Post Game Thoughts: Our Chickens Came Home To Roost

The world is wide and the faithful tide
Returns to the welcome sands ;
It 's often true that the work we do

Conies back to its maker's hands.
And every man knows the wondrous plan

By creation introduced :
Be it soon or late, at a certain date,

The chickens come home to roost.

Be careful, then, ye sons of men,

What reckless words ye say ;
Be they good or ill, your sayings will

On your threshold stand some day.
You 'll bear the blame, for all the shame

Was by your lips produced ;
You 'll know it then, and feel it when

Your chickens come home to roost.

Many a time you 've dipped in slime

The name of a modest maid ;
With scandal's dirt you've fouled her skirt

And made her soul afraid.
Your evil tongues have snapped the rungs

Till the ladder of fame was loosed,
But you 'll get your pay at the close of day

When the chickens come home to roost.

The words you say are hidden away
On the fateful judgment shelf ;

You 'll yield your breath in a fearful death
'Neath the wall you Ve built yourself.

Be careful, then, ye sons of men,

When the shadows are all unloosed,

For soon or late you must face your fate
When your chickens come home to roost.

-Robert Kirkland Kernighan

Normally I look at the box score when I put these together, but I'm not going to bother with this game, so this is straight off the top of my head.

This loss has been weeks in the making. Every single demon we've faced this year, bad play calling, poor defense, relying too much on johnny to be johnny and for our OL to be perfect....well it all came back to bite us square in the ass. Kudos to Auburn. They played a helluva game. Their coaching staff put together a damn near perfect game plan. Hats off to Gus Malzahn. He got himself a signature win.

Positives: Mike Evans is the best receiver to ever put on an A&M uniform. We will never see anything like him again.

Fake field goal was damn sexy. Kudos to Jeff Banks for drawing that up.

Now onto the rest of it.

Offense

Again, another week, disjointed. Odd play calls. Tempo was off. Expecting Johnny to win every single game. Not committing to using our best players in a fashion that makes sense. Too much confidence in our OL to be perfect.

All of that came back. Johnny, aside from that final drive, had an off day throwing the ball. Auburn did an excellent job keying on the run, and they pretty much took that away (for the most part). Trey/Tra had fantastic days but were never allowed to get into a rhythm running the ball, even though it was working...for god sakes it was working. Our offensive line struggled with Auburn's pass rush...and every position took their lumps--both tackles and guards. At one point I'm fairly positive that every single player on our OL got beat in one way, shape, or form.

Defense

I mean what can be said that hasn't already been said? I thought they played their best...note that I'm not condoning their play, but I thought we played to the best of our ability, and to the best of our scheme. I dont know why we were in nickel with a FB and a TE in the game. I don't know why we didnt figure out how to cover the wheel route and got burnt, not once, but twice in the game. I really don't know. I'm sure personnel is part of the issue, but our defense has huge systemic issues. We do not play sound assignment football.

Auburn was the better coached team today, which makes me really sad to say, because I dont think that they are more talented than we are. We simply got outcoached on both sides of the ball. We think too much. When Johnny goes out, and we're on the 2 yard line, why do we expect a QB who hasnt thrown the ball all game to throw to a TE who hasnt caught the ball all game? Why not fire off with Tra and hope for the best?

This loss is hard to swallow mainly because it's not surprising in the slightest bit.