Another College Football Saturday is in the books. Auburn welcomed Oklahoma to the Plains for the Sooner’s first road SEC showdown after joining the conference in 2024.
Tip your cap to the Sooners, they travelled to Auburn and won the football game. They came into Auburn, a hostile environment, riding a freshman QB making his first start at the college level.
Auburn out-gained the Sooners both on the ground and through the air. and had the upper hand in almost every key stat but came up short again where it matters most: on the scoreboard.
Auburn took a 21-10 lead into the fourth quarter, however ended their 5 game home stand to start the year with a 27-21 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday.
When you lose, we start with the bad…
1. Penalties
The Tigers committed penalties in all phases of the game. Penalties on special teams with holds, penalties on offence (especially pre-snap penalties), and penalties on defense that extended drives.
Auburn overwhelmed Oklahoma in almost every key stat on Saturday. More rushing yards. More passing yards. More total yards. Total first downs. Auburn had more time of possession.
How does Oklahoma shrink the gap here and come out with a victory on the road with a freshman QB you ask? Well, penalties can help.
Pre-snap penalties on offence and especially at home are inexcusable. Auburn finished the game with 7 penalties, which doesn’t feel like a ton but again it’s the timing and nature of the penalties that matters most.
Pre-snap penalties completely derail your rhythm on offence, and are very avoidable. Well prepared and well coached teams don’t commit the amount of pre-snap penalties that plagued the Tigers on Saturday. Add in the defensive penalties that occurred, and you have yourself a recipe for a home loss against a freshman QB.
2. Unable to close out the game
Auburn was leading 21-10 in the fourth quarter and was in control of the game. As mentioned, they were leading in every key stat and were also leading on the scoreboard at the time as well. Sometimes you have to play and use the clock to your advantage as well once you have a two score lead late in the game.
Picture yourself this. Auburn was leading 21-10 with 11:30 left in the game. Jarquez Hunter ran the ball on first down for 22 yards to the Oklahoma 33. The Tigers were set up nicely in scoring position ready to really put their foot on the gas here. Then came 2 incomplete passes, a run for no gain, and a missed FG (more on that later), and the Oklahoma offense was set up at their own 33 yard line with new life.
4 plays and 67 yards later Oklahoma found themselves in the end zone, cutting the lead to 21-16 after a failed 2 point conversion.
Next drive after the Oklahoma touchdown, Auburn again drove the ball into Sooner territory, however facing a 3rd and 4 on the OU 43 yard line with just over 4 minutes left to play in the game, Payton Thorne threw a pick-6.
Way to handle having a lead at home Auburn.
I was going to include Auburn’s kicking struggles here but it didn’t seem fair to pile on a freshman kicker that wasn’t expecting to play at all this year. Instead I went with another, more troubling theme….
3. WR and QB disconnect
Payton Thorne is a veteran QB. Freeze mentioned that in his interview before the game when asked why he decided to turn to Thorne as the starter over Hank. He praised his leadership and experience, believing those traits would help lead to an Auburn victory against a tough SEC foe.
This “experience” adds to the maddening miscues that occur at times between the quarterback and the Auburn receivers.
I counted 3 separate occasions of miscommunications (I’m not the head coach so there could have been more).
It started with Cam Coleman on a deep route that would have been a TD if caught in stride. It was third down, the pass protection held up, Thorne unloaded a deep ball. The ball landed incomplete 5 yards away from Coleman. Cam came back to the sideline with his palms pointed towards the sky looking confused. Clearly a miscommunication between him and Thorne.
Another miscommunication happened again two plays in a row when Auburn ventured into Oklahoma territory and looked to salt away the victory. Negative. Freeze called two straight passes after a long Jarquez Hunter run, and the passes both fell incomplete. On both occasions, the QB and WR looked like they weren’t on the same page. Their timing was off.
This isn’t preseason. Thorne has played many games at this level. This shouldn’t be happening. Cost them this game.
Lets move onto some good….
1. Passing game
I know I just put part of the passing game dysfunction in the bad, but on the whole, the passing game was a bright spot for the most part on Saturday. Thorne threw 3 touchdowns on the day, 1 to standout wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, another to Malcolm Simmons on a nice deep throw, and another to tight end Luke Deal on the goal line.
The offensive line was giving Thorne time to throw, and Thorne seemed confident for most of the day in delivering the ball to his pass catchers.
Thorne finished the day with a tidy 21 completions for 338 yards. Quite an aerial assault.
7 different receivers caught passes on Saturday, and after a tough drop on his first target of the game, Cam Coleman had a nice day through the air, ultimately finishing with 3 catches for 82 yards including a 42 yard deep strike with a nice adjustment to a less than perfectly thrown ball.
Thorne seemed decisive, on time, and in rhythm for most of the afternoon, until his interception really derailed and unravelled this game for Auburn, as the Sooners returned the pick for 6 points (which would turn into 8 points after a successful 2 point conversion attempt).
All in all though it was an efficient day throughout the air for the Tigers.
2. Jarquez Hunter
After a slower start to the game, whether it was that Auburn elected to emphasize the passing game early, Jarquez seemed to get better as the game wore on.
He ultimately finished with a rugged 97 yards on 17 carries. Hunter looked fast and explosive on the day, displaying great effort in gaining many first downs where he was forced to use his second effort to cross the line to gain when he appeared to be stopped short.
He looked fast, explosive, tough, and as mentioned got better as the game wore on. If only Auburn leaned on him more both in the red zone early in the game and to drain the clock late, the outcome may have been different, but this is “the good” after all.
Jarquez was a major bright spot for the Tigers offense on Saturday.
3. Jordan-Hare Stadium
I only watched this game on TV and wasn’t in the building, but I have to give a shoutout to the Auburn fans.
The fans had every reason to mail this one in. Auburn has looked lacklustre so far this season, with tough losses to seemingly inferior opponents in Cal and Arkansas.
After a week marred in turmoil as well, with the Coach facing heat for some of his comments in his postgame presser and on local radio stations, as well as some ex players making claims on social media, the fans could have waned in their support for their Tigers on Saturday.
Not so fast.
The Auburn faithful welcomed in Oklahoma to Jordan-Hare Stadium in their first SEC road test, showing them a raucous SEC environment.
Making communication between the QB and O-Line difficult all afternoon, the noise led to countless false starts and pre-snap penalties for the Sooner offence, leading to many third and long situations, immensely helping the Tigers defense.
The Auburn faithful showed Oklahoma why Jordan-Hare Stadium is one of the most difficult venues to visit for opponents.
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Another maddening loss. Auburn falls to 2-3 on the season after 5 straight home games. The stats have looked great. They’ve racked up tons of yards on the ground and through the air, and have played some stingy defense at times, but they just haven’t put it all together as of yet for a victory against a Power 4 opponent.
The red zone play calling early in the game, then the late game play calling, and just their inability to show the poise to finish this game really hindered them on Saturday.
The stat of opposing QB’s boasting an 0-12 record when visiting Jordan-Hare Stadium was overused during the week. Felt like a bad omen. Time to change that stat to 1-12 I guess.
It sounds like a cliche, but Auburn isn’t playing winning football right now. Obviously that line is extremely thin between winning and losing, but it rings true.
This is 3 games now where they have out gained the opponent but have still lost. Not a fluke, not a one off. Auburn had the lead and found a way to lose. They lost on the field, that’s all that matters. Frustrating.
Auburn now heads to Athens for the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry next Saturday as they take on the Dawgs.
As always, War Eagle!
