Link sAUsage: Everything Hurts

This weekend’s game wasn’t good. Auburn led LSU 20-0 and lost, failing to beat the Bayou Bengals in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1999. After the game, Gus Malzahn said that it wasn’t the end of the world. Clearly he didn’t understand how important this game was to the Auburn people.

Maybe he’s comparing this collapse to the national championship game against FSU, but it was the most painful loss I can remember since that time. It wasn’t good, especially since it didn’t seem like LSU made the plays to come back, it was more like Auburn failing to execute in every single conceivable way on the way to the defeat. What’s more, you could totally feel it coming once LSU scored. Sickening.

Right after the game, former Auburn fullback Heath Evans made a very public plea on Twitter.

Which in turn drew some criticism from Nosa Eguae.

And Andrew McCain.

Heath’s got some great points. All of that sounds really great, starting with his financial requests, and understanding what we’re going against across the state. Still, this is the beginning of yet another chapter in Gus’ recent struggles to unite the fanbase. Like I said Saturday and yesterday, I won’t be fully on board with Gus unless he wins out this year. That would likely take us to the SEC Championship Game and maybe even still put us in the running for a playoff spot.

Still, there are some troubling things standing in the way of those goals.

Like the fact that this team is understandably dazed after that game.

And what might be even more troubling is the fact that our quarterback, who we should trust, and who we’ve been told is the guy, doesn’t have any freedom in the offense. Coaches make mistakes, and when the quarterback sees something at the line, he needs to have the green light to make the appropriate change.

That will certainly be a topic of conversation over the next couple of weeks, but I can bet that this is something that will likely change. I don’t believe Arkansas is a threat to us, so let’s give Stidham a little chance to play around.

Until later, War Eagle.