AUBURN | There’s bound to be changes to the passing game after three quarterbacks combined to complete 9 of 23 passes for just 56 yards in a 27-10 loss at Texas A&M.

It appears Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne will start his fifth consecutive game at quarterback for the Tigers, but Hugh Freeze and his offensive staff are evaluating and working to improve all aspects of the passing attack.

It started with Freeze meeting with Thorne Sunday night.

“I feel like there’s things our staff have let him down on,” said Freeze. “And some of it is him and he knows that and he owns it. But I promised him we would do a better job of coaching him this week and preparing him. When you say coaching him, that means also the other positions that need to be in the right spots at the right time for him.”

Thorne was 6 of 12 for 44 yards against the Aggies. He was sacked five times. TAMU totaled seven sacks.

“(Thorne) understands the game from the mental perspective,” said Freeze. “When the ball is snapped, he knows this dig should be the throw. If it’s not the right time from the receivers or whatever, it throws him off and that leads to sacks. We’ve got to do a better job of helping him with that.

“At the same time, you get a wheel route that’s wide open and you do have time, you’ve got to hit it, or a seam route. We had a couple of those the other days. He seemed distracted in the pocket so we worked on pocket presence a good bit this week. And we’ll do that again.”

Making a lot of progress on the field is going to be tough this Saturday against No. 1 Georgia. It doesn’t get much easier an off-week with a trip to No. 13 LSU.

“Hopefully, this thing’s got to turn to a positive vibe somehow. It takes some mental toughness to do that on his part and on our part. In the coming weeks, we need to see some progress,” said Freeze.

Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on CBS.