After Auburn’s ugly loss to LSU, the heat is landing hard on defensive coordinator DJ Durkin. But the bigger problem, at least in this reporting, points somewhere else: the offense.
Auburn’s defense has certainly had rough patches. The unit was a no-show against Florida, struggled against Tennessee, dealt with Xavier Atkins being dismissed from the team, and then turned in what looked like a nonexistent effort against LSU. Still, the argument here is that Durkin shouldn’t be shouldering all of the blame for what went wrong.
The offense was supposed to be the part that lifted Auburn this season, and that hasn’t happened. Week after week, it has looked stuck, stale and easy to predict.
That was part of the discussion last week against Georgia, when the offensive play-calling appeared to change at some point during the game and helped Auburn fight its way to a win. Rumors circulated that Alex Golesh was the one holding the play sheet, but Golesh denied that.
That leads straight to the focus of the criticism: Joel Gordon.
Gordon has been poor as Auburn’s playcaller this season, and the fact that it is his first year in the job doesn’t erase how bad the offense has looked. Too often, Auburn has been stuck in three-and-out mode, forcing the defense to stay on the field while the offense tries to sort itself out. That puts added strain on Durkin’s side of the ball and also exposes more of the defense’s looks to opponents.
After six weeks, the article argues, somebody has to say the obvious. Auburn’s offense is the elephant in the room.
The LSU game was the first one, aside from maybe Florida, in which Auburn truly looked bad. The first half was especially brutal: Gordon’s offense didn’t even get to 100 yards passing, while Sam Leavitt had 260 yards. There were also repeated moments when Byrum Brown and the rest of the offense seemed visibly confused.
The reporting also questions whether Golesh or Gordon deserves more blame, noting that Golesh allowed Gordon to keep calling plays while the offense went through a rough stretch. Still, the larger point remains the same: giving up 31 points before halftime is bad, but barely clearing 100 yards of offense in the first half is a death sentence for any team.
That’s why the frustration at Durkin feels misplaced here. The defense has kept Auburn in almost every game this season, and the offense has not been the reason the Tigers have won any of them. Even in the Georgia game, Auburn’s defense sealed it with the late Gunner Stockton fumble, while Brown threw for barely 150 yards.
In Other News...
Lane Kiffin Made A Serious Auburn Accusation After LSU Win
The aftermath of LSUs win at Auburn carried an extra layer of scrutiny after Lane Kiffin said he believed Tigers defenders were trying to use a hip-drop tackle on LSU tight end TreyDez Green. Green, who had just returned from a lower-body injury, was active throughout the game and made his presence felt with five catches for 50 yards and a touchdown, but the contact he absorbed clearly became part of the story once the game was over.
Hip-drop tackles have already been banned by the NFL because of the injury risk involved, which is why Kiffins comment drew immediate attention beyond the usual postgame noise. Greens workload tapered off late, and the concern around his usage added another wrinkle to a physical night in Auburn that LSU was happy to survive, even if the conversation afterward drifted well past the final score. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin Just Dragged Auburn Into A Bigger Postgame Debate
Lane Kiffin turned a routine postgame conversation into something bigger when he singled out Auburns defenders for using hip-drop tackles against LSU tight end Treyd ez Green. Green was taken out of the game amid concerns about those tackles, a technique still not banned in college football, and Kiffins comments pushed the focus beyond the final score and into the way the game was being played.
The more interesting part for Auburn is how Kiffin framed the late-game choices from his own sideline, too. He said he put starting defenders back in despite the injury risk, pointing to player requests and the kind of mentality he wanted from his team, which only added another layer to the debate over where toughness ends and unnecessary danger begins. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns LSU Collapse Put One Alex Golesh Question Front And Center
Alex Golesh didnt try to soften the blow after Auburns 38-17 loss to LSU, putting the offensive problems squarely on his own shoulders. He said the game plan wasnt effective and pointed to missed tackles on defense as part of a night in which Auburn gave up 552 total yards while finishing with just 271 of its own.
The broader concern now is whether the Tigers can clean up enough in a hurry before a road trip to Ole Miss. Auburn managed only 67 rushing yards against LSU, and Golesh made it clear the fix has to come through better strategy and sharper execution, two things the Tigers will need if they want to avoid another lopsided result. [Read more 🡒]