Hugh Freeze: We can't play like that offensively and expect to win
Hugh Freeze called his offense’s performance uncharacteristic during Auburn‘s 14-10 win on the road against Cal on Saturday.
The Golden Bears led the Tigers 10-7 at halftime, but an Auburn touchdown midway through the fourth quarter proved to be the difference maker as they held Cal scoreless for the final 30 minutes. With Vegas slotting Cal with five expected wins this season — Freeze knows this won’t suffice when they begin SEC play in the coming weeks.
“We cannot play like that offensively,” Freeze said postgame. “We can’t expect to win football games with the schedule we have.”
Before Auburn scored its first touchdown of the game in the second quarter, the Tigers offense coughed the ball up on its opening drive and proceeded to punt for the next three possessions. After the touchdown, Auburn’s last two drives of the half ended in a punt and an interception, respectively.
The second half was just as hard to watch. Three of Auburn’s five second half possessions ended up a turnover or punt. Aside from the eventual game-winning touchdown, Auburn was also able to regain possession to run the final 1:44 off the clock to end the game after defensive back DJ James came up with a clutch interception.
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“I don’t think we could have played any uglier or sloppier on offense. I’m really proud of our defense,” Freeze said. “All the credit goes to to to that side of the ball tonight. There’s going to be nights where we can score 50 and we might have to to win. And there’s going to be times where they got to hold them to 10 and we got to score 11. This is one of those nights with how poorly we played on our offense.”
Ultimately, Freeze’s group found a way to win and he expects his team to grow from it. The first-year head coach expects this to be the theme of Auburn’s season moving forward — learning to find a way to grow and to get better each week.
The defense did just that, but wasn’t keen on sugarcoating their offensive woes. The penalties and turnovers are unacceptable — and he’s going to call it out and expects his group to right those wrongs in Week 3.
Luckily for Auburn, they can take a breather as they play Samford at home for Week 3 before beginning SEC play on the road against Texas A&M the following week.