(Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire)
The Auburn Tigers looked like a different team for the first three quarters against the Oklahoma Sooners. A stifling defense, moving the ball up and down the field, play calling that was working, and most importantly, extremely effective quarterback play from Payton Thorne.
Unfortunately for everyone on The Plains this past Saturday afternoon, football games are four quarters. Things completely unraveled for Hugh Freeze and company in the fourth frame, highlighted by a 3rd down pick-six from Thorne with just over four minutes left in the game to give the Sooners the lead.
After much was made in the preseason about Auburn starting the year with five straight home games and that they could be 4-1 at worst or possibly even 5-0, the Tigers hit the road for the month of October with a 2-3 record.
Their reward for the ugly start to year two of the Freeze era? A road trip to Athens, Georgia to face a Bulldogs team which will be eager to take out their frustrations on an inferior opponent after a loss to Alabama.
A much welcomed bye will come after the Tigers inevitably take their drubbing against Georgia, but it doesn’t get much easier from there with road trips to Missouri and Kentucky. It is entirely possible, if not likely, that by the time Auburn plays a home game again, they will already be 2-5.
Granted, things were already bad prior to the Oklahoma game and most were resigned to the fact that it was going to be a long season for the Tigers. But things are only going further down from here and Freeze is going to have some serious storms to weather in what will no doubt be a continued media onslaught over the next several weeks.
Nobody expects Auburn to go into Georgia and win the game, but a performance that is at least somewhat positive would go a long way with the fanbase.
Yet it feels more likely than not that a beatdown is imminent, and with it, a desperate Hugh Freeze at the podium struggling for answers that simply are not there.
