Ricardo Louis stuck his foot in the ground, cut and planted again. He tried to lunge into the end zone, but the ball wasn’t there.
White jerseys swarmed the field from the sideline, celebrating another forced turnover.
That was a microcosm of how the game went for Auburn.
After a first-possession touchdown, the Tigers never found the end zone again, and instead were forced to settle for a pair of field goals over the next 50 minutes in a 20-13 loss to Georgia Saturday afternoon.
The defense turned in its best game of the season, holding Georgia to 243 yards, the lowest Auburn has surrendered in a conference game since a 17-9 win over Florida in 2011.
Bulldog quarterback Greyson Lambert was limited to 97 yards passing, and Georgia mustered only 146 yards on the ground.
“The defense played well,” said coach Gus Malzahn. “The big fourth down stop was huge. I thought they did some very good things, and the defense played well today. We didn’t win. That is the bottom line. Maybe one group needs to step up, but we just didn’t score enough points to win today.”
But the other side of the coin revealed why the Tigers couldn’t pull together a win.
The Auburn offense managed just 275 yards of its own, 213 of which were on the ground. And while the rushing attack produced a robust 5.8 yards per carry, the unstable quarterback situation prevented the Tigers from capitalizing on a stacked front seven.
Jeremy Johnson and Sean White combined to go 15 for 27 for 62 yards, a fumble and an interception. The performance of Auburn’s pair of quarterbacks resulted in an 2.3 yards per attempt average, the lowest of any game of Malzahn’s career.
Johnson, who regained his starting role for the Texas A&M game, was limited to throwing screens and shorter passes. He and White knew coming into the game they would rotate throughout the day, but White never looked comfortable, clearly still suffering from a nagging knee injury. White completed only one of five passes for a single yard, and had a fumble deep in Auburn territory which led to a Georgia field goal.
But Johnson, who looked renewed in College Station, reverted back to his old ways. He rushed throws, appeared uncomfortable in the pocket and didn’t resemble the poised, confident leader he was a week ago.
“It’s very disappointing,” Johnson said. “With a game like this, it’s a big rivalry. You always want to win this game, unfortunately we came up short. All we can do is just get better from here.”
Auburn got on the board first, taking the opening drive of the game 75 yards in 11 plays into the end zone, capped off by a 7-yard Kerryon Johnson run out of the Wildcat.
But outside of that drive, the Tigers mustered only 200 total yards the rest of the game.
A 53-yard punt return touchdown by Isaiah McKenzie put the Bulldogs up 17-10 nearly midway through the final period and proved to be the difference.
Auburn continues its three-game homestand next week against Idaho, who provide the Tigers’ best shot at becoming bowl-eligible with a sixth win.
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