How Auburn’s offense can find success against Georgia defense

The Hugh Freeze era at Auburn has gotten off to a rough start on offense. Through four games, the Tigers are second-to-last in the SEC in total offense, and things won’t get easier this week when they square off against Georgia.

It’s not quite as simple as executing the plays, though, according to Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson. Auburn needs to focus on the details.

So far, Auburn has been flagged 26 times and committed seven turnovers. Those miscues are both drive-killers, which makes it tough for the offense to get into a rhythm. Payton Thorne has looked shaky so far at quarterback, and Freeze said getting him comfortable was a focal point this week.

If the Tigers can clean those up, it’ll go a long way to making the offense look better, especially against the two-time defending champions.

“I mean, start with turnovers and penalties,” Hokanson told Andy Staples on Andy Staples On3. “In their two Power Five games, Cal and [Texas] A&M, they’re doing one of those. They had four turnovers at Cal, they had 10 offensive penalties at A&M. Two of those were intentional delay of games, so really call it eight. But still, both those games, either turnovers or penalties are crushing your drives. They’re ending your drives. Completely ending them. So number one, start by playing a clean game. Now, that’s tough. You’re playing Georgia, I get it. But don’t turn the ball over and commit a penalty, fine. But don’t commit a holding penalty when you just had a 15-yard run that got you down to the 25 yard line. Play a cleaner game, that’s one.

“I think two is for Payton Thorne, he’s got to figure out the pocket presence thing. He’s a little rushed, he’s getting a little rattled, he’s not keeping his eyes downfield. That’s got to be figured out. I don’t know how that’s gonna happen. They’re working on that this week. His eyes, they’re locking on and then, he’s looking to run. And so, he’s got to be a little more composed in there. Sidestep pressure, keep his eyes downfield for receivers that are open so you can hit them. Those two things alone would go a long way in helping solve and helping Auburn’s offense.”

On the bright side, Auburn’s rushing attack looks strong so far. The Tigers average 197.75 yards per game on the ground, which ranks second in the SEC only to Tennessee. That creates some optimism about the passing game if Thorne can figure things out and the offense can play cleaner games.

If Auburn fixes those issues soon, Hokanson said the conversation could change.

“They’ve run the ball effectively at times. … They’ve got a good a good stable of running backs,” Hokanson said. “They ran the ball — Cal and A&M, in both those games, they had success running the ball. So there’s some success there to be had.

“If you can figure out turnovers and penalties, and you can figure out how to keep Payton Thorne’s eyes downfield so the passing game will open up a little bit, I think those those couple things, the offense will look very different. And I think those three things are somewhat — I mean, you can fix those things. Turnovers, penalties and just telling Payton [to] keep watching downfield, and this thing could look different. It really could.”