It seemed as if no one on Auburn's offense was on the same page on Saturday.

After a nearly perfect opening drive, Auburn's offense scored just one more time and turned it over five times en route to a 21-14 loss to Cal at home.

Payton Thorne played his worst game as a Tiger as he was 14-of-27 through the air and threw four interceptions.

Thorne has to be better, and he knows that.

"We've got to do a better job of protecting the ball, and that starts with me," Thorne said. "I touch the ball every single play."

And although Thorne is going to catch the bulk of the blame, the offensive struggles weren't just on him.

On Auburn's final play of the game, Thorne threw a ball to an area where he thought Keandre Lambert-Smith would be.

Instead of Lambert-Smith, the receiver was Lu-Magia Hearns, a Cal defensive back.

It was a miscommunication that perfectly summed up the day.

"Me and KeAndre hadn't talked on the sideline about that play, so he was expecting that post to be way down the field," Thorne said. "And with one-high zone, that's going to be just a jump ball, and that's tough. So I was trying to fit it in there, like a bang post-type deal."

Auburn's first drive was nearly flawless as the Tigers went 75 yards in just over three minutes, but after that, the Tigers were completely lost offensively.

On the day, Auburn had an EPA of -0.34, which ranked in the fourth percentile.

Cal showed Auburn a few different looks, but the ineptitude was more about Auburn than the Bears.

"Obviously I missed a couple throws today that I feel like I make on the regular," Thorne said. "We were on different pages on one of them, kind of. Then the other one, I just kind of missed him. I don't think the defense did too much different. They gave us a couple blitzes that we had only seen once on film. That's a credit to them."

Despite Thorne's disastrous day, his teammates still have full confidence in their senior quarterback.

"Payton is a strong dude," said tight end Luke Deal. "He’s a competitor. He’s been playing football for a really long time. College football is a really tough sport and he’s been doing it for a while. So I have no worries about Payton."

As for Auburn's offense as a whole, it's back to the drawing board.

It was a dreadful performance, but with the competition only getting tougher, the Tigers have to quickly flip the page.

"That offensive performance definitely will never win you a football game," Deal said. "That’s just something we’re extremely embarrassed of and something we’ve got to flip very quickly because we’re getting into SEC ball very soon."