In today's edition of Auburn Tigers News, Hugh Freeze reacts to Payton Thorne's week two performance and Keldric Faulk talks about the Tigers' defense
The season opener against Alabama A&M generated a lot of hope for Auburn football fans, but week two saw the Tigers fall flat and land back at square one, exactly where they were last season. The most glaring issue of the game was Payton Thorne's performance at quarterback, which included four interceptions.
Freeze spent all offseason talking about how confident he was in Payton Thorne, and how with this new offense and a full offseason under his belt things would be greatly improved. But time and again Thorne failed to step up and be a leader on offense, whether or not receivers ran the right routes or the offensive line played poorly.
While Freeze acknowledged that the turnover situation was dire, he was slow to critique Payton Thorne right after the game, per Auburn Undercover.
"I'll have to watch the film first before I really say. I mean, we struggled to protect him tonight a lot. We had guys running wide open and really struggled to protect, It hurt when (right tackle) Too Tall got banged up. He tried to go and he couldn't. So, we struggled to protect him som. I'd rather watch the film and then talk about it Monday on exactly his play at quarterback."
Keldric Faulk talks about the Tigers' defense
In the first half of the game on Saturday, the Auburn football defense did not show up to play. They struggled throughout the first two quarters, allowing Cal's quarterback to look like a Heisman contender. Perhaps one of the only highlights of the game were the defensive adjustments in the second half.
"I think that our communication in the first half was not as good as it should've been," said defensive end Keldric Faulk, per Auburn Undercover. "When we came out in the second half, we overcommunicated. We were in our right gaps. We covered our right man. We were just honed in on our keys."
While nearly all aspects of this week two game were a complete and total disaster, the fact that our defense is capable of adjusting and improving mid-game is a silver lining.