The Auburn Tigers have put themselves in a very tough position heading into the rest of the season with a lot of concern being voiced by their fanbase.
The Tigers saw the turnover bug become a huge problem in their 24-14 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, making them 0-1 in conference action.
Much like the loss to California, the shining moments that Auburn had in this contest were few and far between. Now, both the offense and defense have major questions to answer if better performance is going to come.
Here is what we learned about the Tigers after the loss.
The most obvious component of this game was the large amount of turnovers from around the offense, but especially the quarterback play. Hank Brown made his second start of the season after a brilliant outing against New Mexico and threw three interceptions in the midst of the team’s five turnovers, with the other two coming from a Payton Thorne interception and a Damari Alston fumble that cost the team a touchdown.
Head coach Hugh Freeze expressed his frustrations in the loss, discussing how they need to give themselves more of a chance with wide open receivers running all over the field instead of turning it over.
The rushing attack gave itself a chance and seems to be getting more comfortable as the season progresses. However, the receiving corps seems to be on the opposite end, dropping many passes that need to be caught in order for Auburn to have success.
KeAndre Lambert-Smith is turning out to be an amazing pickup in the portal, tallying five catches for 156 yards and both touchdowns in the game.
The defense is about as confusing as anyone could make it out to be. It has four interceptions over the last few games, meaning the aggressiveness is increasing.
The other side to this is that the Tigers are giving up way too many third down conversions to opponents. While they have only allowed 37.3% (25 of 67) of third downs this season, they gave up nine on Saturday, including a 58-yard heave in the third quarter to give Arkansas the lead.
With that in mind, the defense must get off the field on third down in order to possibly give the offense some momentum and string together quality plays.
Auburn looks to bounce back next week as it finishes off a five-game home stand with a matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes and opinions. You can also follow Tyler on X @traley34
This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: What did we learn from Auburn’s loss to Arkansas?
