We should’ve known. From the time the Cal defender ran the non-interception into the endzone on the 2nd play of the game, we should’ve known. Even though, the correct call was made and Auburn kept the ball and moved it down the field to take a 7-0 lead, we should’ve at least had an idea. It was going to be a day of stupid.
I’m not calling any Auburn player or coach stupid. I just mean there are stupid games. You don’t know why they happen at the time. You don’t know why or how you deserve it. You just know that it hits you right in the face and never lets up.
After the Week 1 blowout over Alabama A&M, Auburn started receiving all sorts of praise. ESPN’s College Gameday crew called Auburn the surprise team in the SEC. Nick Saban said he knows Hugh Freeze will do a good job at Auburn. But the universe wasn’t ready for the rat poison.
The universe wanted to show us who is in charge.
The entire story around the game is Payton Thorne’s four “interceptions.” I BlogleSpotted about it today, but I’ll lay it out quickly here. There are possibilities outside of terrible vision and just throwing the ball up for grabs. Payton didn’t do that one time in any of the four balls that ended up in the hands of a Cal receiver.
The first interception was thrown perfectly, yet deflected off the receiver’s hands and flew through the air right to a Cal defender. Not his fault.
The second interception was a duck caused by Thorne getting hit as he let the ball go. Some will argue he waited in the pocket too long, but that doesn’t matter to the interception. It could matter to a sack, but the reason the ball was caught by a Cal defender was because it was put on a course not intended or thrown by Thorne.
Both of these are in direct line with stupid caused by the universe. The balls could’ve gone anywhere. There are literally infinite possibilites, yet the universe chose spots close to a Cal defender.
The 3rd interception was the 50/50 ball thrown to Cam Coleman in single coverage. It was somewhat of a bad decision that still could’ve worked, but Cam was hurt the play before and wasn’t going to be able to go after the ball 100%. He didn’t know that. I’ll put some blame on Thorne because it was slightly under-thrown.
The 4th interception was already debunked due to an incorrect route run be the receiver. He went out when he should’ve gone in, which is where Thorne threw it. But because it just looked like awful direction, it was on the guy with the easy target on his back.
So, you could argue that maybe one of the interceptions was his fault, and even then it wasn’t just a blind heave without vision. And if you’re arguing that he really had six interceptions, you are a lost cause that just wants to see everything burn.
Of course, nobody thinks past the two seconds they just saw on the screen and just bashes the guy responsible for their sad Saturday night. They join the negative hive-mind and yell BACKUP QUARTERBACK. But I’m not getting too far into that. Beau already did.
What I will say is that the immediate claims that Auburn won’t win another game the rest of the season because of a very universally stupid game is just as stupid. A) five turnovers (and still just lost by one touchdown) won’t happen again this season. B) we’ve seen already in two weeks that college football has been hurt by the transfer portal in that you never know what you’re getting each week, plus we are going to see more and more upsets as better players are able to go anywhere they want and become starters.
Anybody else see Notre Dame beat Texas A&M then lose to Northern Illinois? How about South Carolina looking awful in a 4-point win over Old Dominion and then destroying Kentucky in Lexington a week later. Or Bowling Green nearly knocking off Penn State. Get ready, this is the norm for now.
It’s not just Auburn.
Stupid games usually only come once a year. This was Auburn’s. 11-1 sounds nice. 10 straight wins starts this week.
