Practice Observations: How close is Auburn to a breakthrough?
The Tigers were a couple of bad breaks — but several more mistakes — away from a signature win at OU. Can they get it at A&M?
AUBURN — No one said this was going to be easy.
Auburn felt good about where it stood after a 3-0 start, which included a road win at Baylor to open the season. And the Tigers knew that they were going to have to play well — and perhaps get a break or two to fall their way — in order to beat a strong Oklahoma team on the road last Saturday.
Neither of those things happened, at least not to the extent that they needed. Auburn missed several opportunities to put more points on the board at Oklahoma and struggled offensively at the line of scrimmage. The defense couldn’t hold off the Sooners with a lead at the end. The special teams play was, well, abysmal.
All of that was against Auburn, even without a no-call that handed Oklahoma an illegal touchdown and a reversed decision that took a scoop-and-score away from the Tigers. Those feel even more crushing in a game that Auburn lost by a single score.
“The plays were there for us to have a chance to beat a quality opponent on the road in this league,” head coach Hugh Freeze said Monday. “We’ve got to learn how to win those games, and it starts with us as coaches. … Again, there’s certainly a lot of things we can improve upon, but it was fun to watch them compete.
“We’re really closer, and we’ll get to get tested again, certainly, with an excellent top-10 team on the road at (Texas) A&M. Disappointing, it stings, but we’ve got to put it behind us and move on to A&M, for sure.”
Welcome to life in the SEC. The toughest stretch of Auburn’s season has only gotten tougher, with both Oklahoma and now Texas A&M looking better than preseason expectations.
After losing to the first one away from home in tough fashion, the Tigers have to recover from that against the second one — also away from home.
Oh, and Texas A&M is coming off an off week, while Auburn had to go through a meat-grinder of a game in Norman.
No one is going to feel sorry for Auburn, though. Not even themselves.
“We know for sure we're a couple of plays away from winning the game,” defensive tackle Malik Blocton said. “But, I mean, that was the story the whole last year. We're not trying to make that the story this year. We're trying to win these games. We're just trying to take that step forward. We're just trying to get over that hump.”
How close is Auburn to getting over that hump? Here’s what we’ve gathered about the Tigers over the last two days at the football complex, from the latest injury report and what we saw at Tuesday’s practice to the matchups to watch against the Aggies.
What we saw and heard during Tuesday’s practice
Cornerback Kayin Lee was not at practice Tuesday. The reason for his absence is unknown. Freeze did not mention him as an injury concern Monday.
Cornerback Jay Crawford (knee) was dressed out and did participate in more of practice this week than we saw last week, before he was held out of the Oklahoma game. He rotated in with the second team in 11-on-11 drills.
Center Connor Lew (sprained MCL) was dressed out and was a limited participant in practices. True freshman Kail Ellis, who replaced Lew for a handful of plays at Oklahoma, was the first-team center in 11-on-11 work. Freeze said Monday he thinks Lew will be able to play at Texas A&M. Lew talked to reporters after practice Tuesday, which is usually a good sign for a player’s health.