It was more of the same for Auburn inside of Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday afternoon in a 24-14 loss to Arkansas. The Tigers had its second consecutive five turnover game to a power-four opponent for its fourth straight power-four loss.
“I don't have the words,” Freeze said following the second straight loss to an opponent Auburn was favored over. “It's just sickening, sickening that we can't take care of the football on offense, and I've got to get that fixed.”
Auburn has now racked up 14 turnovers in its first four games – the Tigers had 20 over its 13 games played during the 2023 season. The exact margin of defeat in Auburn’s SEC opener, 10 points, came directly after Tiger turnovers.
“He [Hank Brown] did not play well in the first half and missed open guys and obviously threw the ball into coverage,” Freeze said of the redshirt freshman’s performance.” And so obviously we're not doing a very good job coaching quarterbacks right now.”
In his first SEC start, Hank Brown only lasted until halftime after throwing three interceptions and going four-for-ten after his first three completions to start the game.
“We got to make catches when they come our way. We got to make throws, and we certainly can't turn the ball over like we're doing right now,” Freeze said.
Former starting quarterback and current team captain, Payton Thorne, played the entire second half for Auburn. While the Tigers were able to amass 14 points and 258 total yards of offense to Arkansas’ 170, regardless of who played quarterback Saturday Auburn struggled to finish off drives.
“We just weren’t good enough on offense. Our defense played well enough for us to win the game but, we just weren’t good enough on offense,” Throne said.
Junior Keyron Crawford dives for a sack during Arkansas at Auburn on Sept 21, 2024.
After Arkansas’ touchdown to start the second quarter, DJ Durkin’s unit held the Razorbacks to seven-straight drives without points.
However, the Hogs dominated Auburn in time of possession early in the game, leading 11:30 to 3:30 at the end of the first quarter, and the Tigers just seemed to run out of gas down the stretch – allowing Arkansas to score on its last three drives before simply trying to run time off the clock during its last possession.
“It was devastating,” Freeze said of Arkansas converting five of its 10 third downs in the second half. “I mean, obviously they had fought so hard after the offense put us in some bad spots and to keep us in the game.”
Arkansas quarterback Taylin Green completed just 12 of his 27 pass attempts for 151 yards, but the Razorbacks were able to run for 183 yards, to Auburn’s 146, with Green and Ja'Quinden Jackson both racking up 75 plus yards on the ground a piece.
“If we could just get off the field on third and longs, that defensive effort would have been remarkable, truthfully,” Freeze said. “We can't do that, but they played hard on defense.”
The one bright spot of the day for Auburn was wide receiver Keiondre Lambert-Smith who had both of Auburn’s two touchdowns and 156 yards receiving on five receptions. The Penn State transfer had two receptions of 56 and 67 yards.
“There's signs that we can do some good things, but we cannot play as inconsistent as we are. And that's getting really, really frustrating and old. I'm sure it is to a lot of people,” Freeze said.
With the second loss of the season, the Tigers fall to a 1-5 record in home power-four contests under Freeze with a stretch of No. 15 Oklahoma, at No. 2 Georgia and at No. 7 Missouri in the immediate future for Auburn.
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
