"Kill anyone today?"
"Day ain't over yet."
--City Slickers
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Oh, I shouldn't compare this Auburn team in any shape, form, or fashion to Jack Palance or Jack Palance's character Curly. Palance and Curly are men's men, who chew sandstone like chewing gum and hunt game with nothing more than their steely glare and would never, ever throw a deep fade to the end zone on 4th-and-2 from the opponent's 21 with 4:17 to play.
But until Saturday, the secret feeling 'round these parts ever since that bitter, miserable second half against Vanderbilt was that Auburn's 2008 campaign was finished. The season was done. It had contracted a case of DEATH. Sure, there were games to play. Sure, we'd watch the underclassmen for improvement, for reasons to believe 2009 would be better. And sure, above all, there was Tubby-watch and the lingering hope--with Tubby, there's always some level of hope, isn't there?--that Auburn would catch lightning-in-a-bottle-made-of-opponent's-turnovers and stumble into victory.
But 5-7 was what we had to expect. 5-7 was what, barring Tubby pixie dust, we were going to get. The offense we saw against Vanderbilt and the spreading rot on the defense we saw take hold against Arkansas ... by that point, the ship had sailed. The die was cast. The sun had set.
Not so much now. There was a glimmer against Ole Miss. Maybe a further glimmer in Kodi Burns's dynamism (if nothing else) against UT-Martin. Now it's pretty clear the sun's been up all along. Oh, it's been hugging the horizon, and of course it may still set on a 5-7 record and Tubby in a mess of hot water. No doubt about that.
But the day ain't over yet.
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Why am I sounding a note of optimism after a game Auburn had half-a-dozen chances to win and didn't? After what might have been the worst special teams performance yet in a season haunted at every turn by poor special teams play? After a game in which our opponent gift-wrapped victory and handed it to Auburn in person, only Auburn thought they were playing Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa or however you call it and exchanged the victory for the package where every pass into the end zone hits the ground?
A ton of reasons:
--Between Burns still slicing-and-dicing his way for the occasional four or five yards, Mario Fannin threatening to return the word "super" to the beginning of his name, and Ben Tate actually succeeding in his daring "two steps backward, three steps forward" plan, Auburn had something that kinda sorta looked like a successful rushing attack against a defense that doesn't suck. 3.4 yards-a-carry isn't much, but it's a step in the right direction.
--That step took place in part because the offensive line got something resembling a push up front from time to time. The pass-protection (up until the very final play of the game, anyway) continued its relatively sharp form from the Ole Miss game, unless you really want to complain about giving up one sack to a team that tried to unleash Rennie Curran on the QB from time to time. This? Also a step.
--The first quarter excluded, the linebackers started tackling again. The defensive line started occasionally pushing people around again. The opponent wanted no part of throwing towards Jerraud Powers again and Walt McFadden was in people's faces again. The defense, in short, looked like the defense that choked the life out of teams in the early part of the season ... again. It's a step.
--A deficit of one first down, 19 to 20. A deficit of only 50 total yards, 303 to 351. Step.
--A lead in the fourth quarter. Step. A handful of attempts at the end zone to win the game. Step.
Over the past three weeks, this team has moved forward. Not enough to defeat a team like Georgia, unfortunately. But they have gone from not moving the ball to moving it but turning it over to moving it and turning it over on downs. From breaking to bending but-not-always-breaking to mostly just bending.
I don't know if these steps will be enough to win a week from Saturday or not. But after a season spent watching Auburn dash after its own tail, I will take these steps.
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Auburn did not lose this game so much as the field goal unit lost the game. Clayton Crofoot drops an extra point, the first out-and-out drop by an Auburn holder in what's got to be eons. Byrum misses another field goal. For want of a nail the rider was lost, and for want of those points two other drives that should end in field goal attempts end in passes launched fruitlessly into the end zone. Even if we assume one of those two hypothetical field goals is missed--an exceedingly fair assumption at this point--the one that was made plus the four lost points from earlier would equal 20 points.
Yes, the offense could have either made that first field goal attempt easier in a driving wind. Yes, they could have made them academic by scoring a touchdown on the two late drives. (For the record, the call to Billings on 4th-and-2 I'm not too troubled by; if Burns makes a better throw there, that's a touchdown. But why not have him take off on 3rd- or 4th-and-1 on the final possession? Maybe he scores a la Clemson. But as long as he makes the first--and as spread out as Georgia was, he would have--there's time to spike the ball and get yer shot, maybe two, at the end zone.) Yes, the rest of the special teams units were scarcely any better.
But the offense did enough to put 20 points on the board and the defense held Georgia to 17. There are many more steps to be taken, but the biggest one has to be taken on this unit.
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Because we are Auburn and they are Alabama and Alabama happens to be the No. 1 team in the country and Auburn has beaten them six consecutive times, Georgia--much as I want to beat them--was never going to be more than a sort of convoluted dramatic prelude, the first half of a special two-part season finale.
What kind of TV show are we talking about? Coming in, I thought it would be some "Wire"-like gritty HBO Original series, maybe part 1 demoralizing us even further before some brief flicker of hope in a competitive first half in part 2 before we Auburn fans all learn how truly cruel the world can be. Now? Maybe it's the TV version of Rocky, where the plucky underdog first learns from his setbacks before gaining a newfound dignity and respect in a slim, uplifting defeat.
Or, maybe, it's the same old cliched crap, where the sports team starts off cocky, loses in stunning fashion, loses again, grows, gets better, takes steps, and finally puts everything together in the biggest game of the year and wins in dramatic, crazy fashion and the previous no-account quarterback gets the standing ovation and the girl and everything's swell. It's been done a million times before. But that's because we can't help but love it every time. That's how The Story goes. And maybe that's what Auburn and Alabama are caught up in right now. If you squint and tilt your head a certain way, it kind of looks it, doesn't it? And it doesn't work if Auburn beats Georgia. It just doesn't. The Story doesn't have two wins in the biggest games of the year.
Like the rest of you, I cursed up a storm when Stafford took that last knee and had to resist drinking my brain to goo and sighed and sighed and sighed that 11 games in, Auburn still hasn't killed anyone that matters this season. But hey--they day ain't over yet, and maybe, just maybe, that's a good thing.
2 comments:
"The Story cannot have 2 wins."
I have the exact same feeling. After getting over the urge to throw my guts up and break inanimate objects immediately following the Georgia game, I was greeted by an unexpected feeling of calm as if I knew what was going to happen next. Watching MSU finally fade into the night just confirmed it even more. I even went as far on Sunday as to really trash talk some bewildered Alabama fans (one of which is my wife) and proceeded to tell them of the beating that awaits them in 2 weeks in T-Town with matter of fact authority. They were stunned amongst laughter. For the first time this year I saw that spark that makes us Auburn and it gave me some momentary relief of all that has been so wrong this year. Even in defeat. Evidently this was somehow missed by many of the internet experts judging my some of the opinions I've read. How can this be? How can true Auburn fans continue to spew venom after seeing the effort put forth by our boys on Saturday (at 11:30 no less). After Vandy and Arkansas, or even the WVU game, I totally understand where that's coming from. But to watch that Georgia game and still continue to render such hate is beyond me. Guess it may have something to do with the fact that it mainly comes from a group of people so enamored with themselves that grown men call each other "HOTTIES". You people know who you are. Get behind our team or go pull for somebody else.
War Damn Eagle.
AU99
Sometimes, you just have to believe.
You all know the history; six wins in a row, unbeaten in Tuscaloosa, an undefeated and untied opponent, our worst nightmare of a season.
The odds against us are as long as they ever have been. How will the team react? How will they overcome this challenge and repeat what has been acheived by superior teams and players in the past?
I don't have an answer, but I do have a story about prior achievement impacting the immediate present....
In 1940 a British Army unit had endured weeks of punishing attacks by German armor and aircraft during thier fighting retreat in Belgium. On the eve of their scheduled evacuation from Dunkirk, they were pulled out and sent to defend a critical sector so that other units could be evacuated. Despite being promised to be embarked, they ended up fighting as a rear guard until the end.
A more morale-killing and impossible set of circumstances cannot be imagined for a relatively green unit that had not fought in a war in 22 years. And yet....
The unit repeatedly held off attacks of overwhelming odds during the course of the week-long evacuation from Dunkirk. When they were finally cut off and forced to surrender, they numbered less than a third of their original compliment, an unbelievable acheivement (most modern combat units lose all cohesion when they lose 30% of their strength). The German officers who accepted their surrender voiced their admiration for the determination and courage displayed.
In 1958, a young officer joined the regiment and asked one of the survivors about the battle.
'When I asked how it was that, despite not having been in action since 1918, the regiment had fought so well at Calais in 1940, helping to enable Dunkirk, I was told by one who was there that it was:'
"Because the regiment had always fought well. Everyone fought well, for and with each other,..
...because they were among friends."
(General David Ramsbotham, Baron Ramsbotham GCB CBE, discussing the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regiment's actions during the Battle of Dunkirk.)
"But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;"
Henry V
C'mon team. You can do this. War Eagle. Beat Bama.
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