Wrong Calls, Wrong Players, Wrong Plays: Familiar Theme from Auburn's Hugh Freeze

The Auburn Tigers had plenty of chances to close out the Missouri Tigers on Saturday, but as has been the case in 2024, they failed.

The Auburn Tigers managed just one offensive touchdown in a 21-17 loss to the Missouri Tigers. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

For the fourth game in a row, the Auburn Tigers have failed to come out on top. They fell to 2-5 on the season after losing 21-17 to the Missouri Tigers. They had been 105-1 when holding a 14-point lead in the second half of games. They're now 105-2 in those situations with their chances of making a bowl game hanging by a thread.

Both teams stumbled out of the gate and headed into their locker rooms even at three at halftime.

Auburn made explosive plays. Payton Thorne connected with Cam Coleman for a 47-yard touchdown and Antonio Kite recovered a muffed punt in the endzone to put Auburn up 17-3. Those two plays happened just over a minute apart.

When it was all said and done, however, Auburn failed to hold on to the momentum and another game that was in hand slipped away.

“We're not making enough plays,” Freeze said. “We’re not making enough right calls at times to win these close games right now obviously, and it's disappointing for the Auburn family. Disappointing for our administration, for our team, for our kids, our coaches.”

Auburn had an opportunity to extend its lead to 24-6 late in the third quarter, but failed to execute on multiple plays in a goal-to-go situation. The drive ended with a missed 30-yard field goal attempt by Towns McGough.

Missouri’s starting quarterback Brady Cook, who left the game with an ankle injury just minutes after kickoff, returned nearly two hours later and helped lead his team to the win.

Freeze reflected on the play calls made in that situation and highlighted some changes that could have been made.

“The first was an RPO and we had Robert,” Freeze said. “Wish we would have had a bigger guy there. I think it hit his hands. I haven’t seen the film, but I thought it was a really good throw. We’ve got to make those plays to win games. You’ll have to tell me what the next two plays were. I can’t remember that throw (sack) and then we tried to get back in third down range on third down, which we did. Should be a chip shot, unfortunately we didn’t make it.”

It's a recurring theme for Hugh Freeze and the Auburn staff - the wrong players in the wrong place at the wrong time, running the wrong plays.

After four-straight losses, Freeze is starting to sound like the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.