Auburn Senior Tight End Sums Up Offensive Performance: 'It's Just Embarrassing'

Auburn Tigers senior tight end Luke Deal has spent six years on The Plains, and Saturday's 21-14 loss to Cal was one of his low points.

Quarterback Payton Thorne walks off the field after the game as the California Golden Bears defeated Auburn Tigers 21-14. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

Auburn opened its game against Cal with an impressive 75-yard drive for a touchdown, but from there the offense was dominated by the Golden Bears defense. It was one offensive blunder after another as the Cal defeated Auburn 21-14.

“It’s just embarrassing,” senior tight end Luke Deal said of the loss. “Offensively, when you work so hard, your defense works so hard, your culture works so hard to remain together. You just put out a product out like that. That’s just something we’re extremely embarrassed of, and something we have to fix pretty quickly because we’re stepping into SEC play pretty soon.”

Auburn’s offense was almost entirely stagnant after its first score all the way until midway through the fourth quarter. A touchdown drive cut the deficit to seven, and the Auburn defense gave the Auburn offense two more opportunities. But those ended in interceptions.

“Five turnovers won’t win you a football game. It won’t,” Deal added. “That offensive performance will never win you a football game. I’m proud of our defense and the way they fought.”

Three of the five turnovers came in the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth down 14-7 Jarquez Hunter lost a fumble that set up Cal with an opportunity to extend the score to two possessions, and the Bears offense capitalized.

According to head coach Hugh Freeze, there was more to it on the balls thrown by quarterback Payton Thorne. Receiver Cam Coleman was on the field and slowed by an injury when Thorne threw deep down the sideline for him. The clock was running inside of three minutes remaining and Thorne was unaware that Coleman was slowed.

With 28 seconds left, Thorne wasn’t on the same page with receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith. Freeze said the coverage called for a bang post, which Thorne was looking for. Pass blocking was an issue as Auburn split snaps between four tackles.

“It was a mixture, it wasn’t just one thing,” Freeze said of the offense. “I thought we were running the ball fairly effective at the beginning of the second half, but we couldn’t into any kind of rhythm. You try to mix it up between run and the pass, and we get a sack and put us in third and long. It’s just a disappointing day for us for sure in our building for sure. It’s not the expectation of the way we should play offensive football.”

Thorne had a rough day after going 3-5 for 72 yards and a touchdown to Lambert-Smith on the opening drive. He finished the game 14-27 for 165 yards and four picks. Some of the issues sat at Thorne’s feet, some not.

In the second quarter he threw a slant for Coleman that looked to be catchable, but it ricocheted off Coleman’s hands for the first interception of the day. On the next drive Thorne overthrew an open Lambert-Smith on another slant attempt that should have been an easy throw and catch.

Also in the second quarter, Thorne scrambled on third down only to come inches away from picking up the first. He’s been a solid runner in his Auburn career, and he could have picked up the first down.

The Tigers offense had a chance for points at the end of the first half until another error by Thorne was a loss of down, five-yard penalty, and a 10-second run off. On an attempt to spike the ball and stop the clock with 15 seconds left, Thorne fumbled the snap, then spiked it – which is a grounding penalty because of the fumble.

Thorne was 1-4 passing for seven yards and an interception in the second quarter.

The passing game wasn’t any better in the third. Thorne was 1-2 for eight yards and an interception, as well as three sacks.

To make matters worse for a sputtering Auburn offense, it was pinned inside the five-yard line twice by the Cal punt team.

“Their special teams played really well in the third quarter and kept us pinned,” Freeze said. “But you cannot turn the ball over five times and expect to beat anybody. We never got into any kind of sync offensively and that’s very disappointing and frustrating. It rests with me, and I’ve got to figure that out for us.”

Starting right tackle Izavion Miller was hurt early in the game and didn’t come back until the third quarter. In his place Akron transfer Roman Chambers played about half the snaps at right tackle. At left tackle Auburn is still trying to find separation between Tyler Johnson and Percy Lewis. Lewis had a series where he missed his run block on first down and his pass block on third down.

Thorne also failed to recognize a delayed blitz or pressure off the edge. His interception in the third quarter came when pressure came off the edge and he held onto the ball too long. His arm was hit as he was throwing and it fluttered in the air into the arms of a Cal defensive back. He consistently held on to the ball too long, failing to get through his reads quickly.

Auburn’s yards per carry from the running backs was a positive as Hunter was 5.7 and Alston 5.0. However, Auburn never really committed to the running game. When they started to get momentum running, a sack put them in bad down and distance, and late in the game they were playing against the clock.

“We always talk about staying on schedule and staying out in front of the chains,” Deal said. “A bunch of our RPO stuff has to do with the downhill running game. Whenever they give us things in the passing game on those RPOs. We just couldn’t stay ahead of the chains, and we were kind of off schedule the entire day."

Off schedule is a kind way to describe the Auburn offense on Saturday. Give credit to Cal's defense, but this was a self-inflicted loss from the Auburn passing game.