AUBURN | Always be closing. That is the main lesson taught in every sales meeting and, more famously, by Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry Glen Ross. Don't quit until the deal is sealed, or it could slip out from underneath you.

Bryan Harsin and Auburn might need to heed this lesson.

Once again on Saturday night, the Tigers, for the fifth straight SEC game, blew a double-digit lead, and while Auburn got away with it last weekend against Missouri, they weren't as lucky against LSU.

Along with the inability to score in the second half, this has become a running storyline for this program ever since the disastrous failure against Mississippi State last season in which Mike Leach and the Bulldogs ran off 40 straight points after falling behind 28-3. The following week, against South Carolina, the Tigers quickly put 14 points on the board – sound familiar? – only to quickly let the Gamecocks score 14 in the second quarter. Hey, now that DOES sound familiar. The final score? Yep. 21-17.

We all know what happened in the Iron Bowl when Auburn's defense shut down Bryce Young and Alabama's offense for the first 59 minutes. So there's no need to rehash that.

So what is going on, and why can't Auburn hold a lead? Bryan Harsin wants to blame it on execution.

"Overall, it comes down to four quarters of executing and doing the little things -- the details and the things that show up," the coach said.

Executing the little things. There's no talk about the coaching staff doing a better job of adjustments or that maybe, just maybe, the other staff is figuring out what the Tigers are doing and Auburn refusing to change it up. And sure, in all five of these games, the players on the field haven't executed. That's for sure.

But how has this become a trend and not a one-time thing?

Talking about the game-sealing interception, one LSU player tweeted that Auburn had run the same play six times before, so they knew exactly what was coming. That's excusable when Tre Mason runs it up the gut against a worn-out Missouri defense to 10 yards or so a pop, but it's not like this specific play was a blockbuster for Auburn all night.

No lead is safe. Did anyone feel like Auburn had the game in hand after going up 17-0 in the second quarter? If you did, you must either be new or an eternal optimist.

And let's face it: if it were just this year's team that was doing this, that would likely be the players. But this has gone on over two rosters, and the only constant has been Harsin and the staff.

Harsin can preach execution all he wants. That's fine. He probably really believes it. Yet it might be time for him and the rest of the Auburn coaches to look in the mirror.

Right now, they need to put their coffee down this morning. Coffee's for closers.