The manner in which Auburn’s season ground to a halt, its postseason aspirations gone, didn’t necessarily happen in the way you would’ve expected it to, but it was frustratingly predictable at the same time.
Sean White dropped back to pass, skittered in the pocket, and flung a desperation pass to Tony Stevens. It glanced off the senior’s hands, and the sound of 92,000 jubilant Georgia fans erupted. Auburn turned it over, and the Tigers’ chances at a SEC Championship were gone with a feeble 13-7 loss to the Bulldogs in Athens, a place Auburn still hasn't won at since 2005.
It was, in a way, a fitting endcap to one of the strangest and most anemic offensive performances in Auburn history. White, who entered as one of the nation’s most efficient quarterback, was anything but. He finished 6-of-20 for just 27 yards, and threw an interception that Georgia returned for its only touchdown of the day, and the only one it needed.
Kamryn Pettway, still suffering from an injury he incurred late in the game against Vanderbilt, couldn't play. Kerryon Johnson started in his absence and ran for a respectable 99 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, but he shouldered every bit of the Tigers’ offensive load. With Pettway — the SEC's leading rusher — out, Georgia was able to focus in on stopping an injured White when he threw, and it turned its attention to Johnson when it was clear he would be getting the ball.
“When you don’t have a guy like Kam running the ball, obviously it affects a little bit,” Johnson said. “But i think it’s the SEC, people are going to get hurt. That’s no excuse for us not to have a productive day, we just got outplayed.
“They outplayed us. They obviously wanted to win the game more than we did, and that’s what they did. They came out and beat us. Nothing much to say.”
Auburn led at the half, 7-0. It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. The second half, though, was the stuff nightmares are made of.
Pick-six. Punt. Punt. Punt. Punt. Punt. Turnover on downs.
That was how each of Auburn’s drives in the second half ended. In the span of each of those seven drives, the Tigers picked up exactly zero first downs. And the defense, worn down by the lack of rest that comes when the offense can’t stay on the field, eventually gave way to Jacob Eason and Georgia’s pair of running backs. The Bulldogs ground Auburn’s defense down, but Steele’s unit held when it mattered and forced a pair of Rodrigo Blankenship field goals to give White and the offense a fighting chance.
They fought, but repeated incompletions stunted any chance of a sustained drive, and Auburn’s offensive line had trouble picking up late blitzers on obvious passing downs.
“You look back, we'll evaluate everything that happened today,” said coach Gus Malzahn. “We didn't get it done. Any time you don't get it done, you've got to evaluate everything. As far as running the football, we just didn't get it done.”
It culminated in the worst statistical performance on offense by a team with Gus Malzahn as the coach or offensive coordinator since 2011, when Auburn mustered just 140 yards against Alabama.
Of greater consequence is the ramifications this has on the rest of Auburn’s season. With the loss, Alabama clinches a third-straight SEC West crown. Auburn will drop out of the top 10, and unless the Tigers upset that same Alabama team in two weeks, the Tigers likely won’t be heading to a New Year’s Six bowl game.
So, what else is there to play for? Pride, for one.
“You play for pride, you play for winning,” Johnson said. “Finishing the season with just three losses is better than what we did last year. Now you just play for pride, you play for a bowl game at the end of the season, you play to win, you play because you love to play football. We don’t play just to go to the playoffs.”
They can still head to a bowl game, one that will certainly be of more prestige than the Birmingham Bowl a year ago.
“We got this far by being together, and that’s how we’re going to stay, we’re going to stay together,” said Carl Lawson. “We’re going to earn everything, we’ve still got a lot to fight for. This one sucks, but we’ve still got a lot to fight for.”
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