Every Tuesday we present “The Auburn Corner,” where we’ll get into a different topic on the Auburn Tigers, break down the previous game, preview the upcoming game, and everything in between.
The Auburn Tigers have at last mercifully arrived at the bye week coming off three straight losses, an 0-3 start to conference play, and a 2-4 start overall. With the team starting the year with five straight games at home, hopes were high that the Tigers could enter the month of October at 4-1 at the very worst.
Now, as we sit here six games in, Auburn is 2-4 at the bye week and still faces some extremely tough games. It’s hard to say things are moving in the right direction on the heels of three straight losses. But looking beyond the 31-13 final score against Georgia, things might be trending up for the Tigers as they really went on the road to put up a fairly admirable performance.
Georgia only out-gained Auburn 381-337 and 240-200 in terms of passing yardage. Rushing yardage was nearly identical and first downs were only 21-18. Perhaps most convincing is that the Tigers and Bulldogs had the same number of yards-per-offensive play with 5.8. Refreshingly, Auburn also did not turn the ball over once.
Of course, the difference in the game was that Georgia capitalized on their red zone trips and Auburn did not. But nobody is chastising Auburn for losing on the road against Georgia. Tiger fans wanted to see fight from the team — and they did see exactly that.
With a chance to improve even further in the bye week, Auburn will have what now seems like a winnable game on the road the following week against Missouri before taking a trip to Lexington to face a similarly-beatable Kentucky team.
If the Tigers can get to their next home game against Vanderbilt on November 2 at 4-4, it would be a heck of a turnaround for Hugh Freeze and company. And the numbers from Saturday suggest that it might not be all that unrealistic.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
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