This is an opinion column.
The third quarter clock read 11:08 in the best of times for Auburn.
This snake-bit team was finally getting the breaks, taking a 14-point lead at No. 19 Missouri after the homecoming hosts muffed a punt. The touchdown was the second of the half not four minutes deep.
They were in a groove. Missouri was a mess. And it was all about to unravel.
Because Auburn’s forgot how to win.
It’s good enough to lead but not to finish the job and this season of heartache added another dimension on a sunny Saturday in Columbia.
A 21-17 Auburn loss was the latest example of a season slowly unraveling.
The Tigers are 2-6 overall and 0-4 in the SEC for the second consecutive season. This program has never lost its first four league games in back-to-back seasons because, well, you see the headline.
Twice they’ve blown double-digit fourth-quarter leads in SEC play after tripping on a 21-10 edge against Oklahoma three weeks ago. That mess centered on a backbreaking Pick 6 that snatched the lead away.
Seven games in, Auburn’s only wins remain Alabama A&M (a 3-3 FCS team) and New Mexico (2-4 in the Mountain West).
This time, it was more of a slow creeping death.
Like a 17-play, 95-yard slog for a Missouri offense led by a quarterback who appeared to be out for the game. Auburn had every opportunity to take advantage of the absence of Brady Cook but even with a few new wrinkles and a commitment to the ground game, no dice.
So, up just three when Missouri got the ball one final time with 4:26 left, Auburn looked like a tractor-trailer stalled on the train tracks.
They looked gassed, not exactly accepting the inevitable fate but unable to crank that engine one final time.
It was a gut-check time and, see the headline above.
So with Cook back on the field after leaving on the first drive with an ankle injury, Missouri was that freight train. Those Tigers converted three third downs on that final drive. And when they came up short on third and 18, Cook found star receiver Luther Burden for 16 yards on fourth and five from Auburn’s 41.
Burden, an All-American caliber receiver, didn’t get a touch until the final moments of the first half but he was ready when it mattered. He had the 13-yard catch on the play before to make the fourth-down, convert-or-lose moment more manageable.
But its moments like that fourth-down crossroad that Auburn’s flunking consistently this season. This time it wasn’t about giveaways for a team that entered with the nation’s worst negative-11 turnover margin. In fact, Auburn had a 2-1 edge in takeaways.
And this isn’t just on the defense for not stopping that final drive.
Though field position was a huge Auburn advantage in the fourth quarter, it was no thanks to anything the offense did. The road Tigers gained exactly 22 yards in the fourth quarter when Payton Thorne completed 1 of 6 throws and nine rushing attempts averaged 0.4 yards a pop.
After Missouri punted from its own end zone with 5:56 to go, Auburn took over up 17-14 from the home team’s 37.
Blood in the water time.
Instinct should take over from there, but … see headline.
Auburn went 3-and-out with two straight negative running plays and a dropped pass required Oscar Chapman’s seventh punt of the day. And it’s not like there weren’t moments of positivity for this Auburn offense because they’ve been there all season.
The 47-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman just after halftime was exactly the vision from Freeze’s first full recruiting class. The 5-star who flipped from Texas A&M looked the part on the long touchdown reception after going without a catch in the last outing at Georgia.
The muffed punt touchdown followed moments later but there would be little more to celebrate for the Tiger offense. Outside of a 13-play, 63-yard drive that ended in a missed field goal, the offensive drive chart was a mess.
- 3 plays, 2 yards (punt)
- 13 plays, 63 yards (missed FG)
- 3 plays, 7 yards (punt)
- 5 plays, 26 yards (punt)
- 3 plays, -3 yards (punt)
- 4 plays, -8 yards (turnover on downs)
Game over.
When it was time to ice the win or steal one back, Auburn went backward.
A perfect illustration for a 2-6 team winless in SEC play.
This is a proud program that’s going in the wrong direction.
One that’s good enough to lead but forgot how to win.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
