Auburn football: 2008 game reminds us that things can be worse … much worse
By Rob Maxwell
The Auburn football team plays Mississippi State on Saturday in Starkville. You’ve been seeing references to the dreadful 3-2 game in 2008 on Twitter all week and it’s only Wednesday.
There will be more. If you attended that game or watched it on TV, it really was something.
It made the 2011 LSU 9-6 win against Alabama look like an outright shootout.
But seriously, it was bad. It wasn’t like a 1-0 pitcher’s duel in baseball. No, it was not that at all.
This game has gone down as one of the all-time worst. Not just for Auburn or for Mississippi State, but for college football.
This is the anti-Kick Six.
Must Read. Maybe some lineup changes will be good for Auburn. light
And would you be surprised to find out that the offensive performance that night by the Tigers in Davis Wade Stadium wasn’t all that different from what the 2018 Tigers have done on offense the past three games?
Auburn totaled 315 yards of offense that night.
In the past three weeks, Auburn has 341, 225 and 328 yards.
So we thought it would be fun — c’mon, it was 10 years ago and Auburn won that game — to dig up some of the numbers just to see how bad it really was that night.
Behind the numbers
116: That’s the total number of yards Mississippi State compiled. That’s 78 passing plus 38 rushing. The Bulldogs ran 55 plays.
66: The number of yards the two teams combined to lose running the ball. Now, before you think “that’s all yards lost on sacks,” take a look: 19 of those yards came on sacks. So on other running plays, 47 yards were lost.
3 for 16: Auburn’s third-down conversion rate was not good. Auburn’s first conversion game midway through the third quarter when Chris Todd hit Montez Billings for 31 yards on third-and-8. The biggest conversion of the night came on third-and-8 at the Auburn 20 late in the fourth quarter. Ben Tate reeled off a 39-yard run and the Tigers were able to run out the clock. If you think that’s a bad stat for Auburn …
0 for 14: Mississippi State didn’t convert a single third down. Not one. Not much else we can say about that.
16: Both teams had 16 possessions in the game. Auburn had seven drives that lasted three plays or less. The longest drive was an 8-play, 58-yard one that resulted in a missed field goal. Mississippi State also had seven possessions with three or less plays, but 13 of their drives lasted four plays or less. The Bulldogs’ longest drive? Five plays for 22 yards.
0: Mississippi State ran 12 plays in Auburn territory, all coming in the second half. The Bulldogs totaled 0 yards on those plays. Auburn fumbled on its opening possession of the third quarter and MSU took over on the 32. The Bulldogs lost 4 yards, but gained 15 on a penalty. The end result: missed field goal. Their four possessions in Auburn territory totaled (-4), 9, 0 and (-5) yards.
4.4: Average yards per play for Auburn. Ben Tate averaged 4.6 yards per rush, Brad Lester 5.7 and Tristan Davis 5.8. But Todd’s minus-19 total brought down the final average.
Todd completed 14-of-26 passes for 154 yards and no interceptions. Tate had 92 yards on 20 carries and Billings caught three passes for 68 yards.
That 3-2 victory moved Auburn to 3-0 on the season. But things went downhill, especially for the offense. Auburn lost five of its next six games and its total offense numbers were:
320 (26-21 loss to LSU)
226 (14-12 win vs. Tennessee)
208 (14-13 loss to Vanderbilt)
193 (25-22 loss to Arkansas)
260 (34-17 loss to West Virginia)
394 (17-7 loss to Ole Miss)
Next. 10 players who have been better than expected. dark
So, see, things can get worse. Much worse.
Let’s hope this Auburn football team gets things straightened out, starting Saturday night in Starkville.