The Georgia Bulldogs travelled to Jordan-Hare to play Auburn on Saturday night for the latest installment of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
Despite Auburn’s recent struggles, there was a lot of talk during the week about the difficulty of travelling onto the Plains as the road team and coming away victorious, especially at night.
Auburn fed off a raucous crowd inside Jordan-Hare and came out with an electric first half on both offense and defence, but were unable to maintain their stellar play for the full 60 minutes and were ultimately unable to hold off a battle tested Georgia team.
The Tiger’s fall in this one and drop to 3-3 on the season. As always, Auburn lost he football game, so we’ll start with the bad…
1. Penalties:
This seems to be a common theme in the “bad” category, and fans are hoping to see the heading in the “good” category shortly, but not on Saturday.
Auburn committed 11 total penalties for 103 yards, not a promising stat that will allow you to pull off an upset, even at home.
Some penalties are worth more than others, (both in yardage and game script) and have the ability to impact a game drastically. Infractions that come to mind include the 15 yard targeting penalty on Kayin Lee, as well as the roughing the passer call on Xavier Atkins. Both helped spearhead the Bulldogs attack and proved crucial for Georgia in their comeback attempt
Both the aforementioned infractions occurred late in the second half, and led to Georgia’s field goal drive that started on their own 3-yard line and completely changed the momentum in what was a dominant first half for Auburn.
Auburn continues to prove their undisciplined nature time and time again, and will have to button up their penalty numbers if they want to compete in a rugged SEC this season.
2. Mental toughness:
Blame the officiating, which was objectively quite poor, but that doesn’t change the fact that Auburn as a team right now is extremely temperamental. The difference in play, intensity, attitude, and attention to detail between the first and second half was stark, and it was s shame to watch the players and coaching staff seemingly unravel after a few questionable officiating moments.
I know it’s easy to simply say “forget it, put it behind you, and worry about the next play”, but sometimes that rings true. The officiating certainly changed the scope of the game, but the game was still in the balance, and a mentally tough team needs to overcome some in game adversity, came together and continue to dominate the game.
That didn’t happen. Things all changed late in the second half when a Jackson Arnold touchdown run was ruled a fumble at the goal line. Georgia kicked a field goal on their ensuing drive to end the half, and never looked back, as Auburn failed to score any more points.
Auburn’s leadership team, from their coaching staff down to the players needs to reign things in when they start to unravel and not let bad situations snowball into nightmares. Football is certainly a game of momentum, but sometimes it simply comes down to someone making a play to change that momentum and alter the script of the game.
3. Second half offence:
Temperamental play was briefly mentioned in the previous segment, but we’ll key in on the offence here, which looked dominant in the first half. Even though they only put up 10 points (7 points were negated due to the late touchdown reversal) but Auburn gained 130 yards on the ground, displaying a rugged and consistent rushing attack.
Things all changed in the second half, as they were unable to add any more points to the scoreboard and were overall inept offensively in the second half.
The Tiger’s went 0-6 on third down in the second half, ran for a measly 10 yards, and showed a disjointed passing attack that saw Jackson Arnold miss throws to Perry Thompson, Eric Singelton, and Preston Howard (a fourth down throw that glanced off Howard’s hands- a tough catch to make).
The offence lacked cohesiveness, explosion, and attention to detail in the second half, allowing the Bulldogs to dictate the pace of the game. A startling contrast to their dominant first.
And now for the good…
1. First half offence:
The Tigers came out on fire on the first half, and we’ll focus on their offence in this segment.
In the first half alone, Auburn rushed for 130 yards, passing for 107 through the air, and racked up a total of 237 yards of total offense. They also converted on 8 of their 11 third downs, helping them to extend drives and possess the ball for just under 22 minutes. A truly dominant half all around.
Auburn took care of the football, limited penalties displaying an efficient attack coming out of their bye week that hadn’t been seen in recent weeks. This offensive explosion had fans clamouring for more, and gave them hope that the team had finally turned a corner under this coaching staff.
2. Defence:
The Auburn defence was great all game, and although they did allow some third and fourth down conversions in the second half, as well as some long drives, they turned in a very overall performance.
Although third down defence has been a contention for being not so efficient over the last couple of years, Auburn was able to limit Georgia to a paltry 5 of 14 on third down on Saturday.
Georgia managed just 79 rushing yards, and just over 200 yards through the air on Saturday, an extremely stingy performance, showcasing a relentless and physical effort. Great to see from Durkin’s unit. Certainly a good sign to hold an SEC foe to less than 300 yards of total offence.
3. Pass protection:
A third segment for the good category was admittedly difficult to come up with, however we’ll give a nod to the Auburn pass protection which had been a strong point of contention between fans and pundits over the last few weeks.
After allowing 10 total sacks against Oklahoma, the pass protection didn’t improve much against Texas A&M, however in this one they certainly seemed organized in their assignments and kept the Georgia defense at bay for most of the night.
Only allowing 1 sack is a marked improvement, and the offensive line certainly seemed to cut down on their pre-snap penalties as well. Something playing at home definitely helps, but it was good to see some profession in an offensive line that should be quite experienced on paper.
Make that 9 straight losses for Auburn in this now one-sided Rivalry. Gone are the days of Jarrett Stidham’s heroics in slaying #1 ranked Georgia in Jordan-Hare. Even Bo Nix was unable to best them, and the myriad of quarterbacks Auburn has trotted out since have not fared much better. Add Jackson Arnold to the list of Auburn signal callers that have fallen to the Bulldogs.
This one stings. Credit to Georgia. They turned things around after a lifeless first half and outlasted the Tigers on the road in a hostile environment. The Auburn fans brought it, Jordan-Hare was rocking.
As a fan, having officiating so directly impact a game is frustrating, especially when people’s jobs are ultimately on the line.
Poor officiating or not, that doesn’t change the score in the game, as Auburn dropped their third straight game on the season, falling 20-10 at home on Saturday night. Another hard-fought loss, which unfortunately stings even more given that the game was so close and felt as though Auburn had such a strong chance to come away victorious. Alas, once again they lose a close one.
Time to put that behind us and set our sights to next week, as Auburn remains at home to host the Tigers of Missouri on the Plains for Missouri’s first road test of the season.
Another night game under the lights, as Auburn will try to avenge last season’s close loss in Columbia.
See you all next week… and as always.. War Eagle!
