Over Auburn's modern history, the Tigers have largely managed to dodge the dreaded rent-a-win upset.

There have been many close calls against your Louisiana Techs, Utah States and even Jacksonville or Georgia State.

But with the questionable exception of South Florida in 2007 (a team that reached No. 2 in the rankings a few weeks later), Auburn somehow always found a way to dodge that particular bullet.

Until now.

And unlike all those other near-death-experiences, this time around it wasn't even close.

In the penultimate game of Hugh Freeze's inaugural season, three-touchdown favorite Auburn somehow found a way to flip that script and lose to mighty New Mexico State, 31-10.

It easily could have been worse.

I can't honestly call Auburn's performance a dumpster fire. More like a dumpster fire in a field of exploding septic tanks during an earthquake and a hailstorm. With smog.

Auburn was unprepared. Unmotivated. Outclassed. Out-physicaled. Outplayed. Out-coached.

By a Conference USA "cupcake" that every single observer (raising my own hand here) had considered an automatic win even in the depths of October's losing streak.

This wasn't a talent-deficit loss. Over the last two recruiting classes, NMSU maintained a sparking 98th in Rivals' national rankings. Even Bryan Harsin did far better than that.

This was a case of wily old Jerry Kill, a journeyman survivor of a dozen coaching stops over four decades, taking Freeze out behind the woodshed for a clubbing — for the second year in a row.

In a mirror image of the previous week, there wasn't an aspect of the game that Auburn wasn't decisively bested in. Offense, defense, kicking game, it didn't matter: the lowly Aggies were better across the board for the duration.

I don't want to hear about trap games or hangovers or lack of motivation or any other excuses for such a debacle. That's what you say when you come out flat and get a scare you didn't expect.

This wasn't that.

There's no, zero, nada rationalizing away getting physically whipped by that team in your own stadium, with a crowd that held very close to zero opposing fans.

Was this a case of absentee head coaching rearing its head again? I don't have any way of knowing that.

It's hard to believe that Freeze would have been hands-off against a team and a coach that had whipped him so thoroughly the season before, but it's also hard to come up with any kind of rational explanation for Saturday's trouncing.

This is the kind of thing that critics of the Freeze hire feared. Not unlike Freeze's friend and predecessor Gus Malzahn, his track record is that he'll sneak up and beat somebody he shouldn't, but he's also going to have inexplicably bad losses that at best level out the upsets in his favor — and at worst overshadow them.

How bad of a loss was this?

It is, by far, a worse loss than any Malzahn had. It's even a worse loss than the incompetent Harsin ever had. Even in the depths of 2012, Gene Chizik didn't have a loss like this.

It's a strong contender for the worst loss in the modern history of Auburn football.

That's how bad it is.

To be sure, Freeze is going to survive this season and most probably the next one as well. Hard to imagine as it is this morning, he might even manage to put up a credible fight in the season finale (although right now it is really, really hard to imagine that).

But 31-10 to New Mexico State will be hanging around his neck, and justifiably so, for a very long time. Maybe forever.