Auburn’s first football game inside the State of Oklahoma ended up possibly being the dumbest football game played inside the United States of America in the year of 2025.
You saw it. You’ve seen my bulletproof tweets. You’ve watched the analysis from people that hate Auburn agreeing that Auburn was royally hosed in Norman.
To be honest, this post isn’t going to cover everything that needs to be said about the game: the pregame hype-built narrative, the officiating, the sacks, the SEC’s response, the ensuing AP Poll, and just the general reaction. So for that, I am going to do one big, long podcast with plenty of yelling. That’s all this game deserves. But I’ll at least hit the high/low points here.
There are bad calls in every game. That’s why the tough guys ignore complaints about officiating. You could call holding every play. So to them, that means blaming officiating is just weak. Only good teams are able to rise above multiple game-changing, score-affecting calls. Only the good teams.
Or maybe one of the teams was able to beat the good team because they were gifted points and the good team was robbed of points. Hmm…
It started early when Oklahoma fumbled and Auburn returned the fumble for a touchdown. It could’ve set the tone for the game for the Tigers. Instead, the officials in Norman and Birmingham went against their own rules and overturned an on-the-field call without indisputable evidence. They let disputable subjectivity change a massive play. And while it was a conscious choice, there was at least 1% of a subconscious thought about doing the thing the loud home crowd wanted. At least 1% subconscious.
But good teams should be able to go on the road and overcome a stolen touchdown that turned into a 3-point lead for the team that get the benefit of subjectivity. Right, cool kids?
Surely nothing else controversial would happen and the game would be mostly even the rest of the way.
Well, you’ll be surprised to learn that Oklahoma decided to run an illegal play not too long after that. They supposedly were told before the game that the play was legal. The problem is the SEC told teams all Summer that the play was illegal and the SEC said after the game that the play was illegal. The play is illegal. I would expect nothing less from the State that is named for settlers that went into Native American territory “sooner” than they were supposed to so they could take all the good land first.
Oklahoma fans and others that want to continue to act like the play was legal will tell you that the Sooners would’ve scored later anyway. Well, if it was called a 15-yard penalty as it should’ve been, the next play would’ve been a 2nd-and-37 from the Auburn 39 yard line. Maybe they get a few yards and make it a closer field goal. We’ll never know because Oklahoma cheated and the officials allowed it.
Later in the game, Auburn ran a double pass, Cam Coleman was tackled, and the official was looking at a cheerleader on the sideline. Yes, Auburn scored a few plays later, after converting a 4th-and-11, despite Oklahoma fans still clamoring about a catchable pass on an interference call that was almost as obvious as the Cam Coleman tackle.
But the point of this one is just another example of egregious incompetency. Even with the referee looking completely away from the Cam Coleman tackle, there are a few other officials that saw it on the field and not one came in and said “hey, we missed this guys.”
Plus, scoring later in the drive means Auburn had to waste more time. If you’ll remember, they were kinda time-crunched at the end of the game.
After all that, though, Auburn still led in the game. And in the only real drive the Sooners put together in the entire game, they were then aided by their lone long pass completion, that wasn’t called a completion, but was then overturned to a completion. A few plays later, the worst Heisman favorite since Mark Ingram ran it in.
A few plays later, with their back to the wall, Auburn was hit with a safety in what some are calling the 10th sack of the game.
First off, and it doesn’t matter, but many of those school-record 10 sacks were not sacks. Jackson Arnold being tackled at the line of scrimmage on a designed run is not a sack. Again, doesn’t matter, but I know for a fact they jumped from 1 to 2 sacks on an obvious run up the middle where he actually gained yardage.
But, we have to say “school record” and the cool nerd tough guys get to say “refs don’t matter with 10 sacks.”
However, you see, it was those refs that indirectly caused some of those sacks. Let’s think about it.
If Auburn has a 10, 14, or 17-point lead as they very well could’ve, is Oklahoma pinning their ears back the entire 2nd half? Is Auburn pinned inside the 10 yard line needing 90 yards in 4 minutes? No, they aren’t.
The Oklahoma defense is good. They gave the Auburn offensive line trouble as we knew the would. But it was definitely ramped up once Auburn was put behind the 8-ball with calls and situations that obviously favored the happy, fun, home team.
We’re told Oklahoma is a Top 10 team. We’re told Auburn is not worthy of the Top 25. Auburn, on the road, with game-changing calls that are agreed upon atrocities from all over the web-o-sphere, lost by a late touchdown to the Oklahoma Sooners. If one is true, the other can’t be true. It’s impossible.
Anyway, it doesn’t get easier. Auburn goes to College Station this coming Saturday. The only thing to do is improve on the things they can fix and hope the officials aren’t former Yell Leaders.
A podcast is coming to hit these points harder, but I’ll leave you with this…
I promise, you blaming Hugh or Jackson for a 7-point loss on the road at #11 with that game-changing officiating doesn’t make you a smarter looking fan.
— War Blogle (@WarBlogle) September 20, 2025
