Well, that was easy. A 31-10 victory that probably wasn't as close as the score would indicate. Jordan Jefferson was the story of the night as he had a very positive game. Here are my thoughts:
- What a night by the defense. Just an absolutely dominating performance by a defensive unit that has carried this team so far this season. They did it again, holding Auburn to 194 total yards, most of which came after the game was long decided.
- Not to repeat myself, but Jordan Jefferson had an excellent game. His ATVSQBPI of 7.2 actually does not tell the story. There were a couple drops in there, and his rushes hurt his average, but he had a great game and my confidence in him has grown. We saw him run well. He put touch on his passes. He took 4 sacks, but I can't really say they were his fault this time. He got 236 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, along with positive rushing statistics, with a touchdown.
- Then again, we saw him fumble trying to get into the end zone because he was not protecting the ball. He went into a funk after that and the rest of the 2nd quarter was a dud for him.
- But then he came out of it! He struggled for a while, and then got over it. That's a big step for a quarterback.
- We finally saw Russell Shepard with an explosive play. He had a tough night until he broke off a spectacular 70 yard touchdown run from the tailback position.
- It was a good night for true freshmen all around. Reuben Randle had a terrific catch for 31 yards. Fullback Dominique Allen got his redshirt pulled and became our blocking back. Morris Claiborne got into the game a lot in the second half.
- It seems like ages ago, but back when this game was still competitive, Chris Hawkins made a spectacular interception. Then we hardly saw him again. We saw 4 cornerbacks and 5 safeties in this game, and all of them played well.
- Redshirt freshman defensive end Chase Clement had the best looking kickoff return I've seen us get this year.
- Other than Chase Clement, the return game was ho-hum, but the punt/kick coverage was outstanding, even if you don't consider the forced fumble and recovery.
- We mostly avoided bad penalties, accumulating only 48 yards against in penalties. The penalties we got were sometimes intentional delay of game penalties. We got one illegal substitution penalty, a couple encroachments, and one personal foul that was never identified on replay. i can't really complain about that too much.
- Danny McCray had a nice night, recovering two fumbles.
- It's hard to complain at all about this game. So let's complain about it. We still don't have a power running game. Charles Scott and Keiland Williams combined for 24 yards rushing on 11 carries. 1/3 of those yards came on the first play from scrimmage.
- But yeah, other than that, everything was great.