WEEK 12: Auburn Football Drops One to... New Mexico State?

Talk about an emotional rollercoaster. After going on the road and beating an SEC team by 40 points, Auburn gets steamrolled by a team that has never beaten an SEC school. Good teams lose these types of games every once in a while. Alabama lost to Louisiana Monroe. Texas A&M lost to Appalachian State. Iowa lost to North Dakota State. What good teams DON'T do is get dominated a week before a game against your biggest rival. There are absolutely zero positives to pull from this one.

I think it's lazy to say, "this one is on everyone." That seems like a poor way of analyzing a loss. I've narrowed down some blame for this one. It was the entirety of the offense, the entirety of the defense, the entirety of our special teams unit, and the entirety of the coaching staff. So yes, unfortunately, this loss was on everyone. Nobody came ready to play. It was really never even close.

Let's talk about some observations from this one...

-After being our saving grace for pretty much this entire season, the defense put on a disgustingly bad performance yesterday. So many missed tackles, so many lazy efforts, so many soft coverages, just an all-around poor effort. Our containment of the edges on run plays was absolutely horrendous. I watched New Mexico State run the same QB designed run three plays in a row to the same side and get at least seven yards each play. 414 total yards? 213 rushing yards? 6.4 yards per play? How does that happen? I genuinely want to know. What about this New Mexico State offense was so unstoppable? They had their way the entire game.

-New Mexico State came in talking trash. Their quarterback body-slammed one of our corners after the whistle and got an unnecessary roughness penalty. You mean to tell me that as players and coaches, that doesn't fire you up enough to encourage some sort of effort? I was sure that the jawing would wake us up enough to at least get some stops on defense. Clearly, this team is softer than I thought. After losing four straight then turning around and winning three straight, I thought this team might have some fight in them. Wrong.

-If we are going to run the ball 17 times with our quarterback, why is Payton Throne getting the nod over Robby Ashford? Robby is far more elusive. Obviously, the gameplan was not to run the ball this many times with Thorne. Most of his rushes were improvised after a broken play. If this is going to be the case, Robby Ashford needs to be in the game. If we don't have guys that can get open, then why not pivot to Robby and see if he can make some plays with his legs off of these broken play?

-I am anxious for Hugh to watch the film and hopefully give his thoughts on whether or not Payton was missing open guys. It just seems like he gives up on the play so quickly. That's how he ended up with such a good passer rating. He doesn't make the difficult throws. I might be in the minority here, but I don't want to see him take another snap at Auburn. This loss was not his fault, but I don't think he gives us the best chance to win with the guys we have. If our receivers can't get open down the field, what does he offer that Robby doesn't? If he is going to have to run the ball every other play, Robby needs to take over for these last two games. Thorne is a better passer (sometimes), but if we aren't going to throw the ball down the field, what does it matter who the better passer is?

-How does this staff not make the adjustments necessary after halftime to beat a team that you are more talented than? We were down by three at the half. We lost by 21. That is very concerning. You have to be able to make the adjustments necessary to win, especially when you are more talented than your opponent. How do you come out of a quarter break and be completely unprepared for a fake punt? That blows my mind. We were beaten in every aspect of the game.

-65 total rushing yards? Games like these are won in the trenches. That is where the gap is between power five and group of five schools. How is our defensive line dominated on the ground and our offensive line dominated by their defensive front? If New Mexico State dominated our fronts like that, what will Alabama do to us next week?

-Freeze has now been defeated three years in a row by a team he is favored by more than 20 against. That is not at all good. You have to win the ones you are supposed to win. It doesn't matter if you go undefeated in the SEC if you can't beat your non-conference opponents. I want to be able to feel comfortable that we will win games like these. This problem has to be fixed. Freeze has to do a better job at getting his guys ready to play in these types of games.

I've got to give props to New Mexico State. They showed up ready to play, and they dominated. This is a great win for their program. Unfortunately, this is a terrible loss for this program. This one is going to sting for a long time. I will say this though...

It is going to be okay. There's no positive way to spin this loss, but it is going to be okay. Let's don't completely write off the good that we have accomplished this year. Recruiting is looking great, we've had some solid wins, and we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves next week against Alabama. I'm a lot less confident than I was a week ago, but the Iron Bowl is always a weird one. I'm hoping that this loss was a wake up call for this team and the coaching staff, and that we will bounce back strong and put together a good performance.

For anyone thinking that Freeze should be on the hot seat for this, you need to think again. This was an ugly loss, but I still think that the direction of our program is exponentially better than it was a year ago. We as fans should all be disappointed, but we do not need to overreact. Freeze himself talked to the media early in the week about how solid this New Mexico State team is, so we cannot pin this loss on him for "looking ahead." He could have been better, but we could say that about anyone on the team/staff for this one. I still think we have the right guy.

Take this one on the chin. It should hurt. Don't make excuses for why we performed the way we did. Learn from it and move on. Great opportunity to bounce back next week. Nobody should have to dig deep for motivation. I want to see a competitive football game.