Postgame Thoughts, sponsored by Paine Net Lease Team

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The Aggies showed a complete lack of preparation and focus as they fell behind 21-0 to the TIgers, then showed grit and toughness as they clawed back to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. But then they found themselves away to blow the game anyway, a result all the more frustrating because they should never have been in overtime to begin with.

It’s always said that you can point to one play or two as to why a game was won or lost. That’s certainly the case tonight, and the Aggies helped Auburn send them to their demise.

On the plus side, Auburn came into this game with the 14th-ranked defense in the nation, giving up 304 yards a game. A&M picked 464. They very infrequently had trouble moving the ball; Even when they fell behind early, they got inside the Auburn 40 on their first drive, down to the 20 on the second. And they got a missed field goal and an interception for their troubles.

They were given three golden opportunities off of a pair of shanked punts that allowed them to start in Auburn territory and an interception that gave them the ball on the Auburn 15. They came away with three total points. You do something more with any of those drives — put it in the end zone after the interception or get a field goal on the other drives — and you’re not in overtime. You’re going home 9-2.

Marcel Reed continues to improve rapidly, but there’s still growing pains. He had his best game of the season passing-wise, completing 22 of 35 passes for 297 yards, 3 touchdowns and an interception. He ran for another 66 and a score. The Aggies have their quarterback until further notice, and he’s still learning. I’m really beginning to think he’s going to have an incredibly high ceiling.

A&M converted 10 of 19 third downs, and Reed was responsible for most of those. He hit Jahdae Walker twice on the first possession for first downs on 3rd and long, ran for another one later in the game and hit Jabre Barber for 36 yards on 3rd and 14 on the go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter. The 73-yard touchdown pass to Noah Thomas was a fantastic throw — absolutely perfect. The crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium did not seem to faze him.

But, of course, it wasn’t a spotless performance. He threw an interception that killed a drive and led very quickly to an Auburn touchdown, which looks like it could have been a 14-point swing. He ran himself into a couple of sacks by leaving the pocket when he didn’t have to. And he didn’t put the ball exactly where it needed on the 2-point conversions.

And there’s the fumble on A&M’s last drive in regulation.

Amari Daniels is going to catch hell for dropping that 2-point conversion, but he was the running game tonight beyond Reed’s 66 yards which were mostly scrambles. He carried 27 times for 90 yards against a rush defense that only gave up 104.5 a game total. He has outrushed several SEC teams who have played against Auburn. He didn’t do anything spectacular, but he was relentless. If A&M has Le’Veon Moss in that game with Daniels, A&M probably wins going away. But they didn’t. And Daniels gave it his all.

So Noah Thomas had the biggest game an Aggie receiver had in a while, with 124 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He made a fantastic catch on his first score, showing tremendous body control to get the ball and kind of avoiding a big hit from a defender on the way down. That’s two straight weeks he’s done that. And then, of course, the 73-yarder ties the season-long touchdown pass. Thomas beat his man at the line of scrimmage, Reed put the ball on his hip and that was that.

Jahdae Walker had his best game of the year, with 7 catches for 69 yards and a score. He made some key catches on third downs and showed tremendous desire to push his way in for a touchdown in overtime.

Jabre Barber only caught two passes, but one was for 36 yards. He also dropped one early. Still, I wish he’d gotten more targets and that he had been healthy when the year started — and maybe had like three years of eligibility left.

Terry Bussey had a couple of nice catches. One of them was a real quick in and up and he ran it perfectly. I wish they could figure out exactly how to use him because you’re starting to see him do some good things.

I was very disappointed in the tight ends tonight. Theo Ohrstrom muffed a pass that would have been a huge gainer and Tre Watson dropped the first 2-point conversion. Was the pass perfect? No. Did he have both hands on it? Forks. And in that situation, you’ve got to make that catch.

The offensive line wasn’t great. It wasn’t good. But it was ok. It was capable of slugging it out with one of the best defenses in the country and allowed Reed to engineer a comeback. Taking away sacks, A&M rushed for 4 yards a carry. While not wonderful, that should be good enough.

From the 13:09 mark of the second quarter, A&M outscored Auburn 41-22. That should have been enough. It wasn’t.

I don’t know what else to say except this: the defense was supposed to be the strong suit of the team. They have played two absolute dogs of games in back-to-back SEC road trips. They gave up 43 points to a team that hadn’t scored more than 24 in conference play. They made a terrible quarterback look like Tom Brady. They were frequently clueless, and they cost their team the game. There’s no other way to put it.

A&M had two sacks and five tackles for loss. Two sacks is the least Auburn has given up in conference play. Five tackles for loss is pitiful. Frequently, I have no idea what the defense was even doing, and I don’t know if they knew either.

Payton Thorne stinks. He does. He came into this game with nine touchdowns in seven SEC games. He had 103 passing yards before people had their seats warm. He just threw it up and Cam Coleman went and got it. When it wasn’t Coleman, it was Keandre Lambert-Smith catching a 60-yard reception that included a completely lost corner and three missed tackles. Thorne threw for 190 yards in the first half. They ate Dezz Ricks alive, and picked up on Jayvon Thomas when he came in after Will Lee got hurt (that injury may have been a bigger loss than it appeared at the time).

We knew the secondary would be a work in progress coming into the year, and they are still a lot better than last season. But the defensive line was supposed to be the absolute strength of this team. And it has been lovely for a month.

Nic Scourton had no tackles. Don’t sack. Nothing. He was a complete non-factor. Shemar Stewart had one quarterback hurry. He was a complete non-factor. I saw a mock draft that had both of them going in the first 20 picks. Well, they sure as heck didn’t play like first rounders tonight. They got owned by an offensive line that is very bad in pass protection.

Two linemen played well: Shemar Turner and Cashius Howell. Howell had one of the two sacks and two tackles for loss, and his speed was a factor. Turner had 6 tackles. But it wasn’t just the lack of pressure; it was getting gashed in the running game by Jarquez Hunter. He had 130 yards and 3 touchdowns, and he did the majority of his damage running right up the middle. And there was nobody there, because A&M had moved their linemen to allow for a massive gap. We could see it in the press box. You probably saw it on TV. Auburn definitely saw it.

And then leaving the middle of the field wide open on 4th and 2 to allow Thorne to run for 23 yards and give Auburn life late in the game? Inexcusable.

I’m glad the odds are Scooby Williams is coming back next year. He has been great. He had 7 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and deflected the pass that went to BJ Mayes for his interception. The other linebackers, even if they put up numbers, didn’t impress me.

I don’t know what to say about the safeties, save for the fact that Donovan Brooks had a really nice sack and they didn’t provide very good deep help for the corners.

A&M’s defense came out flat, uninspired and, bluntly, looked clueless for 30 minutes. Once they got a few things figured out, they couldn’t make the big plays when they needed to. This loss is firmly on their shoulders.

Randy Bond missed from 53 (or 54). It’s ridiculously unfair to criticize a guy for missing a field goal from that distance. He hit the other two he attempted, including a high-pressure kick in overtime.

Tyler White should win the Groza Award. He’s just a magician. Another week, another punt pinning an opponent at their 1. It’s remarkable.

Coverage teams stunk. Auburn had momentum from the opening kickoff because they didn’t do their jobs. Terry Bussey did a nice job returning punts and kicks and nearly had himself a touchdown on the final play of regulation.

How a coaching staff can let a team come out looking as bad as A&M did for 30 minutes in a game of this magnitude escapes me. It’s not that they lose that is so frustrating; it’s how they lost. On Auburn’s third touchdowns, they literally stood around and didn’t cover Cam Coleman. At all. They seemed to think that Auburn was just going to roll over for them and didn’t get the point until they were on the turf with a few teeth knocked out. There should have been no trouble getting a team up for this game, and they weren’t. And that’s on Mike Elko, and he knows it.

The funny thing is, Elko’s building of this program was one of the major reasons the Aggies were able to come back in this game. They believed in each other, they didn’t panic and just calmly chipped away. So good job in the big scheme, bad job for tonight. And that’s two bad nights out of three.

I have no idea what A&M was doing defensively for much of the game. They didn’t tackle well, gave easy running lanes to Hunter in critical situations and, obviously got beat deep when you can’t get beat deep. But there was so much…silliness? I don’t even know what word to use. You have a corner 15 yards off Lambert-Smith who looks shocked the ball’s coming that way. You have such a big line split in the middle of your defensive front that Hunter could have pushed a stroller through it, and you don’t adjust. The lack of effective pressure since the LSU game has been disturbing. The defense is now a disappointment. And that is a serious, serious problem.

I didn’t really have much of a grip with Collin Klein’s playcalling tonight. The second 2-point attempt works if the ball’s thrown a little higher or if Daniels just makes the play. It was there and it was open. They still had the rut of running the ball up the gut on second down no matter the situation, but I thought he did a solid job dialing up plays that Reed could succeed with for much of the game. You can’t blame him for an interception that slips or a fumbled snap.