Freeze’s failure costs Auburn dearly

AUBURN | Auburn’s defense made a big fourth-down stop and on the next play, Jarquez Hunter had a 22-yard run down to the Oklahoma 33-yard line.

With 11:32 second left in the game and the Tigers leading the 21st-ranked Sooners 21-10, all the pieces were in place for an important AU win.

Eight minutes later, those shattered pieces were laying in a pile of ash upon the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium after OU pulled off a 27-21 comeback win.

“So it’s one that stings, for sure. I’ve got to help our team get over the edge when you have a chance to win a game like that,” said AU coach Hugh Freeze.

Freeze probably needs to start with himself and his coaching staff.

After the first down on the OU 33, Auburn’s next two plays were incomplete passes, which stopped the clock. On 3rd and 10, Hunter was stopped for no gain and then Towns McGough missed a 51-yard field goal.

The drive took just 1:31 off the clock, and Freeze put the decision to throw on Thorne’s shoulders and not his own.

“I’ve got to make sure he understands the situation better and we should of had runs there,” said Freeze. “I’ve just got to be clearer with him on what we’re trying to do at that moment in the game.”

It really started to fall apart for Auburn on Oklahoma’s next drive after quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. completed a 60-yard pass to J.J. Hester, which set up a two-yard touchdown run by Jovantae Barnes two plays later.

The Tigers ran the the ball five of the next six times on the ensuing drive with a short pass to Hunter out of the backfield for a third-down conversion the only pass until facing a 3rd and 4 on OU’s 43-yard line.

Linebacker Kip Lewis intercepted a Thorne pass and returned it 63 yards for a touchdown that essentially ended the game.

“The margin of error certainly feels very, very small,” said Freeze. “You feel the weight of every play call. You feel the weight of and I’m sure they feel the weight of the execution of that. I thought they were playing pretty free.

“We were up two scores and obviously when it got kind of tight you all sensed, all of us, the coaches and the players, you start feeling, ‘Man, we’ve got to make the perfect call and the perfect protection and run the perfect route.’ That’s a tall task when you’re playing a really good defense. The best thing to do is protect a two score lead and not get in that position. That’s what we failed to do."

Auburn (2-3, 0-2 SEC) plays at No. 2 Georgia next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.