For a group that kept quarterback’s jersey clean in in its week one matchup with Alabama A&M, the offensive line struggled mightily — specifically in pass protection — as the competition ramped up with Cal making its first trip to Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The group struggled to keep the pocket clean for Payton Thorne, giving up three sacks and five tackles for loss and contributed to a rough performance from the fifth-year quarterback as he tallied up four interceptions on the day.
Contributing to the offensive woes is the fact that on nearly every possession the group played behind the chains, and Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze knows that is not a recipe for success when trying to win close football games.
“The key to that is I think we’ve done a good job pass-protecting when it’s not third-and-10 or third-and-12,” Freeze said. “It was just way too many of those. We can’t be in those situations. There is probably a lot of lines that are going to struggle when they’re able to get their rabbit personnel on the defense and four pass rushers and can add a fifth one to it. And you know you have to run routes to a certain depth to get a first down. It’s very challenging. So, I think the key to us to be a great pass protecting team is to stay out of those. We need to stay in those third-and-five.”
Making matters worse for the group is the injury that starting tackle Izavion “Too Tall” Miller suffered early in the game. Freeze mentioned in his weekly presser that Miller is unlikely to play against New Mexico.
So where does that leave a struggling unit that’s trying to find answers?
“Most likely we’ll have to move D-Wade (Dillon Wade) to tackle this week and I’m not sure which one yet,” Freeze said. “We’ll kind of talk through that. I thought Percy (Lewis) played his best game, that was good to see. Tyler (Johnson) looked like a freshman at some points. We’ll need all three of them. Chances are we’ll move one to left (tackle), one to right (tackle) and the other guy is going to have to be the swing guy.
“(Ronan) Chambers played okay at times. In the run game he played fine. In the pass game he struggled a bit. Those would be the four guys, but yeah, you’ll probably see us have to move D-Wade out some. Maybe not every snap, but I think you’ll see him some at tackle this week.”
Freeze and offensive line coach Jake Thornton will hope to see improvement from the group on homecoming Saturday as the New Mexico Lobos come to town. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CST and will be televised on ESPN2.
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Logan Fowler is a Senior from Sumiton, Alabama and is majoring in journalism. He joined the Plainsman in Spring 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @loganffowler
