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Saturday’s seven point loss to Cal has some Auburn fans spiraling and drastically altering their season expectations. However, veteran fans knew to be cautious when Auburn was picked as a two score favorite and the Gameday crew unanimously picked the Tigers to win. Sure it’s superstition but is there a team more prone to chaos than Auburn?

The warning signs were present in the Alabama A&M game; but it’s hard to fault the fanbase for ignoring the cracks when the team wins by 70. Jokes were made that Auburn basically ran four verts, the secondary had some busted coverages that AL A&M couldn’t exploit, and Hugh Freeze even pointed out it our lack of sacks. These same concerns reared their head against the California Golden Bears.

Fans watched nervously after the first drive almost started with a fluke pick-six. The Tigers instead took the ball down the field reminiscent to a Gus Malzahn early game scripted drive. Afterwards, Cal proceeded to dink and dunk their way down the field with minimum resistance.

Maybe the plan was “bend don’t break” but it didn’t appear that Cal was really capable of taking the top off the defense. Regardless, it’s hard to critique the defense too much when looking at Cal’s starting field position throughout; the Bears average starting field position was on their own 40 yard line. Truly Cal only had one scoring drive that wasn’t handed to them off a bad turnover in Auburn’s territory.

So what went wrong with the offense? It seemed like Auburn thought they could use a similar game plan to the one that gassed Alabama A&M. Attempting deep shots against solid coverage shells, not running the ball as much as an Auburn team should, and attempting to force feed Cam Coleman. Throughout the game it never really felt like the team adjusted its offensive approach. Thorne frequently was making one read and then attempting to force something that wasn’t there. As a runner his decision making was just as bad. At least three runs stood out where if he just went north and south he converts a first down. The run he had late in the fourth had potential, after he set up a block with Fairweather, and then he saw ghosts and decided to run out of bounds when he very realistically could have made it into the end zone. This effectively cost Auburn 3 minutes and a near interception (only overturned due to DPI).

Freeze’s inability to or unwillingness to lean on the run and his loyalty to Thorne really bit Auburn. Looking at the games ahead, only New Mexico and ULM are likely worse teams than Cal. Everyone else is likely going to be tougher than the Golden Bears. Either the Tigers try a different quarterback or something drastic needs to change for the offensive and defensive game plans. Otherwise the Tigers could be looking at an absolute nightmare season with awful recruiting ramifications.

Next week Auburn has a chance to rebound against New Mexico before hitting a gauntlet of tough teams. Arkansas looked more competitive than expected against Oklahoma State, Oklahoma was always going to be tough, and then the Tigers start their brutal month long road stretch.

Thank you for your time and War Eagle.