Auburn football: 3 takeaways from disappointing loss at Texas A&M

Saturday was sobering for Auburn football. After a 3-0 start, the Tigers’ momentum skidded to a halt during their road trip to College Station.

1. Offense was anemic

There’s no other way to put it, the Auburn offense was just flat-out bad on Saturday. When they were on the field, frankly, it looked like the kind of game where one team shells out a couple million for a free win in Week 1.

It all started at the quarterback position.

Neither Payton Thorne nor Robby Ashford were effective whatsoever. Thorne was consistently under pressure, but his pocket presence did nothing to improve things. Time and time again, he was prematurely tucking to evade pressure, bailing on plays and conceding downs.

Ashford was an ineffective runner, but the offensive line didn’t generate enough push for anyone on a consistent basis. Brian Battie and Jarquez Hunter created some nice yardage, but the Aggie defensive front was in Auburn’s backfield all day long.

Aside from the tailbacks, there were just no positives to take from this performance for Auburn. The Tigers played extremely poorly on Saturday, and they look like an offense that is going to struggle mightily on a weekly basis against SEC competition.