Hugh Freeze on Auburn’s Offensive Struggles: ’We Probably Carried a Bit Too Much'

Auburn’s offense did not appear ready to go against Cal. Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze discussed what held the unit back.

Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze feels he hasn't done a good enough job keeping it simple for his offense, including RPO's / John Reed-Imagn Images

Just one week after the Auburn Tigers had one of their best offensive performances in program history, they fell flat on their face against Cal.

An excessive amount of three-and-outs and turnovers is not often going to be a winning formula. 

Head coach Hugh Freeze believes that the offense could have attempted to carry too big of a load into the Cal game.

“Us not executing the offense from the quarterback position, truthfully,” Freeze said. “We have a reel of about 15 plays that were just things we have to get right and are typically done right in practice. Our coaching staff feels like maybe we attempted to carry too much because of all of the different looks that (Cal) gives you, which they do and they did a good job with that, instead of us just saying, ‘Man, this is who we are and let’s do what we know we can do with a clear mind, clear head.’

 “I assure you the package will not be big moving forward this week, so we can get an accurate picture of ‘Is this going to be a reoccurring theme where we have to make decisions?’ We probably carried a bit too much, but we just missed some very simple, simple things that would’ve kept us ahead of the chains and not in those third-and-longs, which we just can’t live in.”

Freeze acknowledged some of the issues Auburn had with its offensive line play and who the unit could adjust to accommodate that in the future if it does not pick up.

“That is one thing Payton (Thorne) gives you,” Freeze said. “He is the best mobile guy that we have that can extend the play with pressure. That weighs on your mind also. But the key to that is I think we’ve done a good job pass protecting when it’s not third-and-10 or third-and-12. It was just way too many of those. We can’t be in those situations.

“There is probably a lot of lines that are going to struggle when they’re able to get their rabbit personnel on the defense and four pass rushers and can add a fifth one to it. And you know you have to run routes to a certain depth to get a first down. It’s very challenging. So I think the key to us to be a great pass protecting team is to stay out of those. We need to stay in those third-and-5.”

Run-pass option plays have been a staple of Freeze’s gameplan’s for many years but the Tigers have not had much success executing those since he took over the program. Freeze wants to do a better job of calling things Thorne is comfortable running.

“That’s a tough one,” Freeze said. “I look forward to meeting with (Payton Thorne) in just a few minutes and hear what he is saying because we really haven’t talked about all of them. I have all of them pulled up and we are going to go through them again and see if I haven’t done a good enough job, or if Kent (Austin) and I, Jesse (Stone), and (Derrick) Nix have done a good enough job to call things he is comfortable with and how he sees that play being developed. I know his IQ is high enough to understand everything, and I am really anxious to go through those things and see what he says.”

Auburn’s offense has not been the strength of the team for quite some time, a trend Freeze is looking to break. However, it appears that there is still work to do before that is the case.