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Auburn: The House at (Pooh) Toomer’s Corner. Where the bastard children of Eeyore and Tigger compete in SEC football every Saturday in the fall. Some weeks they are like Tigger freebasing nose candy and are unstoppable and some weeks they are like a slow gloomy Eeyore. We caught them channeling their inner Eeyore trying to pull the Gus bus out of a fog of disinterest and inertia. Screw Auburn. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. And Forever.
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This is awesome and should be the official Wikipedia entry for “Auburn”.
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Only u f gets a biggggerrrrr F U than the ass wipes who say the port-o-let is a luxury they can only dream of! GO DAWGS!
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Hope to never see those two cute trick plays on the three yard line again, run the ball both downs and either score or let their crappy offense have on the one with 20 seconds left.
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Lot of Auburn fans in our section. Apparently there were Dog fans without a lot of confidence who sold their tickets. Heard a lady sitting behind me who was moaning about giving the points and putting $250 on Auburn. Might have felt sorry for her if she hadn’t been wearing orange.
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You should have turned around and said the first rule of sports gambling is never to bet on a game where you’re emotionally invested 🙂
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I was fairly pleased with his job Saturday(of course winning helps) but the endzone trick plays still baffle me. I get mixing it up because of how good their D is and our red zone struggles I would never run that play that close to the endzone. That’s a play you run on 3rd and 3 around midfield. That close to the endzone it’s easier to defend because they can keep everything underneath.
I will admit that Sanford would have come apart had Eason caught that 2nd play because it would have given everyone what they wanted…to end the game right there.
Along with most every other aspect of this team, I feel like Chaney may be finding his way and improving with this team.
Obviously winning out is ideal but it would be so big to finish this thing out strong. Keep improving week by week.
Side note: guess I never really thought about it but 5 of our 10 games were decided by 3 points. I guess this kinda reflects what I was expecting(deep down) this season. A team that could win most any game but could also lose. A team that would struggle and have growing pains but would get better. A defense that would give us a chance but an offense that would squander it at times. A talented team missing a couple pieces and a good staff finding it’s way and maybe also missing a couple pieces. Of course, all this feeling better would go away if we take a step back this year but I feel like that’s not gonna happen.
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Kinda reminds me of Richt’s first year where there were some close games, and head scratchers, but you got a real sense of something better waiting around the corner.
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The one from the 4 didn’t bother me. It almost worked, and it probably wasn’t any more risky than running a normal pass play on third down. I would have let Eason throw it there, but whatever. The Godwin call early was terrible whether it worked or not. The offense had had success running and throwing, so doing that on first down made no sense, particularly since the few times they’ve run the Wildcat this year, it wasn’t successful at all.
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Agree on both points. I would have loved Chaney to have run the 2-point conversion play he called in the UK game to Nauta. Go 1 yard into the end zone and turn around.
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One comment Danielson made was that Kirby planned to substitute on defense anytime Auburn substituted on offense. And they took their time, which served to slow down Auburn even more. Smart coaching.
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Yep … I have never understood why defensive coaches haven’t figured this out. Even if you’re going to rotate personnel but stay with the same personnel grouping, it forces the officials to hold play. Jog (don’t run) off the field. It gives players a chance to catch their breath and get properly lined up. I wonder if Little Nicky and Pruitt pick up on this in 2 weeks.
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Aren’t you only allowed like three seconds or so to substitute players?
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The big thing was Kirby didn’t send his subs in until Auburn had their subs in the game. He was pushing whatever the threshold is.
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It’s like, you have to be able to like…. count to three first, fingers and toes excluded.
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