Hugh Freeze wouldn’t admit real problem for Auburn Tigers but gave credit to Brent Venables following Oklahoma loss
It’s hard to admit what’s really wrong with a football team sometimes. Auburn lost a tough 24-17 game to Oklahoma on Saturday and there were plenty of fingers to point.The SEC officiating admitted they blew a call that gave Oklahoma an extra touchdown. The entire Tigers team committed 13 penalties. Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze […]
It’s hard to admit what’s really wrong with a football team sometimes. Auburn lost a tough 24-17 game to Oklahoma on Saturday and there were plenty of fingers to point.
The SEC officiating admitted they blew a call that gave Oklahoma an extra touchdown. The entire Tigers team committed 13 penalties. Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze himself admitted after the game that the Sooners just played extremely well, complimenting Brent Venables and his play-calling (which we’ll get to), but no one mentioned the real problem.
Jackson Arnold took not one, not two, not three, but 10 sacks on the game. Coach Freeze wouldn’t acknowledge that in postgame, but he better get that fixed.
Hugh Freeze shared strong words on how good Brent Venables is at calling defense
One of the first things Hugh Freeze had no problem mentioning was just how special the Oklahoma Sooners staff and defensive players are. It was no secret, the Sooners had a top ten defense in the nation coming into the game against Auburn. It was always going to be a tough win to pull off:
“[Brent Venables] is one of the best we face. He does an incredible job and has incredible talent–which makes play calling a lot easier. But he does a great job. Mixes it up. A lot of different coverages, and disguises them well. And then all the [defensive] front stuff, of course is challenging.”
It’s nice to give credit where it’s due. Brent Venables called a great defensive game for Oklahoma and the Sooners pass rushers (especially R Mason Thomas and Jayden Jackson) had phenomenal games. However, most of the problems with Auburn stemmed from Jackson Arnold and his inability to avoid pressures. The final sack of the game (seen in post below) wasn’t all his fault, but he should have been looking for Thomas (the Sooners’ best pass rusher).
Freeze willingly mentioned the team’s wild struggles with 13 penalties. He had no problem addressing the fact that the offensive line wasn’t getting sufficient or consistent push in the run game–although that was a bit overblown. Unfortunately he wouldn’t address the sack issues, which would have completely changed the game had Arnold not walked into sacks or sat back in the pocket way too long a few times.
Coach Freeze needs to fix several things coming off this loss to Oklahoma, but he needs to start looking at the elephant in the room: his quarterback. Sure, he’s not going to throw his QB under the bus completely in front of the press immediately following the game, but this is getting ridiculous.
Jackson Arnold has now taken 17 sacks through just four games. He takes a sack on over 50% of his pressures (three times FBS average).
Jackson Arnold’s inability to deal with pressure must be fixed.
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