WEEK 5: Auburn falls late to Georgia; Was This A Productive Loss?

Auburn gave up a late touchdown which ultimately led to a 27-20 loss to #1 Georgia on Saturday. That makes Auburn 3-2 overall on the season and 0-2 in SEC play.

While this may look disappointing on paper, I think it's important for Auburn fans to look at this from a realistic perspective. After a pretty disgusting loss to A&M last week, Auburn went toe-to-toe with the repeat national champs. This program is making progress in the right direction. That being said, moral victories are a dangerous pleasure. No team should ever be completely satisfied with a losing result. Some may say, "well, we covered the spread and made it closer than it was supposed to be, so I don't care that we lost." That is a loser's mentality. There are only two potential results for each game -- a win or a loss. There are no "almost won's" or "played better than we should have's." I hope these players are upset with the loss, and I hope they use this tough start in SEC play as motivation for the upcoming weeks. They should not be satisfied with simply losing better than expected.

Let's look at some of the positives that Auburn can try and build on in the coming weeks.

I thought that Payton Thorne played better this week than he did against A&M. If you didn't watch the game and only looked at the box score, you may think that I've lost my mind. He finished 10/19 passing with 82 yards and one interception. He also tallied 92 yards rushing. If you look at those stats without any context, they are not impressive. However, six of his nine incompletions hit his intended target, so his passing numbers could have been a lot prettier. Thorne appears to be a lot more comfortable at home than he is on the road. He did not play great, but I was happy to see him bounce back after most people had written him off, myself included. Overall, I was pleased with our offensive performance. I think that our success running the ball made up for the lack of offense through the air. Auburn finished with 219 total rushing yards, and they came in a good combination of designed quarterback runs along with smash-mouth carries from the running backs. I also thought the defense played very well for the first three quarters. I have been very pleased with this unit so far this year. Jaylin Simpson tallied his fourth interception of the year. He has made a giant leap, and I expect him to get some attention in this upcoming draft. Alex McPherson made a clutch kick in the fourth to tie it up. Having a kicker that you can count on in clutch situations like that is pivotal for any team.

Fortunately, I don't have many negatives to discuss this week. I'll start with the lackluster play of our receivers that I mentioned earlier. I've been very disappointed in our guys' ability to catch balls in traffic. Part of the reason for Thorne's struggles have been because of a lack of ability for our receivers to catch balls when they aren't 100% open. We DESPERATELY need some playmakers in the upcoming recruiting class. I think that Perry Thompson will walk in and be a day-one starter based off of what I've seen from this receiving group so far. I was also disappointed in our lack of adjustments on Brock Bowers in the fourth quarter. I am okay with Bowers making those one-handed catches in traffic. What I am not okay with is leaving him open on down-and-long situations when you know that Carson Beck is targeting him. I am a firm believer in the policy of "make someone else beat you." I don't care if you have to quadruple team him, DO NOT let Bowers be the one to catch the ball on down-and-long situations. Up until the fourth quarter, he was relatively quiet. He exploded for 130 yards in the fourth, and he made the defense look like children on his final touchdown catch. I hope that in the future, we hone in on the opposing team's star player a little better. I was also disappointed that the defense finished with zero sacks. I thought that putting some pressure on Carson Beck in an already uncomfortable road environment might force him into some mistakes. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to see if that would be the case or not. The defensive line continues to struggle in pass rush.

Now, was this a productive loss?

I would say that it was. Had we been blown out by Georgia, we would have went into the bye week with a low morale, and I think that that would have put Freeze in danger of losing the engagement of this team during this longer stretch between games. The fact that it was such a competitive game can be used to keep our guys motivated for this upcoming stretch of the season. Because of this, I look at the loss to Georgia as a productive one.

Auburn has it's bye week next week. I'm hoping that this will allow some of our guys that have been a little banged up to get back to 100% so that we can put our best product on the field against LSU. I probably won't write next weekend since there is no game, so I will see you again in two weeks.