The Auburn Tigers have a pair of ugly losses on their resume but are still very much alive in the race for the SEC West.
After surging through the early stages of SEC play, the Auburn Tigers’ hopes of reaching a major bowl game took a hit on Saturday.
For the third straight year, the Tigers generated plenty of offseason hype and debuted with a high ranking in the initial AP Poll at No. 12. Auburn’s national championship dreams were seemingly dashed just two weeks into the season with a 14-6 loss at Clemson that saw Gus Malzahn’s offense generate just 117 yards of total offense, a terrible effort even against a terrific defense.
In the following weeks, Auburn quickly came to life with blowout wins over Missouri, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, with all three victories coming by at least 21 points. While none of those opponents are particularly good, the manner in which Auburn’s defense dominated was still impressive, and quarterback Jarrett Stidham showed steady improvement to help the Tigers climb back into the top 10.
The hype train quickly crashed on Saturday, as Auburn suffered a 27-23 upset at the hands of LSU in Baton Rouge. Auburn looked excellent on both sides of the ball in the early going while building a 20-0 lead, only to completely fall all apart on offense in the second half of a disheartening loss.
While that ends any hope of Auburn rallying to make the College Football Playoff, this is still a talented team with the ability to cause some damage in the SEC West, and it trails Alabama by only a game with a head-to-head matchup still to come. Here are three reasons why the Tigers will still be a factor in the division race.
3. Jarrett Stidham is effective if utilized better
Looking at Stidham’s 9-of-26, 165-yard stat line on Saturday certainly does not inspire much confidence in the Baylor transfer. However, Stidham did not get much help from either his teammates or coaching staff on Saturday, and can be an effective enough signal caller if Auburn’s offense can adjust to his strengths.
Stidham was pummeled in the Sep. 9 loss to Clemson, as Dabo Swinney’s ultra-talented defensive line racked up a whopping 11 sacks. Part of that was on Stidham, as he looked indecisive in the pocket and held onto the ball far too long with the Clemson defense bearing down on him.
Since then, Stidham has gotten more comfortable in the Auburn offense and provided three efficient performances during the Tigers’ perfect start to SEC play. During the three-game burst, Stidham completed just shy of 75 percent of his passes at 13.27 yards per attempt while hitting on the occasional deep ball, a perfect complement to Auburn’s bruising running game.
That form appeared to be continuing early on Saturday when Stidham hit Will Hastings on a 49-yard touchdown pass. However, the Auburn playcalling would inexplicably get away from what was working effectively after halftime, and only called long passes with uncreative route trees for Stidham in the second half.
If the Auburn coaching staff can realize its mistake and get back to mixing in intermediate and short passes, the Tigers can have a balanced and explosive offense. Stidham does need to play better, but Saturday’s result lies more on head coach Gus Malzahn, who will hopefully be able to correct his error over the rest of the season.