Auburn's momentum and strong stretch during Bryan Harsin's first season came to a screeching halt on Saturday with a 20-3 loss at Texas A&M.
Harsin said during the week not to look ahead because "football will humble you." It was a humbling game for Auburn in College Station.
The Tigers had just 226 yards of total offense and averaged 3.2 yards per play. The defense held strong, but the offense was nowhere to be found.
Grades from the game:
Quarterback: D-
Just as Auburn fans thought that Bo Nix had turned the corner, a "Road Bo" performance occurred at Kyle Field and Nix struggled to put together anything.
He finished the game 20-of-41 with 153 yards, a fumble that Texas A&M scooped up and scored and then an interception on Auburn's final drive.
The grade would've been a F but I don't view Nix's performance entirely on him.
The offensive line was a disaster. Nix had little to no time to pass. The receivers couldn't get an inch of separation and dropped a couple of passes.
It wasn't all on Nix, but he also didn't do anything to help out the cause.
Running Back: D+
Auburn's running back trio didn't have a whole lot to work with on Saturday as the offensive line failed to generate holes and Texas A&M bottled up the run.
Tank Bigsby had 15 carries for 69 yards, while Jarquez Hunter had four carries for 14 yards and Shaun Shivers ran three times for eight yards.
Similar to Nix, it's not all on the backs. They didn't have anywhere to go for the most part. But the backs also didn't do anything special.
Wide Receivers: F
Nix has done a good job spreading the ball around recently and getting different receivers involved.
Just four wide receivers got involved on Saturday and they combined for five catches and 32 yards.
The group couldn't get any separation and the drop issue returned.
That is inexcusably bad.
Offensive Line: F
And back-to-back 'F' grades for Auburn. The Auburn offensive line was getting eaten alive by Texas A&M.
The Aggies had six tackles for loss, four sacks and five quarterback hurries.
Auburn was rotating different guys in the guard spots and switching things up at tackle a little bit but nothing was working.
The run blocking was bad and the pass pro was worse.
Defensive Line: B-
Auburn's defense put together a really strong performance and it was a classic 'bend but don't break' performance from a unit that's made a living off of it.
If there's one part of the defense to nitpick, though, it would be the defensive line.
Colby Wooden generated a quarterback hurry — the only one of the game for Auburn.
Auburn didn't record a sack.
There were four tackles for loss, but only one came from the defensive line and that was Tony Fair and Derick Hall combining it for it.
Devon Achane and Isaiah Spiller got bottled up early, but eventually, the line got fatigued and the two started gashing the Auburn defense.
Linebackers: C+
The linebackers get just a little bit of a lower grade than the defensive line for Saturday's performance.
Owen Pappoe misread a couple of plays. Zakoby McClain didn't rack up tackles like he usually does.
Overall McClain finished with four, Chandler Wooten had four and Pappoe had three.
It wasn't really a bad performance out of the linebackers, but it didn't feel like too much better than just slightly above average.
Secondary: A-
Outside of one big 49-yard play to Caleb Chapman, Auburn's secondary held things down against Texas A&M.
Zach Calzada completed just 52 percent of his passes and had 192 yards passing.
The biggest concern going into the game was with Aggies tight end Jalen Wydermyer. But the safeties held him to five catches on nine targets and 53 yards on those catches. For one of the top tight ends in the country, he was held relatively in check.
Roger McCreary continues to play really, really strong and was playing lockdown coverage most of the game.
Special Teams: F
It wasn't all bad out of Auburn's special teams but a missed 33-yard field goal from Anders Carlson instantly made this an F.
The Aggies went three-and-out on the first drive out of the half. Auburn had a chance to take a lead and go up 6-3 early in the second half. Instead, Carlson pushed a gimme right and the game was still tied.
In what was a low-scoring game where every point mattered — especially prior to the Texas A&M scoop and score — this was a crucial mistake that, for me, played a huge impact in the game.
Maybe it would've just been three points and Auburn loses 20-6 instead of 20-3, but it feels like the game could've changed had Carlson knocked home that field goal.
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