After a tumultuous middle section of their schedule and coaching rumours alight, Auburn travelled to Fayetteville for another SEC showdown, this time against Arkansas.
All week, the weather forecast called for rain and chilly temperatures throughout the game on Saturday, but the storm seemingly held off long enough, and Auburn was able to pull out the victory.
Although having recently fired their coach, the Razorbacks came into this one humming offensively, and looked to continue their explosive tendencies at home, poor weather nonetheless.
Auburn had other plans though. Thanks to a dominant defensive performance in the turnovers department, Auburn was able to control the second half after making a quarterback change and outlast the Razorbacks on their home turf.
Good to celebrate a win. Never apologize for winning an SEC road game.
As always, Auburn won the football game, so we’ll start with the good…
1. Defensive Turnovers:
The Auburn defence has been relentless all season, helping to hold the team in games when the unit on the opposite side of the ball for Auburn was lagging behind at times.
One category the defence lacked in was turnovers, but that all changed Saturday, as the Auburn defence ended up forcing 4 total turnovers, with 3 interceptions and a fumble recovery.
The Auburn defence knew they had to take over, as their offence had been less than explosive through the season, and take over their defence did. Especially in the fourth quarter, with the game still hanging in the balance, the Auburn defence intercepted Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green 3 separate times, en route to a 33-24 victory.
Rayshawn Pleasant grabbed 2 of the interceptions (along with an explosive kickoff return), and returned one of his interceptions for a score, while Kensley Louidor-Faustin picked off another one of Green’s passes.
Great to see a ball hawking secondary on Saturday against an Arkansas team that heading into the game had been scoring over 30 points per game on the season.
2. Jeremiah Cobb/Running Game:
For the second week in a row, Jeremiah Cobb would see the bulk of the carries in the Auburn backfield, as he toted the rock 28 times and had a total of 153 yards.
Cobb isn’t the most explosive straight-line runner and doesn’t possess a whole ton of wiggle that other backs are blessed with, but he’s an overall gritty back with incredible vision who always seems to pick up positive yardage, even when his blocking is sub optimal.
Cobb had another banner game in this one, as the Auburn offensive line excelled in paving the way for a stellar afternoon on the ground, ultimately amassing 230 total yards on the ground. Physical game on the road. Good to see.
3. Alex McPherson:
Maybe I should have put this first in the good category, as I cannot stress enough how momentous this game was for McPherson.
After a shaky performance at home last week, McPherson owned up to his struggles and vowed to be better. And better he was. He hit on all six, (yes, six!) of his field goal attempts with a long of 47 yards, and mixed in a converted extra point as well.
It’s been a long roller coaster ride for McPherson at Auburn, first and foremost struggling with health concerns, which led to inconsistencies on the field.
Now that it looks like he has his health question marks pointed in the right direction and he is healthy enough to suit up on game day (which was in question), it’s good to see him invoke the confidence in himself, his head coach, and his teammates for them to trust that he can perform to the best of his abilities. What a story, and what a weapon.
And now for the bad…
1. Broken Plays on Defence:
I heaved a bunch of praise on the Auburn defence in the “good” segment, and they were certainly opportunistic, leading to a good day on the scoresheet, but they did let up some head scratching broken plays that kept Arkansas in this game, and had the home team leading at points in the first half.
Arkansas finished the day with 268 passing yards, which doesn’t seem like a whopping number, until you re-watch the game and find yourself pulling your hair out at some of the missed assignments defensively.
The most unfortunate was the pass from quarterback Taylen Green to recover Raylen Sharpe, which started with Auburn defensive back Rayshawn Pleasant loosing his footing on the play, clearing the path for the Sharpe 58 catch and run for the touchdown.
The Auburn linebackers also let Arkansas tight end Rohan Jones (who went for 127 yards on only 3 catches) get behind them early in the game for a long play action completion.
2. Passing offence:
It’s no secret that Auburn made a quarterback change in this one. Starting quarterback Jackson Arnold threw his first interception of the season, and Arkansas made him pay, returning the picked off pass 89 yards for the score.
Arnold was replaced by Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels, who saw his first game snaps of the season in this one, finishing the day completing 6 of his 8 passes for 77 yards through the air.
Daniel’s final stat line didn’t look much better than Arnold’s, as Arnold’s box score reads as such: 7/12 for 73 yards, with 1 touchdown and 1 interception (the aforementioned pick 6), which ultimately led Freeze to make a quarterback change.
Auburn only thew for a total of 150 yards, and I know fans have been clamouring for more running the football as that is seemingly the strength of their offensive line, however you’d like to see some more production through the air from an offensively minded, pass happy head coach and a former 5 start quarterback. Disappointing.
3. Red Zone:
Another pretty brutal day in the red zone for the Auburn offense. Almost hard to do at first glance as they scored 33 points, seemingly an efficient day on offense. Not so fast.
The offense finished the day converting only 3 of their 12 third down attempts, while also passing for a mere 150 yards.
Auburn only scored 1 touchdown on their 6 red zone possessions. They’ll need much better execution and attention to detail going forward. Brutal.
Auburn came away with the win, 33-24. As mentioned before never apologize for winning on the road in the SEC.
Credit to the players and coaches, they all really stepped up today amongst a noisy week. Unfortunately, this win won’t erase the question marks, as questions still remain at both Head Coach and under centre. Neither are something we’ll speculate on for now. Enjoy this win, nurse some bumps and bruises, and prepare for another SEC test. No rest in this league.
Auburn welcomes Kentucky onto the Plains to experience Jordan-Hare at night. Buckle up.
Good win, now let’s build on it. As always… War Eagle!
