My View

A non-existent Ole Miss offense helped Auburn beat the Rebels 27-3 at Auburn this Saturday. On a day where Ole Miss could have saved its season they forgot about a key ingredient in a win. That mysterious ingredient is offense. The Rebels were only able to produce a field goal of all things to put points on the visitor's side of the scoreboard. The Auburn offense was able to produce 27 points led by Kenny Irons and a variety of receivers.

Offense: The picture above was in my opinion the game turner. Unfortunately it was only a few minutes into the game. The Rebels had the ball at the Auburn 1 and could not score on two downs. With 4th and one and a half in Auburn territory the Rebels turned the ball over on a fumble between the exchange of Spurlock and Jacobs. The offense was only able to but together two hundred some odd yards all day against the Tigers. Michael Spurlock was 10 for 18 before being pulled for back-up QB Ethan Flatt. The backup provided a spark for the offense and seemed to be on target for most of the game, although he could not find a way to lead the Rebels to the endzone. Flatt ended the game 11-17 for 81 yards. Mico McSwain, the Rebel running back who has carried the team on his soldiers for many games this season was only able to gain 58 yards. Overall the offense performance was pitiful. I was glad to see Ethan Flatt come in to provide a change for the offense. With Flatt now in the picture practice should be a little different. We now do not have a starting quarterback nine games into the season. Sound familiar...........not much has changed since last year in this area.

Defense: The Ole Miss defense came out hot and held the Tigers on the first drive. It looked like the Rebs were going to be able to hang in there for much of the game. The entire defense line played well as did Patrick Willis. Willis continues to show his dominance each week, this guy is a real player, I just hope he comes back for one more year. The Rebel secondary really stunk it up in my opinion. As I have said all year long they are the same old secondary Ole Miss has had for the past 5 years. They do not know how to defend against the pass. While this was not the best defensive outing for the Rebs, they continue to show they are a good defensive team. If they could have played the second half like they did the first, the game might have been a little closer.

The special teams improved this week. A 43 yard field goal attempt by Matt Hinkle were the only points for the Rebs. Moseley and Park continue to perform well. An area I am not impressed with is our punt and kick returns. I wish Espy would run straight up the field instead of side to side. He does all that running for nothing and usually only gets about two yards. I hope we will improve in this area for the next three games.

Other Notes:

I really like to go to football games at Auburn, I think the stadium is awesome and the game atmosphere is good. The town as a whole is up there with Starkville and the tailgating was not spectacular.

The Auburn athletic department recognized just about everyone in the stands but me throughout the whole game. Every time out they were recognizing someone different. Auburn makes good use of their P.A. announcer, which you can actually hear, and of their jumbotron. Something our university will never figure out.

The week off will come at a good time. With three more games left the Rebels are still not out of the bowl picture. Yes it would be a miracle if it happened, but why give up now. In the week off we will be able to heal up some injuries like Chris Bowers and Mico McSwain(who I do not think played at 100%). We will also get to do some recruiting this week, it will be interesting to see where the coaches go on Friday night.

Also with an open week I think the QB saga will get interesting. The battle over who will start against Arkansas began this afternoon. I do not have a favorite at this point, but it should be interesting.

I am going to post some pictures from my view from section 35 later tonight.

And I am just glad I am not Phillip Fulmer, I am sure the Volunteer nation is ready to string him up after yesterday's game.