The nightmare season continues. After their bye week, Auburn travelled to Columbia to take on the Tigers of Missouri. Another loss. This team just can’t close. They don’t know how to win. They find ways to lose. Auburn falls to 2-5 on the season after another disappointing 21-17 loss against Missouri on the road.
Missouri was forced to turn to back up quarterback Drew Pyne after their starter Brady Cook suffered an ankle injury on the first series of the game. Pyne remained under centre for majority of the game until Cook returned late in the second half and led a furious comeback against the Tigers of Auburn, ultimately securing the win with a late fourth quarter touchdown on the ground.
The team lost, so we focus on the bad first…
1. Closing out games:
I feel like this is becoming a theme of the season. Auburn held a double digit second half lead. Missouri had to turn to their backup quarterback for majority of the game after their starter was injured. Auburn had chances to leave no doubt, keep their foot on the gas and win this game on the road.
Closing out games, learning how to win, all sound like clichés. They’re hard to define and they’re never the exact same. But these things are all becoming habits with this Auburn football team this season.
After a beautiful Auburn punt backed up Missouri inside their own 5 yard line, the Auburn defence forced a three and out and a Missouri punt of their own. The Auburn offence would start the next drive inside Missouri territory. This drive felt enormous for Auburn. It was mid fourth quarter and Auburn had the lead on the scoreboard and looked to bleed some time off the clock, score more points, and put this one on ice. Something they foiled to do before. Wrong. The Tigers the offence failed to gain any yards, went three downs and out and was forced to punt.
Before this series of events, Auburn had driven deep into Missouri territory, and once again looked to put a stamp on this game. Wrong again. On first down Robert Lewis dropped what would’ve been a touchdown pass, on second down Auburn took a sack, and a third down they gained no yards, forcing a field goal… that was missed wide left. Auburn comes away with zero points. Infuriating.
2. Miscues:
The Tigers had many errors in this one, and that’s a very vague term so I thought I would lump them all into this segment and title it “miscues.”
Early in the game, Peyton Thorne fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Missouri. Chalk up another turnover for the Auburn offense.
Penalties on special teams are instrumentally brutal. By my count, Auburn had two penalties on two different Missouri punts, which backed their offense up on what had looked to have been promising the field position for a struggling offense. Details.
On a kickoff in the first half, Auburn ended up kicking the ball out of bounds. Flagged again, setting up the Missouri offense with solid field positioning. This is another unforced error on what should be a routine play.
Good teams don’t make these errors. When these miscues add up, they end up losing you football games and that’s what this team does. Auburn in this stage with their current makeup can’t afford to have these untimely, undisciplined errors. Cost them again.
3. Start of the game:
Coaching isn’t usually something I like to pick on, as I’m not a coach myself and have trouble critiquing coaching when I’m not in the locker room, not at practice and not speaking directly to the coaching staff on a daily basis.
That being said, the question still must be asked as to why this team starts so slowly, especially after a bye week.
The Auburn offence started the game out looking disoriented and ultimately punted twice after running eight plays in total. Extremely slow start for a team that could certainly some confidence that a fast start and some points could bring on the road.
It begs the question, what was worked on in the bye week? Were any of these miscues focused on that had reared their heads in past games? You would expect as a fan for the team to come out on time, and not look confused as to what they should be doing. That’s on coaching.
It’s concerning because the same could be said last season coming out of their by week. The slow start isn’t necessarily what lost them this game, but it certainly didn’t help.
There were certainly some bright spots on Saturday for the Tigers, let’s look at some of the good…
1. Pass rush:
I know Missouri was forced to turn to their backup quarterback in this one, but we’ve seen back up quarterbacks have plenty of success against Auburn in the past.
Auburn’s defensive line terrorized quarterback Drew Pyne all game long. Then when starter Brady Cook returned, Auburn didn’t relent, putting Cook on the turf as well. Auburn was ultimately credited with five sacks in the game in total.
Some of these sacks came on their down, and really helped the Auburn defence get off the field and force both punts and long field goal attempts. It was good to see the defensive line take over upfront and add a much needed pass rush, helping out their young secondary.
Eugene Asante and Jalen McLeod were both credited with 2 sacks, while Dorian Mausi and Malik Blockton were charted with a half sack a piece.
The defensive line certainly put their stamp on this one.
2. Limited the production of receiver Luther Burden:
Save for a key fourth down catch to move the chains, Auburn was able to contain star Missouri receiver, Luther Burden III for most of the game on Saturday.
We’ve seen elite receivers give Auburn problems in the past, but that was not the case on Saturday. It helps that Missouri didn’t have their regular signal caller throwing burden the ball for the majority of the game, however, credit needs to be given to the Auburn secondary as well.
This is a secondary that both many young faces, and going up against Burden was certainly a test and a tall order. It was good to see the Auburn defensive backs not shy away from this competition and limit him for the most part on Saturday.
After entering the game 25 catches and 349 yards, the former five star recruit was held to 49 yards on six catches against Auburn. He was unable to find the end zone in this one, and the Tigers defence forced him to fumble the football, which they ultimately recovered.
Nicely done by the players, and coordinator DJ Durkin.
3. Jay Crawford:
I have to give a shout out to young freshman Jay Crawford.
He played a fantastic game, blanketing receivers and making life difficult for both Missouri quarterbacks that tried to move the chains through the air on Saturday versus Auburn.
He didn’t get flagged for any penalties and rarely surrendered any separation to the talented Missouri wide receivers. It’s been great to see him step up for an Auburn secondary that has been much maligned this season and is very young albeit talented.
Him, along with his fellow young Kayin Lee have proven to be a formidable cornerback tandem for the Tigers this season.
Unfortunately, he was unable to get his hands on the football for an interception which really would have kept this day off nicely, but I thought he deserved a shout out for his outstanding play.
An honourable mention here would be Malcolm Simmons. I feel remiss not to mention him. Wanted to give him a quick shoutout. A forgotten member of the Freeze 4 before the season started, he’s been the most productive member by far. Some nice runs on jet sweeps, pop passes, end arounds on Saturday and has really given the Auburn offence a spark. Good to see from the youngster.
These recaps are getting frustrating to write. It seems like the same themes keep recurring, which is a bad sign. Maybe some of the issues fall on coaching, maybe some of the errors are due to poor execution. In reality, it’s probably a little bit of both.
Certainly, this team is still very young. However, they do have an experienced senior quarterback at the helm. This is why it’s so frustrating to see these little errors that make it so difficult for a struggling team to close out games both at home and on the road.
Auburn still hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent since the 2021 season, when they downed #11 ranked Ole Miss. Beyond that, this season is really starting to slide away after it was thought that they could turn the page after their by week and salvage this campaign by stocking a few wins and going on a run.
At this point, it doesn’t look like this will be the case, as their first victory this season against a power four opponent remains elusive. Time to pack up, leave Columbia, watch some tape, make some corrections and prepare for a showdown in Lexington versus a physical Kentucky outfit.
As always… War Eagle!!
