Athens | A sign of progress? Maybe. Another loss? Yes.

Auburn dropped its fourth game of the season in Athens to Georgia 31-13 in what was a competitive game for 45 minutes.

Similar to the Oklahoma game, Auburn's offense showed that it could look like a competent unit against real competition, but also like the Oklahoma game, it did exactly what it needed to to lose the game.

Here are this week's unit grades:

Offense: C+

Jarquez Hunter is incredible. He ran for 91 yards and averaged seven yards per carry.

He had a great game. Give him the ball on 4th-and-1, no matter what.

Keandre Lambert-Smith continued to shine posting 93 yards on seven catches, but here's the problem: Lambert-Smith's six caught balls made up 46 percent of Auburn receptions on the day.

Malcolm Simmons posted 46 yards, but half of those came on Auburn's final drive, also known as garbage time.

That has felt all too common at times this season.

After some early pass-blocking struggles from its tackles, Auburn's offensive line seemed to settle in well. There were still sacks and pressures allowed, but that's inevitable against Georgia.

Not too much to say about Payton Thorne -- he was good, but not outstanding finishing 16-of-27 for 200 yards to go along with 22 yards on the ground. Once again though, a good chunk of those yards came in garbage time. But he was fine on Saturday.

Defense: C-

Self-inflicted wounds continue to kill this unit.

On the first drive, the Tigers looked as if it had stopped Georgia on third down, but an illegal substitution penalty gave the Bulldogs a first down and led to a touchdown drive.

The Tigers forced a couple of stops after that drive but allowed a 50-yard drive in under a minute before halftime which was spearheaded by a 23 yard run from Trevor Etienne which included a myriad of missed tackles, a theme that became common in the second half.

Auburn got a stop on Georgia's first drive of the second half, but after that, the Bulldogs played dominant ball control football as they ran off just under 15 minutes of game action on their final three drives and scored on all three.

Keldric Faulk had seven tackles and two third down sacks on the day and continues to be the brightest star on Auburn's defense.

Auburn's young guys such as Jay Crawford, Demarcus Riddick and Kaleb Harris continued to show flashes, but that's about where the bright spots end.

Special teams: C-

Towns McGough was fine going 2-of-3 on kicks with the one miss being blocked.

The Tigers had another penalty on a return, but it ended up being inconsequential.

Special teams didn't lose Auburn the game, but they didn't help, just like the first five weeks of the season.

Coaching: C

There was a miscommunication on the fourth down play. Auburn called a dive, Thorne ran a zone read.

It's fair to say that was Thorne's mistake, but he also has the freedom to make that play. We'll call it a mutual mistake.

Beyond that, there wasn't much coaching could have done in a game in which Auburn was overmatched

Overall: C

Again, there were signs of a good football team as the Tigers were in the game for 50 minutes, but the constant self-inflicted wounds combined with the fact that there is a talent gap between Auburn and Georgia made it too much to overcome.

Offense showed some flashes, but it's not close to consistent, and with 50 percent of the season in the books, that's a problem.