il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo

I’m not a superstitious man. When walking on sidewalks, I don’t worry whether I have stepped on a crack or between them. Typically I don’t walk under ladders, but it isn’t because of superstitious mysticism; rather it is for pure safety reasons. Black cats don’t bother me any more than white or calico cats. And Friday the 13th might make a lot of money as a horror movie, but they never bother me either.

However, I have to admit I looked at my watch last night…..twice. The Seiko watch that my wife gave me a couple of years ago not only keeps up with the time and the date, but it also has the day of the week. And though I knew yesterday was the 13th, I actually looked twice to see if it was really Saturday, because it felt more like a Friday the 13th. The first time I looked was at halftime of the Auburn-Mississippi State game, when the score was 3-0. The second time I looked was just as the game ended, with a score of 3-2. And both times, just as I had remembered, it was SATURDAY the 13th, not Friday 13th.

However, the entire ballgame had the feel of the paranormal and surreal. It was a weird game. It was an oddity. And, there was a full moon.

Now soothsayers will tell you that more babies are born during a full moon than at any other time of the year. That may be true. And perhaps it is because of the gravitational pull of the moon…at least that’s what I have always heard. But that gravity sure didn’t pull Auburn (nor Mississippi State for that matter) toward the endzone. 3-2 is much more a baseball score than a football score. At least it would be, if Auburn and Mississippi State’s baseball teams hadn’t scored more runs in each of the three games they played in 2008 than the football teams did. And that’s the Stark-ville truth!

Sergio Leone directed a movie back in 1966 which starred an up-and-coming actor named Clint Eastwood. The title of the movie was “Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo”. An English version of the movie came out in 1967 entitled “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. Borrowing from the movie title, I want to share my thoughts on the good, the bad and the ugly last night.

First the good. Auburn’s defense held Miss. State to 36 yards rushing on 30 attempts. The “D” held Miss. State 0 for 14 on 3rd down attempts, and 0 for 3 on 4th down. They forced Miss. State to punt 10 times. The 116 yards that Mississippi State DID get was the fewest yards an Auburn defense has given up against ANYBODY since the undefeated season of 2004. And finally, Auburn won.

The bad. Auburn had 9 penalties on the offensive line, with the worst one being a safety for holding back in their own endzone. Auburn was only 3 for 16 on 3rd down efficiency. That is a measly 19%. Auburn fumbled the ball 3 times and turned it over on each one of those. Auburn got in the red zone only two times during the entire game, and could not put it in the endzone either time. And finally, Auburn was 1 for 3 on field goals, one miss being from chip shot range. I could say here that Auburn’s offense was bad....but I won’t.

The ugly. Because the offense was ugly. It was worse than bad. Snap count confusion, fumbling, holding, play calling, focus, attention, heart, drive. Frankly, or maybe “Franklin!”, it was ugly. I could write more here, but you can read about it on anyone’s blog that covers Auburn football. But there were other ugly things as well. Brad Lester’s fall on his head, spraining his neck, was ugly. He could have been seriously hurt. The fact that Ryan Pugh yelled to the Auburn faithful after the game that he scored more points than the entire Mississippi State team did (he was the one who was called for holding, hence the safety) was ugly and uncharacteristic for him. It was nothing to be proud of, and I am sure he will pay dearly for it this week in practice. And finally, LSU comes to town Saturday night. And if the offense doesn’t find itself and quick, it also will be ugly.

War Eagle
WJLaneSR