Auburn’s offense has changed some since Week 1, but the full picture still isn’t pretty.
The Tigers are 2-1 after opening SEC play with a loss to Florida, and they did put 39 points on the board in that game. In an SEC setting, that’s nothing to shrug off. But the production still comes with caveats, and the numbers say Auburn has a lot left to clean up if this attack is going to match the promise of an offensive-minded head coach.
Through three games, Auburn ranks eighth in the SEC in total yards per game at 458.3 and 10th in yards per play at 6.06. Those figures look better at first glance, but the Southern Miss game in Week 2 has helped pad them. Against Power Four opponents, Auburn is down to 381 yards per game and 5.37 yards per play, which leaves the Tigers 12th in the SEC in both categories.
Byrum Brown didn’t hide from that reality after the loss to Florida. He said Auburn’s offense is “tremendously better” than it was in Week 1. There’s evidence for that, especially in the passing game, but there are still some glaring trouble spots.
The offensive line remains one of them. Auburn went into the season with questions there and hasn’t answered them yet. Golesh already made a change in Week 3, sliding true freshman Wilson Zierer in at left guard for Jacob Strand.
Zierer’s first outing wasn’t clean. Pro Football Focus had him as Auburn’s lowest graded run blocker up front. Still, he looked physical enough to battle in the trenches.
Against Florida, though, the line had a rough night. Auburn allowed seven sacks and 24 quarterback pressures, while the ground game managed just 102 yards.
The running backs were held to 40 yards on 12 carries. Brown shoulders some of the blame for that sack total because he held the ball too long at times, but the line had its own ugly moments too, especially from left tackle Jo Simmons and right guard Cole Skinner.
The run game, though, can’t be judged only through the lens of pass protection. Auburn never really committed to it after falling behind early, and that matters. Twelve combined carries for the backs is a tiny sample, too small to make a sweeping judgment about the front five either way.
What Auburn did show more of against Florida was the downfield passing game. That part of the offense took heat in Week 1, when Brown threw three interceptions and the Tigers struggled to generate explosive plays through the air. Since then, Golesh and offensive coordinator Joel Gordon appear to have pushed harder for shot plays, and that was especially true once Auburn was chasing the game Saturday.
Brown had a few good moments throwing deep. The best came on a 48-yard completion to Keshaun Singleton.
Even there, though, Brown showed some hesitation, and that has been a recurring theme this season. It helped lead to the sacks and also cost Auburn a few chances to hit bigger plays.
One missed deep ball stood out more than the others. Brown got the look he wanted, but he overthrew Singleton on what likely would have been a touchdown.
“Missed on some, hit some. Those are some momentum swingers for us for sure,” Brown said of the shot plays against Florida.
“We’ve been trying to get those, and glad we got some this week. Gonna need more in the future.”
The running game had its own stop-start feel. Auburn’s first possession of the second half showed how quickly rhythm can disappear.
Jeremiah Cobb opened the drive with a six-yard run, but two straight incompletions ended it with a three-and-out. Golesh and Gordon chose to stay aggressive, which is understandable, but the decision wiped out the momentum Cobb had just created.
That kind of sequence matters for an offense built around tempo and rhythm. Auburn also missed a chance to lean into the run on second-and-4, where another carry or two might have kept the drive alive. Instead, the Tigers were forced off the field, and Florida’s touchdowns right before and right after that series only made the swing feel bigger.
There’s no clean way to separate Auburn’s running issues from the line play, but it’s also fair to say the Tigers haven’t fully committed to the ground game. Even against Baylor, the backs combined for fewer than 20 carries, with 18 total. That’s more than the 12 against Florida, but still not the kind of workload this offense seems built to support.
The one outlier is Southern Miss, where Auburn’s backs combined for 37 carries. That number probably won’t show up often against Power Four competition, but the Tigers also can’t expect Brown to carry everything himself on the ground.
So yes, Auburn’s offense is better than it looked in Week 1 in some areas. The shot game has improved, and the Tigers have shown more willingness to push the ball. But the line is still shaky, the run game still lacks consistency, and the offense hasn’t yet found the balance it needs.
In Other News...
Auburns Florida Loss Just Reignited A Bigger Debate Over John Cohen
Auburns loss to Florida did more than deepen the frustration around another SEC setback. It also pulled John Cohen back into the center of the conversation about where the program is headed, with Paul Finebaum pointing directly at the athletic director and tying the defeat to Auburns broader football troubles. The backdrop is familiar by now: since Cohen arrived in October 2022, the Tigers have been trying to climb out of a rough stretch, and the results have not matched the expectations that come with the job.
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The numbers behind the performance point to a breakdown on both sides of the ball. Auburn missed 24 tackles, and the offense had trouble finding rhythm when the passing game was under duress and the rushing attack could not consistently move the chains. The snap counts and Pro Football Focus grades only sharpen the picture, and they leave plenty for Auburn to sort through as it tries to turn a frustrating loss into something more usable going forward. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Has A Defensive Problem Golesh Did Not See Coming
Auburns SEC opener against Florida left the Tigers searching for answers on a side of the ball that has usually been a point of pride. Instead, Alex Golesh said he did not see the emotional, unsettled defensive performance coming, as Florida rolled up 44 points and 495 yards in a game that exposed issues Auburn rarely wants to carry into conference play.
DJ Durkin said the defense was too amped up, and it showed in the basics, from missed tackles to shaky communication. Auburn now has to reset quickly before Vanderbilt comes to town, because the next SEC matchup is less about explaining what went wrong in Gainesville and more about proving the problems can be cleaned up fast. [Read more 🡒]