AUBURN | While there were plenty of reasons Auburn lost at No. 5 Georgia 31-13 and one play certainly wasn’t the determining factor, there’s been a lot of inconsistency about what happened on 4th and 1 to start the fourth quarter.

Facing a 4th and 1 at the Auburn 44-yard line, quarterback Payton Thorne was dropped for a four-yard loss. Georgia scored a touchdown five plays later to take a 28-10 lead and essentially put the game out of reach.

Hugh Freeze was asked again about the play during Wednesday’s SEC teleconference.

“That’s a whole long story, for sure, but the execution of it wasn’t proper,” said Freeze. “Payton really thought he needed to handle an edge guy. And he kept that same run on. He’s correct. He did not change the play.

“But that play is not designed to hit from the backside at all. So he was thinking through things and I understand his thinking, but we can’t do that in that situation.”

Freeze, who had a lively exchange with Thorne on the sidelines after the play, had a slightly different explanation after the game.

“Yeah, he absolutely didn't go with what we had called,” Freeze said Saturday. “Payton's a thinker. He knows football. He decided to try to run some type of zone read there. I think everybody was a little confused. But we definitely weren't on the same page there. I should have used one of our timeouts there, when I saw things were going awry. But that's something we've got to learn from.

“And, again, we've got to coach better to where that's really not an option in that moment in time. We needed that. That was a big drive, man. We were moving the ball. We've got to talk through that and make sure that doesn't happen again.”

Thorne shared a different viewpoint on Tuesday during an interview with The Next Round, which prompted Wednesday’s question to Freeze on the SEC teleconference.

“I won’t get too much into it. I could explain what happened but I don’t think that would help our team so I’ll keep that one in-house. I will say I did not check any play,” said Thorne. “It was something we talked about on the sideline that I said what I saw and what it was, and obviously our coaches saw after the game, after they reviewed the film too, what I was saying.

“So we’ve handled it and now it’s just move forward and do what we can to execute out there and give ourselves the best chance to win the rest of the season.”

Auburn, which is off this week, plays at No. 21 Missouri Oct. 19 at 11:00 or 11:45 a.m. CT on SECN or ESPN.