WEEK 7: LSU Dominates Auburn; Is This Season a Wash?

Well, I think I'm finally starting to recover from the absolute beatdown that occurred on Saturday night in Death Valley. LSU dominated the game from start to finish. Auburn was simply outmatched. I don't think anyone expected Auburn to win this game, but I also don't think anyone expected a blowout. Coming off of a bye week, I thought that Freeze would be able to put his best product on the field, and that simply was not the case. It was a disappointing loss to say the least. Any momentum we had after the Georgia game is now gone, and Freeze is going to have a hard time keeping this team from going off the rails.

Due to a lack of positives this week, I'm going to skip straight to the negatives. I'll finish up with some questions regarding the remainder of this season.

I'll start with the poor offensive gameplan. If Auburn was going to have any chance in this game, they would need to control the ball and keep LSU's explosive offense off the field. You do this by running the ball and having long, sustained drives. So what does Montgomery draw up? ZERO running plays on the first two drives. After dominating on the ground against Georgia, you would think that Auburn would try and ride that momentum to get us going against a poor LSU defense. Wrong. Nothing but pass plays, and after two unsuccessful and quick drives, the LSU offense was off to the races. After all of our struggles throwing the ball, Montgomery decides to open the game with nothing but passing plays. I simply don't understand the thought process behind that. I was also disappointed in Payton Thorne's performance. The decision making, the lack of awareness in the pocket, and the inability to throw his guys open were all disappointing. However, the most disappointing thing happened in the fourth quarter on fourth down. Thorne had the opportunity to lower his shoulder to try and get a first down. Instead, he avoided any contact and ran out of bounds, short of the marker. That was the final straw for me. A lack of competitive fire is inexcusable. I think it's time to move on from Thorne and give the starting job back to Ashford. He may struggle throwing the ball, but we know that he will compete. Thorne has had plenty of opportunities to prove himself, and he has not risen to the occasion. Another disappointment was the number of times the defense lost their assignments. I understand that Jayden Daniels is impossible to gameplan for and that the LSU offense is going to score. However, there were too many occasions on Saturday night where guys were completely uncovered. The defense has been solid this year, but their performance against LSU was subpar. They put up very little resistance. LSU finished with 563 yards of total offense, and those yards came fairly easy. Overall, Auburn just looked bad. I don't know how else to put it. We have to get it together before Ole Miss.

So, is this season a wash?

No, it is not. It is not time to hit the panic button. At the beginning of the year, I predicted that Auburn would lose four in a row. This is a brutal stretch for the Tigers. We have played the best opponents we will play this year in LSU and Georgia. We can recover from this. If we put a good product on the field against Ole Miss, I don't see why we can't win the remainder of our games. If we don't play good, this season could turn into a nightmare. It is pivotal that we as fans don't give up on this team.

Who is to blame for Auburn's struggles?

I think the majority of the blame falls on someone who isn't even with the program anymore. Bryan Harsin. His lack of recruiting has put Auburn at a pretty severe talent deficit, and we are beginning to see it. Other than that, these losses have been a group effort. The offense isn't executing, and the gameplans have been poor. I still have plenty of faith in Hugh Freeze, and I trust that he will turn this season around.

Should we continue with the two quarterback system?

In my opinion, no. I think Ashford should get all the reps from this point forward. If we are going to continue with the current system, we HAVE to stop switching quarterbacks mid-drive. At the end of the first half against LSU, the Auburn offense was marching with Ashford. He got subbed out, and the offense completely stalled. That was frustrating for us fans, and I can only imagine how frustrating it was for Ashford. I think he needs to be the guy moving forward.

Big game against Ole Miss this weekend. Jordan Hare is going to be rocking. I'm excited to see how this one turns out. I'm still leaning towards Ole Miss, but it should be a good game. It always is in Jordan Hare.