WEEK 3: Auburn rolls past Samford, Big Stretch Coming

Auburn football has started the season 3-0 for the first time since 2019, and the Hugh Freeze era has officially begun. I was at a wedding this weekend that kept me from watching most of the game, so my analysis will be relatively vanilla this week. I was able to see the first half of the first quarter. Other than that, all I have seen is highlights and a box score. I hope that I can get some time later this week to watch a rerun of the game and look into it a little more in depth, but for now, I will provide my thoughts based on what I have seen.

Nothing new here. I will start by stating some positives I got from this game, and I will follow with some negatives.

First of all, let me say that I am much happier with the play calling and the overall scheme this week. This was the last game that Auburn would be able to "experiment" with offensive gameplan before we get into the heart of our schedule, and Freeze and Montgomery took full advantage of that. Auburn aired it out for the majority of the game, which is something that we as fans haven't seen in a long time. I thought it was very important for Thorne to get a lot of attempts this week so that he could get more comfortable throwing the ball in this offense, and my wishes were granted. He finished with 32 passing attempts, completing 24 of them and throwing for 282 yards in the process. After a very shaky week against Cal, Thorne looked much more confident throwing the ball against Samford. Granted, this was a home game against an FCS team. However, that doesn't change the fact that the majority of his throws were on time and on target. I think that this game was a huge confidence booster for Thorne and his receivers. Freeze could have chosen to run the ball in certain situations and put up a ton of points on a mediocre Samford defense. Instead, he saw the opportunity to sharpen up the passing attack, and he did just that. That is much more valuable than running up the score. For example, on the first drive of the game, Auburn drove down the field and had the ball inside the ten. Instead of simply running it down a much less physical Samford's throats, the Auburn offense capped off the drive with three straight passes. Thorne threw an interception on third and goal, which was not the finish fans wanted to that drive. However, I think that giving Thorne reps throwing the ball in a short-field situation was far more valuable than getting those extra seven points on that final score. Everyone knew that we were going to beat Samford. Everyone knew that those seven points weren't going to matter at the end of the game. Thorne was able to get live reps throwing the ball near the goal line. That's what really mattered in that situation. I was also happy to see our secondary unit continue to shine. I don't think our secondary had a single interception in the first three or four games last year. Jaylin Simpson himself already has three interceptions in the first three games. This particular unit is doing a fantastic job to start the season. To be fair, they haven't really been tested yet. Nonetheless, they have handled their business the way it's needed to be handled. Auburn is currently ranked 12th nationally in passing yards allowed. The secondary will get a much tougher test this week against A&M, and I am anxious to see if they're up for the challenge.

Now, let's get into some negatives from this week. I was a bit concerned with a couple of Thorne's decisions when throwing the ball. He seemed to force it to his first read, even when it wasn't open. Both of his interceptions were into very tight coverage. He threw his second interception into triple coverage, and he had a wide open drag route right in front of him that would have gotten big yardage. It is rare for a quarterback to be able to stay poised in a collapsing pocket, go through his progressions, and throw an accurate pass. However, that is something that Thorne is going to have to work on if Auburn wants to succeed in conference play this year. I was also a little disappointed in the performance of our running backs this week. As I mentioned above, the experiment with our passing attack was much more important than the run game against Samford, but I still expected to be successful when we did run the ball. Thorne absolutely was successful, shocking everyone and rushing for 123 yards. However, Hunter and Alston both struggled running the ball, each averaging less than four yards per carry. This could have been because the Samford defense sold out to slowing down the running backs. That would explain Throne's success running the ball and his success throwing the ball downfield. However, the struggles also could have stemmed from a lack of push from our offensive line and a lack of explosiveness from our backs. I truly hope that it is the former, because it is critical that Auburn establishes dominance running the ball in the future so that we can open up some of those opportunities throwing the ball. Other than that, I was pretty satisfied with our performance. There were a few cases of busted assignments on defense, but I expected that during a blowout. Guys start losing focus during these big wins, and I fully expect Freeze and Roberts to keep guys engaged and eliminate these broken plays in the future.

Auburn has a brutal stretch coming up. Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU, and Ole Miss. I think that winning one of these four could be considered a success IF the other three games are competitive.

Let's discuss a little bit about the state of the rest of the conference. The SEC doesn't look as strong this year as it usually does. Alabama struggled again against USF, Arkansas lost to BYU, Tennessee got handled by Florida, and Mississippi State looked rough against LSU. Georgia was far from dominant against South Carolina, and I'm not sold on Ole Miss yet either. I think that this is a great opportunity for Freeze and Auburn to take advantage of this down year and steal a couple games that we weren't expected to win at the beginning of the year. That 8-4 record looks much more attainable now that I've seen how vulnerable some of our future opponents are.

That being said, I still expect to lose to A&M next week. I simply don't think we have the athletes to keep up. If Thorne has success throwing the ball and if our o-line steps up and opens up some running lanes, we may have a chance. If the offense struggles like they did against Cal, it could get ugly. I do think that the 11 A.M start time benefits us. An early start time will hopefully calm the "12th man" a bit. This is a huge test for Freeze. SEC opener. On the road. Opportunity to prove some people wrong and alter the course of this program. I am looking forward to this challenge, and I know he is as well.