Grading Auburn's Position Groups in Loss to Texas A&M

Auburn's defense kept the Tigers in the game, while the offense effectively lost it.

The Auburn Tigers have dropped their last two games after starting the season 3-0. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

AUBURN, Ala.- With the Auburn Tigers falling to the Texas A&M Aggies, 16-10, on Saturday, Auburn Tigers on SI gives the Tigers their weekly report card for how the offense, defense and special teams performed against the Aggies. 

Quarterback: F

Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold passed for 125 yards and went 18-for-33 passing on Saturday, with a final QBR of 35.1. Arnold struggled to make decisions, which led to a few sacks. He also was not able to use his legs very effectively, finishing with 11 yards on 15 carries and a lone rushing touchdown, which was essentially gifted to him by the defense. The Auburn offense continues to not be able to pass the ball, yet still absolutely refuses to run the football. 

Running Backs: A

In the eight carries they did have, the Auburn running backs took care of business. Jeremiah Cobb averaged 4.7 yards per carry and Damari Alston averaged 5.0 yards per carry. Cobb finished with 28 yards on six carries and Alston finished with 10 yards on two carries. In pass protection, the backs performed relatively well when picking up blitzes. 

Wide receivers: D 

The wide receiver corps for Auburn did the best as they could with the tools they had. Eric Singleton Jr. had five receptions for 56 yards, including a 37-yard reception. Tight end Brandon Frazier was the second leading Auburn receiver with 28 yards on five receptions. Cam Coleman was bottled up all day, only having 18 receiving yards by the end of the matchup. No Auburn receiver scored a touchdown in the game. 

Offensive line: F-

The Auburn offensive line play has been atrocious, to say the least, but it is hard to put the entirety of the offensive problems on them. When all your offensive play calls are pass plays, it gives the defense the chance to pin their ears back and get to the quarterback in exotic ways. Still, Auburn failed to control the controllable.

The killer against Texas A&M was the continuous false starts from the offensive line. Xavier Chalplin has five false starts alone in the previous two games. Hugh Freeze talked up his new offensive line all offseason, and they are not playing to that standard that he talked about. 

Overall Offensive Grade: F

Only mustering 177 total yards and going 0-for-13 on third down, the Auburn offense had a game that it would love to just forget about. The play calling for the Tigers needs to find a better balance, or quarterback Jackson Arnold needs to actually do the “run” option on the RPO style offense.

Defense: A+

The Auburn defense kept them in the game for almost its entirety. The only Auburn touchdown the entire game essentially came from the defense, when Xavier Atkins returned an interception for 73 yards, which gave the Auburn offense the ball at the 2-yard line. They did give up 414 total yards, but the Aggies only found the endzone twice the entire game.

The Tiger defense only gave up three points the entire second half, with the score being 13-3 through all of the third quarter and the Xavier Atkins interception coming on the very first play of the fourth quarter. 

Special Teams: B-

Alex McPherson had a 32-yard field goal for the Tigers. And punter Hudson Kaak punted a whopping nine times for 403 yards. Although a team does not want to use their punter much, Kaak came in clutch with his punting, with two punts landing inside the 20. 

More From Auburn Tigers on SI

feed