Auburn, Ala. (EETV) – Auburn’s lackluster offense struggled again in the second half as the Tigers fell 20-10 on Saturday to Georgia. Despite The Tigers’ best start to a game in SEC play, Auburn only managed 40 yards in the second half, as Georgia scored 17 unanswered points.
The Tigers opened the game with a 14-play, 75-yard drive that took up nearly half the quarter. Much of the drive came on the ground, including Jackson Arnold’s two-yard touchdown, making it seem like Auburn would fulfill many of head coach Hugh Freeze’s gameplan promises coming into Georgia.
Auburn’s defense would strike early as well, with massive sacks forcing two of Georgia’s first three drives to end in three-and-outs.
Auburn’s offense kept rolling on their second drive, using big plays from Jeremiah Cobb and Cam Coleman to get into the red zone. Even with a couple of long offensive penalties, it would be the offensive run game that would stall itself out before Alex McPherson’s 25-yard field goal.
As Auburn’s defense stifled Georgia’s offense in the first half, the Tigers’ offense would try to finish the job with another touchdown. With a chance to go up 17-0 before half, Arnold tried to finish off another long drive with his legs when the Tigers ended up on the wrong end of a controversial play.
As Arnold tried to reach over the goal line, the ball was knocked out by a Georgia defender, being ruled a fumble initially and again after a lengthy review period.
Georgia would take advantage of the fumble before the half ended. The Bulldogs went on a 12-play, 88-yard drive in just under a minute and a half to make it a 10-3 game at halftime.
After the game, Freeze talked about the emotions at halftime following the controversial fumble late in the first half.
“I’ll say this, I didn’t feel it (deflated) at half. I think it was more pissed off, and everybody was ticked off at half,” Freeze said. “But the second half didn’t feel like it had the same energy.”
That lack of energy was shown in the second half’s stat sheet as Auburn only had five possessions in the second half, and Georgia’s final possession took almost nine minutes off the clock. Of those five second-half drives, three of them were three-and-outs.
On the other side, Georgia’s slow and methodical drives wore down a tired Auburn defense, especially late on their 16-play drive in the fourth quarter.
Coach Freeze harped on the defense’s lack of physicality in responding to Georgia in the second half.
“Some of the credit goes to Georgia for the second half too, but I don’t think we played with the same level of physicality and energy."
Auburn will need some of that physicality next week against one of the nation’s best running backs, Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy. Auburn will play host to Hardy and the rest of the Missouri Tigers next week in Jordan-Hare Stadium at 6:45 p.m. CDT.
