Hope?

Florida Atlantic University football took on the defending national champion's Auburn University this past Saturday. This was the best performance by the Owls this year and were competetive throughout the game.

The Owls proved on the first play of the game that they could play with Auburn with Cory Henry intercepting Barrett Trotter's pass on the first play from scrimmage of the game. This put the Owls in postions to take an early lead. The Owls defense fought tough all game with Auburn's offense by putting Trotter under a lot of duress in the pocket.

The offense had their best performance of the year against Auburn's young defense. They had over 300 yards of total offense and were very balanced in the run and passing games. It was the first game all year Alfred Morris was able to find holes and had 85 yards of rushing. Wilbert had his struggles in underthrowing a couple of passes that turned into interceptions, but he also gave the best performance of the year. The approved unit of the game was the offense line they opened many lanes for the running backs and Wilbert had time in the pocket for the first time this year. But of course the most important part is FAU scored it's first touchdown of the season on a screen pass to the shoeless Alfred Morris.

If FAU does not turn the ball over twice early in the second half they have a chance to win this game in the 4th quarter. Nonetheless this game gives FAU hope going into Sun Belt play. All three facets of the game showed promise against a much faster and bigger Auburn team. If FAU can build off of what they did well against Auburn they will have a shot against Louisiana Lafayette who upset FIU over the weekend. The next two weeks will be extremely important games not only to get off to a good start in the Sun Belt, but to avoid opening the brand new football stadium at 0-5.