Observations: Auburn 45, New Mexico 19
It wasn't pretty — like the weather — but the Tigers ultimately got it done in Week 3. And they've got plenty to clean up before SEC play.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — Auburn’s 45-19 win over New Mexico was a lot like the rain on Saturday night: Inconsistent, frustrating, suboptimal.
And everything just felt sloppy.
It didn’t rain on Jordan-Hare Stadium all the time, and things weren’t always dreary for the Tigers. Hank Brown played well in his first career start at quarterback. The rushing attack had its best performance, yardage-wise, since beating down Arkansas last November. The defense snagged two interceptions, forced a pair of turnovers on downs and came up with several stops in clear scoring situations.
But, let’s be real: This was a 17-13 game at halftime. New Mexico nearly threw for 300 yards, which would have been only the third time that’s happened in the last five years. The Lobos averaged six yards per carry, too. The worst defense in the FBS frustrated Auburn’s ground game early. The Tigers fumbled the ball away twice, committed 88 yards worth of penalties and only had one tackle for loss all game long.
“We always celebrate wins,” Hugh Freeze said afterwards. “It’s good to see some joy in the locker room. … But a lot to improve on, for sure, that we’ll have to clean up.”
On a day when it wasn’t always great to be a favorite in the SEC — Georgia escaped with a low-scoring win at Kentucky, Oklahoma scrapped through a fight with Tulane, Vanderbilt lost to rebuilding Georgia State late, Arkansas survived an upset bid from UAB and Mississippi State got blown out by Toledo — Auburn at least took care of business in the second half of this one.
“We knew we were messing up simple assignments we worked on at practice,” safety Jerrin Thompson said. “It was just getting back to our details and playing our style of football.”
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to make sweeping conclusions in this sport. Team quality seems to be a random number generator from week to week. Unless you’re a firing-on-all-cylinders squad right now, it’s tough to know what’s coming next.
Is Arkansas, Auburn’s next opponent, the team that should have beaten Oklahoma State or the one that nearly lost to a UAB squad that was fresh off an upset at the hands of ULM? Is Auburn more like the team that got embarrassed against New Mexico State last year, or the one that had Alabama dead to rights a week later?
The answer won’t be revealed until Saturday, and it might not be repeated a week later. That’s just college football.
But at least Auburn knows that the output that struggled to put away New Mexico can’t be the exact same against Arkansas in its SEC opener.
“We'll have to have a better plan and play better, for sure, next week,” Freeze said.
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 26-point home win over New Mexico, along with some Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
QB Hank Brown (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
Hank Brown did well enough to stick as the starter (for now)
Freeze said he decided to start Brown over Payton Thorne at quarterback after reviewing the film of the Cal loss Monday. Thorne struggled mightily against a bowl-quality opponent yet again, throwing four interceptions in the process.
While he didn’t inform the two quarterbacks until they went through a few days of practice, it sounded like Freeze knew quickly he had to at least try something different before SEC play began. Giving Brown his first start in a paycheck game wouldn’t show anything definitive about his ceiling, but it sure beats being forced to go with him on the fly against a much more talented opponent.
“I just felt like we left so many plays out there, winning football plays that could win a game for us,” Freeze said. “And I couldn’t put my finger on why, because I know (Thorne) has the understanding of it. I just felt like this is what was best for our team.”