well at least Chizick realizes that AU missed a bunch of tackles and needed worked on
9/21/09
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Chizik wants better execution, defense from his players
AUBURN — A day after his team survived an offensive shootout, Auburn coach Gene Chizik said he likes his team’s effort.
It’s the execution that has him worried.
resiliency in his team during the past two weeks.
“They just keep playing,” Chizik said. “They just don’t let circumstances dictate how they play. They just keep coming when things aren’t good.”
On the top of Chizik’s to-do list is finding a way to shore up a defense that allowed 509 yards of total offense to West Virginia during Auburn’s 41-30 Saturday night win.
The defense certainly found its share of difficulties, but the Tigers forced six turnovers, including four in the decisive fourth quarter.
Those turnovers helped Auburn’s defense erase what was otherwise a forgettable night.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do on defense,” Chizik said. “A lot of the yardage last night was just simply missed tackles. We’d come off the edge and take poor angles. Just tackling issues were a little bit of a problem. We’re still having a bit of a problem right now of getting off the field on third down.”
Chizik added: “We’ve got to revisit a lot of that and go back and look at some of that.”
Chizik said he was proud of his defense for hanging in and helping the 3-0 Tigers by coming up with game-changing takeaways.
Offensively, Auburn’s vaunted run game slowed to a crawl for the majority of the game.
Chizik said West Virginia brought an eighth man into the box, forcing the Tigers to throw the ball.
That left offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn to call upon quarterback Chris Todd. He threw four touchdowns — three to Darvin Adams — in helping the Tigers erase a deficit that reached 14 points at one point.
Chizik said the ability to win a game by passing the ball meant a lot.
“Every week we’re not going to be able to run the ball,” Chizik said. “Offensively, we’re going to do what the defense allows us to do. One week you might run for 300, the next week you may throw for 300 and it’s all based on what they’re going to allow you do to.”
This week shouldn’t have many of the same challenges, with Auburn hosting an 0-3 Ball State team.
So far, the Cardinals have lost home games to North Texas and FCS team New Hampshire as well as a road game to Army.
Just because BSU hasn’t gotten off to a rousing start doesn’t mean Auburn plans to alter its usual preparations.
“We’re going to do what we always do,” Chizik said. “You hope that maybe you have enough older guys, you hope that you have a focused enough team where a football game is a football game and you only have 12 of the so you play them all the same. We’ve got to do a good job as coaches of demanding that part of it but they’ll come in here and be fired up and ready to play in this type of venue. We’ve just got to do what we do.”
Auburn is now off to a 3-0 start, but Chizik said he isn’t pleased with the way the Tigers are playing.
While the defense might have been the guiltiest party on Saturday, the head coach wants to see improvement across the board against Ball State.
“Right now, we’ve won three games but I can’t say there is any phase of our team that any coach including me is happy about,” Chizik said. “I’m happy that they’ve played hard and I’m happy that they’ve won and I’m happy that they’ve overcome a lot of adversity and all those things.
“But we haven’t put a full game together yet in my opinion.”