Saturday’s Auburn-Texas A&M game in College Station has been chock full of special teams shenanigans. A brief rundown:
The Auburn-Texas A&M game is a special teams disaster with 4 botched kicks (so far!)
The fundamentals have not been good.
1. Auburn pulled off a fake field goal, had it called back, and then had a real one blocked.
First, look at this gorgeous holder keeper:
It sadly didn’t count, because of a holding penalty.
And on Auburn’s actual field goal try:
It was bold of A&M to overload the left side of the formation even more, one snap after Auburn used a numbers advantage on the other side to set up that fake. But the Aggies did it, and Auburn didn’t try another fake.
2. Later, Texas A&M had a breakdown in punt protection.
That’s Nick Ruffin on the block and Malik Miller on the recovery in the end zone for the easiest touchdown he’ll ever score. A&M had a protection breakdown, despite lining up three up men in a wall in front of punter Shane Tripucka, and the Tigers had seven different guys who could’ve recovered the ball without any resistance.
3. A&M’s punting unit then messed up for a second time.
Do you want to see Tripucka punt the ball directly into one of those up men?
Here’s that:
That punt somehow traveled 16 yards, according to the game’s official scorebook. It’s at least better than a block going the other way.
The funniest thing about this one is that A&M called a timeout right before the play. It’s as if the Aggies gathered to say, “OK, let’s not blow this one, too.” And they did.
4. Still later, Auburn had another field goal blocked.
That’s four mangled kicks and punts. And we’re still counting.
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