The Auburn tigers traveled to Fixer-Upperville Texas to take on the Baylor Bears in what I thought would be a defensive affair. I thought Baylor would win. Was I ever wrong.
Why was I wrong though? Well, because of Jackson Arnold’s legs. He scrambled, he ran designed runs to perfection, ran option plays to perfection, took on contact, outran guys, everything a good running QB needs. He looked like a mixture of Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel. Truly a great performance on the ground. If someone had told me that he would have over 140 rushing yards, I would have been assured of an Auburn victory.
On the flipside, if someone told me that Cam Coleman would manage only a singular catch, I would have been assured of a Baylor victory. In the wild world of College Football, these two can co-exist. However, this does raise concerns about the Auburn pass game. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and buy that they were taking an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach since the running game was hitting to perfection all night, but what little we saw from the passing game was not encouraging. I was not expecting Jackson Arnold to take any significant strides in that facet of the game, and he did not. That is something that may rear its ugly head in SEC play.
Defensively, Auburn of course did a great job in the red zone early in the game. Two trips to the red zone in the first quarter resulted in a total of three points. Every coach in America would take that. What gives me cause for concern with their defense is tackling. Baylor has great playmakers who can play through contact, but Auburn’s tackling was abysmal. Very rarely did the first man to make contact make the tackle. It’s week 1, so no final judgment can be passed, but they cannot continue tackling like this the rest of the season.
On special teams, Carlson’s health is something to keep an eye on. That has a massive impact on the kicking game. Also, that kick return by Pleasant was absolutely electrifying. I believe he can continue to make a massive impact for the Tigers.
For Baylor, they’ve got to figure out how to stop the run and punch it in when they get in the red zone. That sounds simple enough, but they’ve got to figure it out before conference play. I doubt they’ll give up 300 again, but there are plenty of good backs in the Big 12 who could give Baylor a hard time. My picking of Baylor actually stemmed from a belief that if they sold out to stop the run, Jackson would have to beat them with his arm. Instead, he beat them with his legs.
Baylor still has every one of their hopes alive for the season. Nothing is off the table for them and they completely control their destiny. For Auburn, this justifies an offseason worth of smack talking, and I’m sure they’re ready to get in into SEC play and see what these guys are really made of.
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