AUBURN | Six sacks. Nine quarterback hurries. A stagnant running game. Four penalties.
It was a disastrous performance for Auburn’s offensive line in a 41-12 loss to Penn State. But there’s still nine more games on the schedule starting with Saturday’s SEC opener against Missouri.
“Anytime you go out there and put up a performance on the field that you’re not proud of, it’s huge to bounce back,” said right tackle Austin Troxell. “Especially the schedule we play, to get back on track. And I believe. I have faith in this team and the leadership we have that we’re going to do that.”
Troxell was guilty of several of the mishaps including two of the sacks, one of which resulted in a fumble, and was called for a holding. He was one of four starting offensive linemen that received an offensive grade of 41.7 are lower by PFF.
“Just going back to the basics, fundamentals. We lost our fundamentals in this game and that’s a key for offensive line play,” said Troxell. “We’re going to correct that in practice this week for sure.”
Auburn coach Bryan Harsin didn’t rule out changes to the group, which has seen Keiondre Jones and Kameron Stutts split reps at right guard in the first three games. The constants for most of the season have been Kilian Zierer at left tackle, Brandon Council at left guard and Tate Johnson at center.
Alec Jackson at right tackle and Jalil Irvin at center did play 11 snaps in the game according to PFF.
“We'll look at practice. We'll let guys compete,” said Harsin. “We didn't play up to our standard or what we were capable of doing. So, some of that was us. Some of that was Penn State. Sometimes, you get in a 1-on-1 matchup, you just get whooped. So what is that? It's a fundamental correction that you've got to make. Is it a scheme correction or is it just a pure fundamental correction?
“So it was a combination of both things. We've identified that. We'll work on it this week. And we'll let guys compete on the o-line to get the best five out there."
Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.
