Wow. What a nail-biter of a game. State kept it close all night, but then decided to get all Croomerific in their play calling in the second half.
After keeping it close in the first half, State opened up the second half with a march down the field using a series of options, screens and short passes. After scoring, Mullen channeled Tommy Tubberville and called an onside kick, which state recovered.
It was somewhere around this point that the ghost of Sly Croom showed up and decided that we were scoring too many points. I think he chocked out Les Koening and started calling plays like it was 2008, going 3 and out and killing any momentum we had built up with the onside kick.
Kudos to the defense for stepping it up in the second half though. They kept Auburn from scoring the entire second half and even rattled Cameron Newton a good bit. The offense was also able to pick up on Auburn's Nick Fairley, who was wreaking havoc on our offense in the first half. The "gotta make that play" award of the night goes to Leon Berry.
Where do we go from here? We lick our wounds, put the loss behind us, and start prepping for a road trip to LSU in 9 days. I have said from the outset that we will come away with 2 wins from our first 3 SEC games. LSU seemed less than perfect against UNC in their season opener, and the suspension of A.J. Green for four games gives me confidence in our game against Georgia, since he is pretty much all they have on offense this year.