Saturday felt like the same old story for Auburn.
The Tigers came close and had plenty of chances to salt the game away, but they didn’t. And with the door never closing, Missouri walked right through and claimed a 21-17 win.
Auburn dropped to 2-5 this season, 0-4 in the SEC.
There were mistakes in all three phases of the game as Auburn was once again second-best. Blame will likely be placed on the offense by many, but numerous mistakes across the board led to another meltdown.
Here‘s how we graded Auburn’s performance:
Offense
Grade: D-
This one was bad, really bad.
Auburn only mustered 286 yards of total offense in the game. Considering this was after a bye week, giving Auburn two weeks to prepare, the performance is even worse with context.
If you want to extract any positives from the loss, you can point out the fact that Auburn only turned the ball over once. Given the turnover issues in previous games, that’s an improvement, but it makes the 286 yards look even worse.
The best moment of the day was Payton Thorne’s 47-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman, but Thorne struggled in the later stages of the game.
Jarquez Hunter had his quietest game of the season too, being held to 57 yards and just three yards per carry.
There were a few small things that prevent the offense from earning an F, but there isn’t much else to salvage this performance.
Defense
Grade: B-
Auburn‘s defense was good, until it wasn’t.
It held Missouri to limited production for most of the game, but that success coincided with Missouri starting quarterback Brady Cook sidelined due to an ankle injury.
When Cook returned with under a minute left in the third quarter, he gave Auburn‘s defense fits with both his legs and chunk plays through the air. His third play back in the game was a 78-yard connection with Mookie Cooper, setting up Missouri’s first touchdown of the game on the next play.
He was most effective, though, on Missouri’s 17-play, 95-yard drive to take the lead in the final minute. He had runs of 14 and nine yards on that drive, showcasing an issue Auburn has dealt with all season.
“It was a hard thing. But we’re gonna get that addressed and talk about it in film (study),” Auburn linebacker Eugene Asante said of the scrambles after the game.
The disappointing part of that statement is that Auburn had chances to get the issue of quarterback runs fixed after the New Mexico game and after Arkansas and again after Oklahoma, but the issue persists.
Special Teams
Grade: D
It takes an especially bad performance to score a special teams touchdown and still get a D here.
Penalties in the kicking game continue to be an issue for Auburn, and they cost the Tigers field position at times. The bigger mistake, though, was Towns McGough’s missed 30-yard field goal.
It came when Auburn was up 17-6, and felt like the turning point in the game when Cook re-entered immediately following the missed kick.
McGough is now 5-for-10 on the season, continuing to struggle as Alex McPherson is still yet to play a game for Auburn this season.
“He’s in a kicker’s slump, I guess you would say,” Freeze said of McGough. “Alex is closer health-wise for some shorter ones. Probably have to look at that too.”
Coaching
Grade: D+
Auburn still can’t get over the hump, and that falls on coaching before anything else.
Offensively, the most questionable sequence came on the drive where McGough missed the field goal. Auburn had first-and-goal at the 10-yard line, but threw the ball three straight times.
For context, Auburn ran the ball on eight of its nine previous plays and was moving the ball efficiently doing so.
The first throw on the sequence was a nice end zone shot to Robert Lewis that went through his hands, but the next play was a sack that took away any realistic chance of Auburn getting into the end zone.
Defensively, the biggest question is how Auburn still struggles to contain running quarterbacks seven games into the season. Asante claimed that the team will address the issue this week, but one would think it would be addressed and fixed by now.
Overall
Grade: C-
Auburn looked good enough to win, but it didn’t. Does that sound familiar?
This time around, Auburn really never played well, but mistakes by Missouri gave it a lead and a sense of control.
Eventually, the visiting Tigers’ performance caught up with them, and they were handed a rather deserved loss. You can still make a strong argument, though, that Auburn should’ve won. That’s what good teams do.
Good teams take advantage of their opponents fumbling handoffs and muffing punts into the end zone and win the game.
At the moment, the mark of a good team is one Auburn is falling short of.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com
