Observations: Missouri 23, Auburn 17 (2OT)
For the fourth straight game, Auburn lost to a ranked SEC team. This time, the wasted chances to win came earlier — and more frequently.
AUBURN — Last week, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze used the start of his opening statement after yet another low-scoring loss against an SEC opponent to let everyone know that his Tigers “find ways to not win football games.”
This week, after yet another low-scoring loss against an SEC opponent, Freeze went with a much simpler approach to the start of his opening statement.
“Obviously, this just sucks,” Freeze said.
He said it.
Auburn has now lost four straight games, meaning Freeze is now the first head coach in program history to start SEC play 0-4 in three consecutive seasons. The only reason that isn’t a more brutal stat is that, just last week, Freeze became the first head coach in Auburn history to start SEC play 0-3 in three consecutive seasons.
The 23-17 double overtime loss to Missouri on Saturday night was just the newest flavor of bitter disappointment for Auburn football. For the first time all season, Auburn staged a second-half comeback and actually had momentum early in the fourth quarter of a game against a quality opponent.
Auburn was up by four points and had third-and-goal at the Missouri 1 with a little more than 11 minutes to play. It had overcome two missed field goals to finally retake the lead, and now the host Tigers were just three feet away from going up by two possessions against a team that hadn’t come close to scoring the entire second half.
Then Jackson Arnold was dropped for a 3-yard loss. A snap from true freshman center Kail Ellis — in the game for injured veteran Connor Lew — went high. But the play was probably dead anyway, given how quickly Missouri got into the backfield.
Auburn settled for a field goal, meaning Missouri would only be down by a full touchdown. After the defense forced a punt, Auburn promptly went 3-and-out.
A defense that had been rock solid gave away 30 penalty yards on a drive that only needed 60 for the game-tying score. Composure and discipline were lacking again.
The next Auburn possession crossed midfield thanks to a 34-yard busted play. Then, after Auburn didn’t get a pass interference call on a deep shot to Cam Coleman that it wanted, the offense promptly crumbled — yet again — in the face of adversity.
From that point on, Auburn ran 10 offensive plays for -5 yards. As Jacob Waters of the Opelika-Auburn News noted, for the fourth straight game, Auburn’s offense stared at multiple opportunities to go and take a victory by force and did nothing with them.
The loss wasn’t anything new, and the comments afterwards weren’t anything new. Freeze talked about not making enough plays and “not finding ways to win games.” He also, once again, told everyone that the Tigers would turn things around soon.
“I know we’re close, and I know we’ll get it over the hump,” Freeze said. “Certainly no one hurts for these incredible fans more than me and our staff. We’re close. But I know that people are tired of hearing that, because I’m tired of saying it, and I’m tired of feeling it.
“But I do know that anyone that looks — I mean, this stretch of games was against four really, really good teams that we had a chance to win all of them. At some point, they’re gonna start going our way.”
Hope does not sound like a winning strategy, especially when losing has become a habit. Freeze is now four games under .500 at Auburn. He has lost 10 more games than he’s won both in SEC play and against power-conference opponents overall. The only ranked team he’s beaten so far didn’t even finish in the Top 25 that season.
And Freeze has a losing record inside Jordan-Hare Stadium, a stat that should be unthinkable for a program that loves to hype up its home field advantage.
Of course, Auburn’s fans did everything they could to make that home environment matter. For a fan base that has been through nothing but losing seasons over the last five years, it still showed up in sellout fashion and stayed loud all the way to the end.
So, when Freeze was asked late Saturday night what his message was to those fans — and why he should still have a chance to turn this around — this was his response:
“We all know what we signed up for. I certainly know we fit what Auburn is all about. But Auburn is also about winning football. We’re gonna come to work Monday and get our kids ready to play Arkansas. These kids are playing their guts out, and I know that we’ve changed the talent level here.
“But, at the end of the day, at some point, you have to win football games.”
Again, he said it.