Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze says the quiet part out loud after gut-wrenching loss to Georgia
Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers could have had a 17-0 lead over Georgia as the half.
There was a moment where it felt like the Auburn Tigers would be up 17-0 on the Georgia Bulldogs. In fact, it should have been that. I’m not one to complain about officiating, and I have no dog in the fight, but Auburn very literally had a touchdown robbed from them against Georgia.
Before the last minute and thirty seconds of the first half, the Tigers were undoubtedly the better team between the two. The rest of the game, Auburn brought out a different team from halftime.
“I think it’s very clear we find ways to not win football games. And that’s what has to change,” head coach Hugh Freeze told reporters after the game. “We felt like we were going to win the game. Here I am feeling again like we don’t quite know how to do that.”
That’s the definition of saying the quiet part out loud.
Georgia run game vs. Auburn run defense coming into the game
- Georgia Bulldogs rank 17th among power conference teams in offensive rush success rate (23rd among all FBS). Auburn has yet to face a rushing offense ranked inside the top 50 among FBS teams by that measure.
- Auburn’s defense ranks third in rush success rate, second in EPA (expected points added) per carry, and third in yards per carry allowed among all FBS teams.
- Georgia has five different players with multiple rushing touchdowns, all five of them averaging over five yards per carry.
- Auburn just surrendered 139 yards to Le’Veon Moss of Texas A&M and saw Rueben Owens average over 17 yards per carry in that same game against them.
Auburn has a track record of losing winnable games in 2025 already.
The Tigers are 3-3, but the season isn’t over. If they win out from here, sure, there’s a chance they make the College Football Playoffs. However, what are the chances of them winning out with the schedule they have? They still have to play the Missouri Tigers next week, No. 20 Vanderbilt a few weeks after that, and then the Alabama Crimson Tide a few weeks after that. They could do it, but they can’t figure out how to win.
And, while yes, that touchdown was robbed from them, the Tigers still had ample opportunities to go and get the job done. They didn’t score at all in the second half, and the Bulldogs only scored pretty much 10 points in the entire second half until a touchdown run by Stockton in the last minute of the game.
Even if the Tigers had gotten that touchdown called, and the roughing the passer and targeting calls at the end of the first half wouldn’t have been called, who is to say the Tigers still wouldn’t have performed the way they did in the second half? They had a chance to beat the Oklahoma Sooners on the road, and didn’t. They had a chance to beat the Texas A&M Aggies on the road, and didn’t.
Auburn and Hugh Freeze are starting to have a track record of not being able to play the right football for an entire second half, after playing good to great football in the first half.
Auburn Tigers News
Auburn Tigers’ big game against Missouri next week just got even more important before they’ve even played Georgia
The Auburn Tigers really want Dream Rashad, so they’ll have to show out against Missouri.
