Saturday was another rough afternoon for Auburn football.
The Tigers had a chance to turn things around and start Southeastern Conference play with a win, but the opposite happened. They suffered a disappointing 24-14 loss in which turnovers were once again the story of the game.
Here’s how we graded Auburn’s performance:
Offense
Grade: D-
Committing five turnovers and scoring just 14 points, it was another bad performance for the offense.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Hank Brown struggled in his first SEC start, throwing three interceptions in the first half before getting benched. Payton Thorne was better when he entered the game in the second half but couldn’t do enough to change the result.
Auburn outgained Arkansas by almost 100 yards and did some good things at times, but you can’t turn the ball over five times and expect to win or earn a passing grade.
With four interceptions and a fumble and two different quarterbacks playing, there doesn’t seem to be a clear fix for Auburn’s turnover problem. If the Tigers turn it over just two or three times instead of five, there’s a good chance they win.
In most cases, 431 total yards wouldn’t earn this low of a grade, but when you give the ball away five times, it’s hard to go much higher.
Defense
Grade: B-
Auburn’s defense is what kept it in the game, but it made a number of critical errors that changed the game.
Arkansas was 9-for-19 on third down and converted a number of third-and-long opportunities due to penalties and Auburn’s inability to contain a scrambling Taylen Green.
Green was Arkansas’ leading rusher with 80 yards, with many of those coming on scrambles out of pass plays. When Auburn wasn’t getting gashed by Green running, it gave up big pass plays when he escaped the pocket.
The biggest was a 58-yard touchdown pass on a third-and-19, where Green escaped the pocket and threw a deep ball behind the safety that had already crashed down.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Arkansas only averaged four yards per play and talented running back Ja’Quinden Jackson was held to 75 yards on 22 carries.
As a defense, you have to finish drives. That’s what allowed Arkansas to pull away and what keeps the grade from being any higher.
Special Teams
Grade: B
This would likely be an A, if not for a questionable fake punt where Oscar Chapman came up short of the first down.
Overall, nothing really stood out on special teams. Auburn didn’t attempt any field goals and there were no muffed punts this week.
Keionte Scott had one questionable decision where he probably should’ve called a fair catch, but not turnover came from it.
Coaching
Grade: D
The same issues continue to hurt Auburn.
While the players have to take some blame for poor execution, continuing to struggle in the same areas is a result of poor coaching. We’ve now seen two different quarterbacks struggle with interceptions and many of the same quarterback containment issues from the New Mexico game resurfaced against Arkansas.
Neither Hugh Freeze nor anyone on his staff can go on the field and throw passes, but it’s fair to wonder if they’re putting the quarterbacks in a position to be successful.
Defensively, it’s a similar story. The players and staff knew it was facing another mobile quarterback, but it didn’t seem like much changed.
Overall
Grade: D
Auburn could’ve easily won this game, but it continues to get in its own way.
From turnovers on offense to penalties and blown coverages on defense, mistakes are killing this team through four games. There are still positive things, but it seems like every time Auburn is playing well, there’s a bad penalty on defense or a turnover on offense.
A lot of those things seem fixable, but for one reason or another, nothing seems to have been fixed yet.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m
