🏈 Cam says he can't be stopped.

[gumboman]

Nobody stopped Tebow either, and we had him CRYING on the sidelines after we handed his a$$ to him on national television. Good luck, convict!

 

[AlabamaAubKiller]

Just curious. Why does Cam get to celebrate in front of his fans and not get flagged? Tebow used to do the same thing,and I think I saw him get flagged ONCE in his entire career. Bugs me that certain players have different rules or actually no rules. But that's another topic for another time.

No...that's a damn good question and one i'd like to have answerd.
So i've called Sylvia Barnes (SEC Associate Dir. of Officiating) to find out.
I'm wating on her to return my call. I'm going to get an answer to this by the end of the week
one way or another.

 

[BigAl]

The truth of the matter is he hasnt played a team with a real good defense yet and wont until he plays Alabama. I will say this , if Alabama dont beat the cow college nobody will.

 

[bamatommy]

Arrogance is a key ingredient in humble pie; to be served at a future date.

:td:

 

[bamatommy]

Very possibly. Auburn has looked really good. But not invincible. The SEC only has a few really good teams this year----Alabama, Auburn and LSU have one loss or less, but several SEC teams have two and three losses.

 

[reger60]

I watched the interview. Confident? Yes. Arrogant? Not really. To be fair, the kid has every reason to be confident. He has run wild over every team he's faced. (Of course, he hasn't faced them all yet.)

That being said, I'm equally as confident in our defense that are team that will stop him.

 

[shipley00]

The truth of the matter is he hasnt played a team with a real good defense yet and wont until he plays Alabama. I will say this , if Alabama dont beat the cow college nobody will.

I would have to say LSU has a real good defense. Unfortunately, they have a crazy idot for a HC. They did not stray from their standard defense during the game. They played AU straight up, and there is nothing straight up with AU or Cam. It's a unique Offesne with a very very athletic QB. They should have used their athletes to spy on the QB full time. They did not. I trust AL will not make that mistake. If Newton beats us with his arm, then hats off. If we don't scheme to take away his scrambles and rushing plays, then shame on us.

 

[RollTideinGA]

I watched the interview. Confident? Yes. Arrogant? Not really. To be fair, the kid has every reason to be confident. He has run wild over every team he's faced. (Of course, he hasn't faced them all yet.)

That being said, I'm equally as confident in our defense that are team that will stop him.

I have to disagree. The difference between the two is a fine line. You can have confidence in yourself that you cant be stopped. Its arrogant to say you cant be stopped. I havent seen anyone from Oregon on TV saying no one can stop their offense. And no one has.

And forget a bye week. Imagine what a good defense can do when they have a month to plan for that Auburn "attack".

 

[psychojoe]

As the old hall of fame baseball player Dizzy Dean said, "If you can do it, it ain't braggin'." So far he has backed it up every week.

 

[Duder]

Just curious. Why does Cam get to celebrate in front of his fans and not get flagged? Tebow used to do the same thing,and I think I saw him get flagged ONCE in his entire career. Bugs me that certain players have different rules or actually no rules. But that's another topic for another time.

I haven't noticed him doing much DURING the game, immediately after a play, etc. towards the fans--that includes several trips to JHS this year. I may well have missed something but most of the fan stuff is after the game.

As the old hall of fame baseball player Dizzy Dean said, "If you can do it, it ain't braggin'." So far he has backed it up every week.

Speaking as a former athlete, I love this kind of stuff.

To those calling him arrogant--His confidence in his ability, and at times his arm strength, has certainly helped his productivity this year. That being said, it was obvious that he wasn't prepared for that kind of question and just said the first thing that popped into his head. Of course most successful athletes think/know you cannot completely scheme them out of a game. I don't think he went as far as arrogance--I look to examples such as Chris Johnson, Chad Johnson, T.O., etc for true arrogance. I don't think he meant it the way it came across but words can only be taken at face value. In EVERY other interview this season he's spoken highly of his teammates, coaches and faith. When they asked him about the Heisman he said he didn't like talking about it because it would be selfish of him to discuss the Heisman when the team has a realistic shot at winning it all this year. He obviously could've, and should've, answered the question differently but to look at that statement and call him arrogant--completely ignoring the rest of what he's said this year is a bit short-sighted. Of course, all of this is a waste of breath--most of you will slam him regardless of what he says or does.

 

[psychojoe]

Duder, I get into quotes like that myself. There is a well known one in the Alabama family. Joe namath never said anything outlandish for publication while he was at Alabama, but I'll never forgey his bravado before Super Bowl III when he guaranteed the Jets would beat the heavily favored Colts. He backed up his words too. That was part of what made him a great quarterback IMO. I know his Alabama teammates said of him that if they had the ball late in a game needing a score there was no doubt in their mind that Namath would get them down the field.

 

[UAgrad93]

He is a confident young man that is playing very well game in and game out. Things are working well for him. I listen to him talk and I hear confidence not arrogance. I think some of us may feel that he is being crammed down our throats like Tebow was for so long and therefore, they think arrogance. If you can talk the talk and walk the walk, then by all means do it.

 

[ExiledTidefan]

So, I've heard a few good ideas about how to hopefully control this cat from running all over us. Is it going to be a 2 man spy defense, with zone downfield and man to man otherwise? Seems like man defense gets you too spread out, as their receivers are typically running out of a spread formation to begin with. This opens up all kinds of lanes and open field for this guy to work with.

You can't overblitz and have him step up into an open gap of grass. You can't underblitz and give him time to scan the field and decide to throw, and have him beat you with his arm, or decide to run, and have him outleg you for 10-20 yards.

Someone is going to find a way to stop him. I'd like to review what LSU did that showed some level of success, if anything. From the stats, it sure doesn't look like anything they did worked. What about Miss State? At least they kept the score down, but it was so early in the year, perhaps the offense at Auburn hadn't had an opportunity to get itself figured out yet.

So what is the answer?

 

[psychojoe]

Something similar to what we did with Tebow last year where we control the gaps and don't rush deeper than he drops. He is much less dangerous in the pocket than in a broken field. We'll have to stay disciplined on defense.

 

[Duder]

So, I've heard a few good ideas about how to hopefully control this cat from running all over us. Is it going to be a 2 man spy defense, with zone downfield and man to man otherwise? Seems like man defense gets you too spread out, as their receivers are typically running out of a spread formation to begin with. This opens up all kinds of lanes and open field for this guy to work with.

You can't overblitz and have him step up into an open gap of grass. You can't underblitz and give him time to scan the field and decide to throw, and have him beat you with his arm, or decide to run, and have him outleg you for 10-20 yards.

Someone is going to find a way to stop him. I'd like to review what LSU did that showed some level of success, if anything. From the stats, it sure doesn't look like anything they did worked. What about Miss State? At least they kept the score down, but it was so early in the year, perhaps the offense at Auburn hadn't had an opportunity to get itself figured out yet.

So what is the answer?

Best post of the thread so far. I can answer a couple of your questions.

Mississippi State had the luxury of playing Auburn very early in the season. The offense didn't really start to "click" until late in the Clemson game and then in the South Carolina game. Auburn's total YPG are:

Arkansas State 608 (obviously a gimme)

Mississippi State- 348. Call me a homer if you must, but part of this stat line can be blamed on the fact it was early in the season. Our first SEC game and on the road against a very jacked up Mississippi State team. The offense just looked out of sync. State had a solid defense and part of me feels like Mullen may have had a much better scouting report on Cam because of their past together. The play calling was vastly different from the first half to the second half. Malzahn found out on this Thursday night that Newton didn't have the grasp on the offense it appeared in practice. Newton rushed several bad throws and threw a pick late in the first half--at that point Malzahn sort of shut it down and just got through the game with enough points to win it. We still had to rely on the defense late. State's defense played sound football and were much better than I'd given them credit for--that coupled with Auburn misfiring was damn-near a recipe for disaster. This game doesn't bother me as much now that State is actually ranked and playing pretty decent football.

Clemson 424, USCjr 492, ULM 505, Kentucky 521, Arkansas 470, LSU 526, Ole Miss 576.

As for LSU's strategy--they played sound gap assignment football early. Early in the game it worked very well. Newton was limited and the offense was sputtering. They were very confident with their secondary and it seemed like they pretty much dedicated their front seven to stopping the run. Our first touchdown came on a 54 yard drive because of Etheridge's interception. So on our first four drives we punted the ball, scored a touchdown, missed a field goal and hit a field goal--in that order. The problem with their strategy was it is difficult to maintain. Eventually Newton found a few running lanes or made plays happen and chipped away at the yardage. When that started it felt like the flood gates opened. LSU became more aggressive as they became frustrated instead of sticking to the strategy that kept them in the game to that point. Newton ran the ball 28 times against LSU. Most of his runs were straight forward allowing him to create, not much in the way of misdirection. Dyer was still nursing a weak knee so he didn't get as many carries as he probably would have otherwise. Newton generated just enough passing yards to keep them honest. Even the incompletions found open receivers so LSU had to stay somewhat honest as Malzahn showed the willingness to throw it if necessary. What it amounted to is LSU lost their composure as he found little creases and it just snowballed on them. We still only scored 24 points. Ten points in the first half, 14 in the second. We had several drives that still stalled. We punted three times, turned it over on downs once, Fannin fumbled and Byrum missed a field goal. LSU does have a talented defense. Yes, we gashed them but most of those yards came in the second half--they played field position well for the most part but two of our drives in the second half accounted for 181 of our total yardage. Hell the Cam and McCalebb runs covered 120 of our 440 rushing alone.

If you look at the play-by-play breakdown there were a ton of runs where Newton had less than ten yards on the carry. Malzahn knows he has a special player and will keep going back to the well and chip away at the defense's resolve and their conditioning. LSU did OK with Cam early but once we had a lead they kept pinning us deep; I don't think there was too much concern about them outscoring us so the offense became grind it out and give the D time to rest so they don't give up a big play. LSU had the right idea, and maybe if someone with a more talented defense tried it they would be more successful. It will be difficult to keep him contained for an entire football game. Staying disciplined is the key, it is also the hardest thing to do once he starts actively looking for running room. D-line play will also be important. I've read several references to the strategy that worked on Tebow last year but I'm not entirely sure that would be the magic bullet. Most of Cam's runs come between the tackles. If your DEs get into the backfield and force him up into the pocket and anyone on your D-line loses their battle in the trenches you've pretty much forced him into his strength.

I'm sure there is a DC somewhere that will have the knowledge and talent to figure it out. Bama has a pretty talented defense but they have appeared shaky at times. Auburn will probably try to establish the run game early to avoid putting the ball in the air too much, or if nothing else to draw your DBs eyes into the backfield. Regardless, I'm sure Malzahn knows your secondary leads the nation in picks. Contrary to what has been said in several threads, I actually think LSU did have a really good defense. They just got worn down and lost the battle in the trenches. Our o-line is very, very underrated this year. At the end of the day the same type of strategy employed against Bama--squatting the secondary in zone close to the line, playing sound gap assignment football and when necessary loading against the run will be a piece of the formula to success. Don't try to take kill shots on him or get pretty tackling him--wrap up and hold on for help.

 

[Duder]

Something similar to what we did with Tebow last year where we control the gaps and don't rush deeper than he drops. He is much less dangerous in the pocket than in a broken field. We'll have to stay disciplined on defense.

Discipline is your ticket. I'm not sold on the Tebow defense working as well against Cam; I know you said similar. I'm just curious as to how that would look. It feels like it would have to be a completely different scheme. Newton doesn't break outside the pocket laterally that often--the Tebow scheme was meant to avoid him getting outside. Newton often runs up the middle, which is why I say +1 on your discipline quote.

 

[Billie Bob]

The University of Florida campus police sure stopped him in his tracks.

 

[RollTideinGA]

Duder, I get into quotes like that myself. There is a well known one in the Alabama family. Joe namath never said anything outlandish for publication while he was at Alabama, but I'll never forgey his bravado before Super Bowl III when he guaranteed the Jets would beat the heavily favored Colts.

Eh, totally different situation in my opinion. Everyone had the Colts beating the Jets and basically giving them no shot. Joe simply said that to boost the morale/fire in his team. He was saying he was confident in his TEAM beating the Colts. Not saying he was going to beat the Colts. And I'm sorry but you gotta love that coming from any underdog, especially when they back it up.