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A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn QB Jarrett Stidham's past struggles resurface in loss to LSU

<p>Jarrett Stidham (8) rolls out to pass during Auburn football vs. LSU on Sept. 15, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.</p>

Jarrett Stidham (8) rolls out to pass during Auburn football vs. LSU on Sept. 15, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.

In the 17 starts at his time at Auburn, Jarrett Stidham has been a catalyst for the Auburn offense and his performance sets the tone on whether Auburn sinks or swims. 

Auburn is 12-5 with Stidham at the helm and in those five losses, Stidham’s performance has been sub-par. The pattern of Stidham’s performance and Auburn’s record is something that cannot be ignored. 

Saturday against LSU, that pattern was evident again. The second-year starter made some solid throws but overall was not his usual accurate self. Stidham threw 16-of-28 with 198 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions – one coming on his first pass attempt of the game and the other coming in LSU territory late in the third quarter on a “miscommunication.” 

In the other four losses, Stidham also struggled and that trickled down to the whole offense with the Tigers averaging only 16.8 points a game in losses compared to 41.25 in wins.

A main reason the Tigers fail to get into the end zone in such games is Stidham’s inability to hit his connect with his receivers and turning the football over. Stidham is 82-153 (53 percent) with 918 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions. 

Stidham has thrown eight interceptions while at Auburn and half of those have come in losses – including two against LSU on Saturday. The 53 percent completion percentage is abysmal compared to his 72 percent completion percentage in wins. 

The higher completion percentage naturally led to him passing for nearly 2,824 yards and a 17 touchdown to four interception ratio.

After a first quarter that Auburn would want to forget, Stidham and company led Auburn to back-to-back touchdown drives to put them up at half. The momentum stayed on the offense’s side up until the first drive of the third quarter, after a Stidham touchdown pass put Auburn up 21-10. 

With the game looking to get out of reach for LSU, the offense stalled once again, with four of the last five drives ending with gains of one, 17, 11 and five – including one of the drives ending in an interception. 

“Something like this can’t happen again,” Stidham said. “We had the entire game in front of us and we just kind of let it go for whatever reason.

“We just didn’t do our part. We did our part some of the time, we just didn’t do it all the time."

Auburn’s team is a veteran one with tons of leadership that knows what it takes to overcome a tough loss in the season. Last season after another offensive collapse, Auburn back-fired with an offensive explosion during the rest of the regular season, averaging 40.4 points per game during that span. 

“We got great people on these team, great leaders and we’re going to find a way to bounce back for sure,” Stidham said. 

Auburn has an easier stretch of games to figure out the issues on offense with Arkansas coming to Jordan-Hare next weekend and Southern Miss the following week. 


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