I understand some of the anger towards Dawson but I don't agree with it 100%. The best offense in football is to find a matchup for us to take advantage of the defense. Its less about plays and more about players in any offense. We don't have the luxury of a returning two or three year starting quarterback, veterans at receiver or an experienced and deep offensive line. Auburn's speed was ridiculous against the run. Thats less about the run play called by Dawson and more about the skill of the opponent. We weren't going to beat them deep due to time limits to setup the pass as well as throwing against their experience corners. They had more talent at every position.
This isnt the same as UNT going against Arkansas. UA only scored 3 points on that Auburn D. Its fair to say that we lost 4 points on that late whistle after a completed pass in the second half that ended with us scoring 3 instead of 7 on that drive. Maybe a more honest number for our performance is 17 instead of 13 on Saturday. If you look at that compared to who Auburn has played YTD, that puts us ahead of #10 Washington and within 5 of #5 LSU regarding points scored against the same Auburn defense.
Last, look at our history and how we have done historically at Auburn. Its fair to say this is the most inexperienced team we have taken to Auburn. In the last 40 years, we have played them 14 times. Yet, only 3 times has a USM team scored more than 13 at Jordan Hare since 1978. Two of those games were against unranked Auburn teams.
Look at the age and the skill of these players right now. Jack is on pace to be one of our best qb's based on numbers. Quez, Tim, Mosley, Jaylond, Anderson......all young. We are only four games into building one of the most powerful offensive units we have seen since 2011, a team that took four years to build. All of this talent is here because of Dawson. The playbook gets bigger when the young talent becomes more experienced and gets more practice reps running an expanded playbook. We forget how little practice these kids have experienced as a unit.
"There was a great deal of character on that field today. They are for real, no doubt about it. This was no fluke." - Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant