Auburn report card: Grading the Tigers road win at Kentucky

Auburn snapped a four-game losing streak defeating Kentucky Saturday night.

After trailing 10-0 early, the Tigers came out in the second half with a 14-play, 75-yard drive that took over seven minutes to take a lead they didn’t relinquish.

Auburn moves to 3-5 this season, 1-4 in the SEC. Here‘s how we graded Tigers performance:

Offense

Grade: B

After going scoreless in the opening quarter with negative rushing yards, Auburn leaned on a career night from Jarquez Hunter who rushed for 278 yards and two touchdowns.

The Tigers racked up 498 total yards of offense and finished 27 first downs compared to Kentucky’s 13. Payton Thorne completed 20-of-26 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown to Keandre Lambert-Smith. His first quarter interception was the only turnover for Auburn.

Despite a great showing, the Tigers offense was far from perfect as Thorne took several sacks. One sack cost Auburn to miss out on three points before the halftime break.

Defense

Grade: A-

Kentucky’s offense went cold after a 10-0 first quarter lead over Auburn. The Tigers scored 24 unanswered points as the defense held Kentucky to only 224 yards of offense.

Dorian Mausi commanded the defense with 10 total tackles and Keldrick Faulk led with two first half sacks for the Tigers.

Auburn forced two turnovers by the Wildcats as Jay Crawford and Kayin Lee both snagged interceptions in the secondary.

Special Teams

Grade: B-

Alex McPherson made his season debut returning in the kicking line up with freshman Towns McGough. He connected on his first extra point attempt and 27-yard first half field goal.

He finished the night 1-of-2 on field goals missing a 47-yard attempt in the third quarter.

McGough got the start handling all the kickoff duties for the Tigers Saturday.

Coaching

Grade: A

With all the odds stacked against him traveling late to Lexington due to food poisoning, Hugh Freeze and his staff found a way to lead the Tigers over Kentucky.

With 50 rushing attempts for 326 total rushing yards on the ground, Freeze utilized that unit all second half to drain out the Wildcats defense.

Overall

Grade: B+

Auburn finally found a way to finish a game giving their season hope at a possible bowl bid.

Now returning back to Jordan-Hare stadium to host Vanderbilt next week, the Tigers look to keep the momentum going in final three games.