After putting on a relatively strong performance on the road against the Oklahoma Sooners, the Auburn Tigers football team somehow regressed in last weekend's matchup against the Texas A&M Aggies.
The Tigers lost 10-16 due to an offense that looked absolutely incompetent. The offensive linemen, who have received draft grades and include one of the Tigers' highest-paid transfers, racked up penalty after penalty, allowed five sacks and generally looked lost. The offense converted zero third downs in the entire game and handed the ball off to the running backs only eight times.
Still, head coach Hugh Freeze tried to put a positive spin on things after the game, per AL.com, despite saying that is not what he was doing.
“I’m certainly not trying to be positive after a loss like this,” he said Saturday evening in College Station, “but we just played two top 10 teams on the road and we were right there in the game with them. But to not play well enough to win today was unacceptable.
“But,” he continued, “the good thing is it gives us reason to believe we can win the rest of them.”
Does it?
The offense did absolutely nothing in the game, and the only reason the score was so close was that the Tigers' defense played phenomenally. Even the single touchdown should be credited to the defense, because it was linebacker Xavier Atkins' interception and 73-yard return that got the Tigers to the 2-yard line.
The fact that Auburn was 'right there in the game with them' was completely due to Auburn's defense. Meanwhile, the offense played with a lack of discipline and accomplished virtually nothing. What about that performance inspires confidence? Where is the 'reason to believe we can win the rest of them?'
Auburn Tigers football returns to action on October 11 to host Georgia at Jordan-Hare Stadium.