Reaction: Auburn 17, Florida 6

There was a time when a low-scoring, hard-hitting win over Florida would be celebrated as the perfect sort of game by Auburn fans. And while this edition of the Auburn-Florida rivalry was low-scoring and hard-hitting, it was because of two struggling offenses instead of a great defensive struggle. Nevertheless, Auburn winning a key SEC game, no matter how it is done, is always a big deal. The Tigers extended their winning streak at Jordan-Hare Stadium to 12 games, the longest streak of home wins since 12 straight during the 2000 and ’01 seasons. Sitting at 5-2 and with games left against Ole Miss and Samford, Auburn is essentially guaranteed no fewer than seven regular-season wins. Pulling out the win on Saturday required both the offensive and defensive players to keep their spirits high and play focused football until the final whistle. It wasn’t pretty at times, but Gene Chizik’s players kept their heads in the game just as they have so many times before.

Florida now enters panic mode. For a fanbase that has been awfully spoiled in the last 20 years, the last year and a half has been a bitter pill to swallow. The Gators have lost three straight and could very easily head into a bowl game at 6-6, which would be the worst regular-season record at Florida since a 6-5 year in 1988. The silver lining for Will Muschamp’s team is that starting quarterback John Brantley could be back in time for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on Oct. 29. If the Gators can beat the Bulldogs and ruin Georgia’s chance at an SEC East title, it would be a diamond in the rough that is the 2011 season.

Auburn won on Saturday, and that’s all that matters. The Tigers don’t have too much time to celebrate, as a date at No. 1 LSU looms on the horizon.

WHAT WENT RIGHT?

Yeah, it was against a couple of freshman QB’s, but the defense was awfully impressive. Auburn’s defense set the tone from the start when T’Sharvin Bell intercepted a long throw by Jacoby Brissett on the game’s second play from scrimmage. The next two Gator drives ended in three-and-outs, and Ted Roof’s much maligned D hounded Florida for the entire game. The Gators were held to six points, 14 first downs, 194 total yards and only converted three of 13 third-down attempts. With the Auburn offense struggling as badly as it was, it felt like the defense would only be able to hold off Florida for so long before finally giving up a possible game-tying or winning score. That never happened.

Detractors will say that Auburn’s defense only looked good against Florida because the Gators’ starting quarterback is injured. That may be the case, but keep this in mind: Auburn gave up six points to Florida. Last week, LSU’s mighty defense gave up 11 points to the Gators, who were in the same injury situation. To give no credit to Auburn’s improving defense is simply buffoonery.

The front seven finally made things happen. The reason Florida only scored six points against Auburn was because the Tigers’ D-line and linebackers came out and dominated the Gator offensive line. Led by defensive end Cory “When Life Gives You Lemons, You Make” Lemonier, Auburn recorded four sacks, eight tackles for loss and an astounding 14 quarterback hurries. Lemonier had two sacks, three tackles for loss and four hurries to go along with his six tackles. Brissett and Jeff Driskel, the other Gators QB, were constantly running for their lives, and running back Chris Rainey, the one Florida offensive player that truly struck fear into Auburn hearts, was held to 33 yards on 16 carries.

Don’t forget about the secondary. Auburn’s defensive backs played well, too. The front seven made life easier for the Tiger DBs, but when the ball was in the air, they made the necessary plays. Bell’s interception was huge for momentum and immediately hurt Brissett’s confidence. The Florida QBs made a few bad throws, but Auburn ended the day with six pass breakups, easily the most in any game this season. In the past, Auburn’s defensive backs depended on bad throws by quarterbacks. Now, they now seem to have gained the ability and confidence to keep opposing receivers from catching well-thrown passes.

For some reason, Florida punt returners forgot how to catch. In one of the more bizarre performances in recent memory, Rainey and Robert Clark attempted to return four Auburn punts and muffed the catch each time. As much as Auburn struggled returning punts in 2009 and ’10, no sort of performance in that category should shock fans on the Plains, but what Florida did on Saturday night was dumbfounding. Rainey’s first muff led to Auburn’s first touchdown. Clark’s muff late in the fourth quarter led to a Cody Parkey field goal that sealed the game with 35 seconds remaining. Without those miscues, Florida may have won the game.

Clint Moseley received an opportunity, and he provided a spark. When looking at Moseley’s final line on paper, it certainly doesn’t look special — 4 of 7, 90 yards. But after taking over for Barret Trotter at the start of the second half, Moseley played well enough to get Auburn’s offense moving. He completed a few nice passes that, frankly, wouldn’t have been completed by Trotter. His 42-yard bomb from the Auburn end zone to Quindarius Carr was a thing of beauty and allowed the Tigers to re-take control of the field-position battle. Moseley wasn’t great, but he was definitely better than Trotter, who completed two first-half passes. He’ll likely get another chance to prove himself at LSU (gulp).

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Each week, the offense just gets worse. Raise your hand if you though at any point with Gus Malzahn as offensive coordinator that Auburn would play three consecutive games without scoring 20 points. That’s right, none of you are raising your hands right now. In the last three games, Malzahn’s offense has scored 16, 14 and 17 points. Auburn compiled a measly 278 offensive yards against Florida and hasn’t gained 400 yards of offense in a game since Week 3 against Clemson. Thanks to the quarterback struggles, the playbook is getting smaller and smaller each week and Auburn’s offense becomes more and more one-dimensional and predictable. Our only hope is for Moseley to play well enough to convince Malzahn to open up the playbook. Until he does, Auburn is going to have a hard time moving the ball.

Now, we’ve got a full-blown QB controversy. It would be one thing if Moseley came in and took over the game against Florida, but as was mentioned earlier, he didn’t. He did, however, play better than Trotter has in recent weeks. Moseley has earned a start against LSU, but what happens if he plays poorly in Baton Rouge — which, against the Bengal Tigers’ defense, is about as sure a bet as you’ll find. Chizik and Gus Malzahn are going to have to decide on a quarterback this week and, barring an extenuating circumstance, stick with him for the remainder of the year. We all remember what happened in 2008 when Tommy Tuberville and Tony Franklin couldn’t decide between Chris Todd and Kodi Burns. The locker room divided into factions and the season went down in flames. In order to finish this season strong, Chizik and Malzahn can’t allow that to happen.

Parkey had his first bad day in an Auburn uniform. The sophomore sensation had been nearly infallible through the first six weeks of the season, but Auburn’s kicker wasn’t so great against Florida. Parkey’s four kickoffs didn’t have their usual oomph, and only one went for a touchback. What’s worse, Parkey was good on only 1 of 3 field goal attempts. Even with his struggles, Parkey finished strong. After a lengthy delay by the referees and a false start penalty, he easily knocked through a 42-yarder to clinch the game for Auburn. It’s nice to see that he wasn’t affected, mentally, by a couple of missed kicks.

Defensive penalties gave Florida a chance. After shooting itself in the foot with awful penalties on offense last week, the Auburn tried to do the same on defense this week. Of Florida’s 14 first downs, four came by the way of marching off penalty yards. Aside from the penalties, the Auburn D played outstanding, so it didn’t matter. But in a game in which the offense couldn’t score, those penalties could have been devastating.

The third-down offense was abysmal. Auburn was 1 of 13 on third downs against Florida. Not much else needs to be said. Executing that poorly will result in a loss nine out of 10 times. Auburn was lucky that this was the one that didn’t

THREE STARS

1. Cory Lemonier, DE — Lemonier has shown huge improvement over the past four games and is developing into the kind of defensive terror Auburn fans dreamed of when he committed to play for the Tigers on Signing Day 2010. He was the biggest difference maker against Florida.

2. Daren Bates, LB — Bates played well all over the field, compiling four tackles, two quarterback hurries, a pass breakup, a fumble recovery and a half tackle for loss. Bates had a terrible late hit out of bounds that extended a Florida drive, but other than that, he was mistake-free.

3. Steven Clark, P — Clark didn’t hit his punts as deep as last week, but he never allowed a Florida return. More importantly, his sky-scraping kicks allowed the Auburn coverage team to get in position to recover the ball when the Gator returners put it on the ground.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Auburn is 5-2 and 3-1 in SEC play and continues to leave fans and pundits scratching their heads. If this team could combine the offense from the first three weeks of the season with the defense from the last three weeks, the Tigers would be almost unbeatable. As it stands, we have an offense that is struggling to find its way and a defense that is beginning to excel to a new level. The offense should get better with the possible return of Emory Blake this week and the (hopefully) improved quarterback play of Moseley. If it doesn’t get better, Auburn is going to have a nightmare of a game in Baton Rouge. LSU opened as a 21-point favorite and will cover that spread if Malzahn doesn’t figure out a gameplan that allows his players to move the ball.

Malzahn is just going to have to trust Moseley and hope for the best. One of the recent problems is that Auburn has become so run-heavy, opposing defenses don’t have to worry at all about covering the pass. Trotter has been throwing so few passes that he hasn’t really had a chance to get in a rhythm break out of his slump. Having Moseley at quarterback gives Auburn a fresh start on offense. Malzahn needs to open up the playbook and try to stretch the field. Establishing the running game is still important, but opposing defenses have to fear the pass. If Moseley throws a few picks against LSU, Auburn won’t have a chance. But if Auburn is one-dimensional, the Tigers won’t have a chance in Baton Rouge anyway.

Mississippi State showed that LSU won’t run away from anyone that holds their own on defense. Auburn’s defense is finally playing well enough to give the offense a chance to win. Auburn has played well against pro-style running attacks and if it can stop the run in Baton Rouge, LSU will have a hard time scoring. Of course, that won’t matter if Moseley can’t play well and lead the offense to some points against LSU’s defense. It’s too early to tell if he’s up to the challenge or not, but at least he has the opportunity.

It has been frustrating, to say the least, to watch an offense that is so talented and so well-coached to struggle so mightily. The unit has been in need of a spark for a while, and Moseley getting an opportunity to play quarterback could be that spark. He took advantage of an opportunity by making some good throws against Florida. Hopefully, he can take advantage of another opportunity this weekend.