Hugh Freeze gets on Payton Thorne for 'awful decision,' says Tigers need to win first down

Auburn led Vanderbilt 17-7 on the road, but the Tigers won’t be fully satisfied with how the first half went after making a handful of self-inflicted mistakes, including a few by starting quarterback Payton Thorne.

Thorne was picked off once and should have been again just before halftime while throwing into the end zone.

“Well, sloppy after the first two or three possessions and Payton made an awful decision here,” a seemingly exasperated Hugh Freeze said in a halftime interview with the SEC Network. “We’ve got to trust him to make some of those throws, but he can’t do that to us.”

Payton Thorne finished the first half 10-of-17 passing for 72 yards with no touchdowns and the lone interception. But he wasn’t the only problem for the Tigers.

Another promising drive also stalled on a penalty.

“We needed seven there and we get a blocking below the waist deal,” Freeze said. “But we were really sloppy now. They’re playing really hard on defense. They’re bringing a lot of gut cross, we’ve got to go figure that out. But our defense is playing solid.”

Auburn’s defense held Vanderbilt to just 93 yards in the first half, really putting the clamps down on quarterback Ken Seals. Seals completed just half of his passing attempts in the opening 30 minutes, going for just 19 yards.

The story wasn’t much better on the ground, where the Commodores rushed for 68 yards on 15 carries.

While Vanderbilt averaged just 3.3 yards per play in the first half, Auburn averaged 6.1. That will likely be enough for an easy road win should it hold into the second half and Payton Thorne play safe with the football.

Freeze broke down where his team needs to execute to come away with another SEC win.

“We’ve got to win first down,” Freeze said. “Every time we won first down I think we got points because we can get in our tempo and stuff. So we’ve got to get in there and figure out our first-down options.”

Auburn had seven first downs in the first half, to just four for Vanderbilt. The Tigers had a 226-93 edge in total yardage.