Since no one broke it down...

[Godfather]

What the hell, I come back today expecting some breakdowns and got squat.  So after much deliberation and watching the game twice here are my takeaways.

We won the game, happy about that.  Washington is a good team, I wouldn't be surprised to see them avg 40 points a game the rest of the way.

I will start with the good:
This Defense is downright NASTY.  Derrick Brown looks like a man playing against boys out there.  DLine Outstanding job, pressured Browning all damn day, the difference in the game.  Because you give Browning time he will pick you apart. 
Linebackers... same A+ .... flock to the ball....speed.
Defensive Backs - Played well at times, and played well when it mattered.  Young guys need to get their heads around more.  

The Bad:
We were all right about the offensive line. I thought they played fairly well on passing, but they got zero push on rushing situations.  Running lanes were far and few between.
Rushing game - Kam I don't believe can make his living running up the middle.  I like what I see of BooBee I thought he should have played more.  Looked much stronger than Kam.  
Playcalling continues to boggle in the red zone.
Stidham continues to hold on to the ball way too long, I thought he played well, but honestly didn't see the growth I was expecting from last year.  Still saw a lot of open receivers missed and holding on to the ball.

Musings:
I am hoping that some of the offensive line woes are attributable to Washington having a good DL I know they were highly touted.
Browning is a hell of a QB, don't get the Washington fans giving him shit.  IMO Browning > Stidham
JB Grimes will get the OLine unfucked I believe in him.
Sal Canoli held onto a ball...for a touchdown!!!  Why we don't utilize his size more is beyond me.
Note to whoever is calling the Auburn plays more crossing routes...they work.
Kevin Steele I salute you, sir! Calling an all-out blitz on 4th down with the game on the line.  These are the big balls we have been waiting for.
Let's see some other running backs! More jet sweep with Shaun Shivers  (dat boy is fast).

That's all I got for now.

[wesfau2]

Agree with pretty much all of that.

I think that Wash defense is sneaky good and we're quite a bit better offensively than we looked.

[Saniflush]

Kevin Steele I salute you, sir! Calling an all-out blitz on 4th down with the game on the line.  These are the big balls we have been waiting for.

Good summary from the replay I watched and I am happy as hell to see Steele tell them to pin their ears back and come after him.  If you have the horses you run them.

[GH2001]

Good summary from the replay I watched and I am happy as hell to see Steele tell them to pin their ears back and come after him.  If you have the horses you run them.

Make em where they can’t sleep on the plane!!

[The Prowler]

The play calling is what irritated me the most. Washington has a 1800lb DT #99, Gaines. Auburn has a 5'9" 190lb RB. What's the plan of attack? Dive right at the human wall and then mix it up by calling more dives...smh

[WiregrassTiger]

TL;DR

SMH

[Buzz Killington]

I will start with the good:
This Defense is downright NASTY.  Derrick Brown looks like a man playing against boys out there.  DLine Outstanding job, pressured Browning all damn day, the difference in the game.  Because you give Browning time he will pick you apart. 
Linebackers... same A+ .... flock to the ball....speed.
Defensive Backs - Played well at times, and played well when it mattered.  Young guys need to get their heads around more.

Agree on all counts.  I was poo poo'ed when I said the DBs would be the only weak link of this defense.  The sheer fact that my Hewitt boy, Igbo, won the starting CB spot as a true Sophomore switching over from WR was the first hint...

[Buzz Killington]

The play calling is what irritated me the most. Washington has a 1800lb DT #99, Gaines. Auburn has a 5'9" 190lb RB. What's the plan of attack? Dive right at the human wall and then mix it up by calling more dives...smh

 I don't see the issue here.



Signed,


Gustav Malzahn

[Snaggletiger]

Defense:  What GF said.  Held #6 to 16 points.  Kudos.

Offense:  O-line was suspect at best; however, I harken back (Just wanted to use "harken" in casual conversation) to the Clamsum game last year.  Anyone recall 11 sacks?  Honk if you sacked Jarrett.  Saturday's performance was a steamrolling compared to that abortion.  Still, a ton of improvement needed. 

Stidham:  I've heard so many talking heads project the guy as a late first or early second rounder.  I'm thinking they aren't saying that right now.  Not that he did badly.  It's just that at this point, to my totally untrained eye, he looks like the dreaded "system QB."  He needs to know exactly where he's going with it when it touches his hands.  Don't get me wrong.  Love the guy.  Great arm.  Accurate.  Makes all the throws.  But if option #1 ain't there, the play usually breaks down.  Now having said that, he made quite a few good plays taking off when it did break down.  My hope is that UDub's defensive backs were as advertised.  Probably a little of both.

Play Calling:  Guess who got way too involved Saturday?

[The Prowler]

Play Calling:  Guess who got way too involved Saturday?

The one that continued to call for dive plays right at King Kong Bundy, with one of our smallest RBs.

[Snaggletiger]

One other note.  12 penalties for 111 yards. 

[WiregrassTiger]

One other note.  12 penalties for 111 yards. 

This averages like 9.25 yards per penalty. There is no penalty for 9.25 yards in football. How would they even step that off?

Add math to the list of things that you know little of. You dumb fuck.

[chinook]

not sure our punting unit was much an improvement.  outside of that special teams played good.    

Carlson will be fine...big stage jitters, hopefully.  

i'm comfortable with the OL play...and the unit will just get stronger as the weeks roll by.  i expect we'll see more Boobies.

[The Prowler]

not sure our punting unit was much an improvement.  outside of that special teams played good.   

Carlson will be fine...big stage jitters, hopefully. 

i'm comfortable with the OL play...and the unit will just get stronger as the weeks roll by.  i expect we'll see more Boobies.

I agree, Boobie looked better than Kammie Kam. OLine play will get better. The pass protection was pretty good...the run blocking needs to improve some. The only glaring weakness, IMO, was the secondary, of course some of that is due to the fact that Jack Browning is better than a handful NFL QBs now.

So, start "Boobie" and throw in "Kammie" and maybe "Aston Martin", have the OLine gel a little more, throw to Seth Williams a few more times a game...maybe teach the CBs to turn their heads instead of clobbering the WR before the ball gets there, only to have them somehow still catch the fuckin thing. I mean, come on, if you're going to interfere, do it so that there's no way the reciever catches the ball.

[jmar]

I'm happy for the opening win and agree with GF's take and the rest of you.
Don't care for the multiple dive plays with our unproven line but the only way to find out what you have against a quality defensive front is to keep trying to test them. So maybe our line is not too bad.

Actually the Husky db's were considered top notch as well, most experienced in their conference.

Was happy to see Cox getting some throws. Lindsey and Gus need to get Schwartz out of the redzone offense.
We have the receivers to get it done in that area.

*Hate that ode to Chip Kelly two point fail. Have we ever made one?

[AUTiger1]

Finally got around to watching the replay.  Disagree with Gus got too involved.  Go youtbube an Arizona St game....looked an awful lot like their O when Chip was there. 

[GH2001]

Finally got around to watching the replay.  Disagree with Gus got too involved.  Go youtbube an Arizona St game....looked an awful lot like their O when Chip was there.

I think its automatic reaction when the O starts stalling. Myself included. Do I know if he actually did? Nope. Probably didnt, as you eluded to. I do know we were doing a lot of the same things that were working initially, but UW made some serious adjustments. Seams werent there like they were. Gaps were getting filled. They were dropping 8 guys regularly. Credit where due to UW. 

[wesfau2]

I think its automatic reaction when the O starts stalling. Myself included. Do I know if he actually did? Nope. Probably didnt, as you eluded to. I do know we were doing a lot of the same things that were working initially, but UW made some serious adjustments. Seams werent there like they were. Gaps were getting filled. They were dropping 8 guys regularly. Credit where due to UW.

I tend to agree with this take.  The UW defense was legit and stymied most of our bread and butter plays once they got accustomed to the speed.

I feel like Gus's meddling has been much more obvious in the past.  Like when he was holding a play sheet over his mouth and barking orders into his headset.

[Snaggletiger]

That wasn't speculation.

[GH2001]

I tend to agree with this take.  The UW defense was legit and stymied most of our bread and butter plays once they got accustomed to the speed.

I feel like Gus's meddling has been much more obvious in the past.  Like when he was holding a play sheet over his mouth and barking orders into his headset.

I’ll admit I didn’t see him do that once Saturday. I think I wanted to believe that because human nature demands a boogie man when things don’t go right. I’m tending to lean towards the “2 days to think about it” theory instead.