Freeze sickened by Auburn’s turnovers and third-down defensive woes in home loss

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

While most Auburn fans will look back on its teams six turnovers on Saturday, Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze was focused just as much on his team’s inability to get Arkansas’ offense off the field on third down.

Those were the two major things that allowed the Razorbacks to visit a place known as the Loveliest Village on the Plains and leave with a 24-14 win over the Tigers.

The win by Arkansas (3-1, 1-0) in both team’s SEC opener was the fourth straight time the visitor had won in the Razorbacks series with Auburn (2-2, 0-1).

“Very testing,” Freeze said. “That was out theme this week. Had no idea when I got up this morning to talk to them about being tested, it would be quite like this.”

Auburn had four interceptions and a fumble that occurred as it had a runner headed for a game-tying touchdown. 

“I don’t have the words, but it is just sickening that we can’t take care of the football on offense,” Freeze said. “I have got to get that fixed.”

Auburn, who lost to visiting California 21-14 on Sept. 7, now finds itself with an open week and then facing  a gauntlet that includes games with Oklahoma and then at Georgia and Missouri.

“Life is full of tests and we’re being tested and we’re either going to pass the next test or fail it and there’s no running from that,” said Freeze. “There’s no hiding from it as coaches, as players and, and, how we handle those moments, the good and the bad, really it speaks to who you are.

“…We cannot play as inconsistent as we are and that’s getting really, really frustrating and old. I’m sure it is to a lot of people.” 

Auburn redshirt freshman signal caller Hank Brown threw a trio of interceptions in the first half was replaced by senior Payton Thorne, who had been benched after throwing four picks in the loss to California.

“I think we had 431 yards and they had 334,” Freeze said. “I thought our defense played well – other than third and longs. If we could just gotten off the field on third-and-long then that defensive effort would have been remarkable truthfully.

“But the third and longs – they got two on penalties and I think they converted 5 of 8 of the third and longs. We just can’t do that. But they played hard on defense.

“And our offensive guys played hard, but it’s just discouraging that you have only one possession  in the first half where you don’t turn the ball over.  We turned it over on the Arkansas 29, the 0 and the 27. 

Freeze was asked if he second-guessed his decision to go with Brown instead of Thorne, who had 213 yards passing and two TD passes to Keandre Lambert-Smith (5 catches, 156 yards) in the final two quarters.

“No, I thought he deserved the right to earn the start,” Freeze said. “ Wanted to see how he played in SEC play. I love Hank. He did not play well in the first half. Missed open guys. Obviously we are not doing a good job of coaching quarterbacks right now.”

He also stressed that the quarterbacks have too get some help from their teammates.

“I know that there’s people open and I know that we’re running the football,” Freeze said. “We’ve got to find a guy that won’t throw it to the other team and we’ve got to find running backs that hold on to it.” 

Photo by Craven Whitlaw