Our weekly recap of each Auburn football game will be “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down.” Instead of grading each area of the team and how they performed, we’ll take a quick look at what happened and how we see it moving forward.

Auburn finally started their 2017 season at home against the Eagles of Georgia Southern. Questions surrounding a new offensive coordinator, a new quarterback, and defensive consistency have buzzed all offseason. “Talking Season,” as they call it, is over. There were mixed emotions after Auburn’s first outing, but the Tigers came away with a victory. Let’s take a look at how each specialty performed.

OFFENSE

The highly anticipated new Auburn offense… did alright. We’ll give this a thumbs up but one of those that you give real hesitantly. The first half was sloppy, but it could have been worse. It’s unrealistic for fans to expect new Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham to perform like a Heisman contender two years removed from his last start. There was some dust that had to be shaken off. Stidham’s interception in the first quarter was a poorly thrown ball and not a good decision. The play before that was a near pick. He held on to the ball too long at some points and it resulted in sacks. All are things that can, and I believe will be, solved through film and practice.

This is still a thumbs up verdict though. Stidham made throws Auburn fans haven’t seen their quarterback throw in quite a while (i.e. the touchdown pass to Will Hastings). His rushing touchdown came on a run-pass option, an obvious wrinkle from new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey.

Passes not caught were still beautiful throws. The problem comes with them simply not being caught. Darius Slayton could have had Stidham’s first passing touchdown at Auburn. Sal Canella dropped a wide open first down that was just inexcusable. The receivers have to get open, make sure they catch wide open passes, and hold on to the ball as they run. These seem simple but failure here resulted in a couple turnovers for Auburn.

Specialty players weren’t the only ones sluggish on Saturday. The offensive line struggled at times. That has to get better before Clemson’s stacked defensive line this coming weekend.

Finally, the best thing for Auburn’s offense is their best players have yet to be on the field. Whatever happened with Sean White, Kyle Davis and Kamryn Pettway seems resolved. Kerryon Johnson looked like he was headed for a career night until a hamstring injury and we await to see his status. If Auburn wants a successful season, they need them all to be available.

DEFENSE

Questions about Auburn’s defense filled the offseason as well. Would the loss of Carl Lawson and Montravius Adams be too big of holes to fill? Was last year a fluke? After that performance on Saturday, the resounding answer to that is a no. I’m giving Auburn’s defensive performance on Saturday two thumbs up (go ahead and stick your big toes up too).

Some ridiculous stats from Saturday:

Georgia Southern never recorded a successful third down conversion.. and they had fifteen attempts.

Auburn’s defense gave up 78 TOTAL yards, the least since 1985.

Auburn recorded six sacks between four players.

Those are defensive stats that Auburn fans are not used to hearing in recent years. Auburn’s strength is their defensive line and it’s not even close. This will be key for next week. With facing a young quarterback and an ability to silence a hostile crowd, the D-line will have to set the tone early.

There were only a couple “negatives” from this performance. Auburn’s secondary was not tested. Georgia Southern’s triple-option offense only threw the ball nine times. That will not be the case next weekend. The other is that Auburn did not record a meaningful turnover. Daniel Thomas’ interception of Georgia Southern’s Hail Mary to end the game was the only turnover recorded. That has to change as the season goes on, preferably in Death Valley on Saturday.

Other than that, you can’t say much negative about the Auburn defensive side of the ball. It was a historic performance.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Auburn’s kicking game was the major surprise of the game. Daniel Carlson had missed a total of 14 field goals entering the 2017 season. He missed two Saturday night. It certainly wasn’t expected but luckily wasn’t damaging. Like Stidham, Carlson will work hard to make adjustments and get it fixed. Auburn fans should not be concerned. The highlight for Carlson was that he became Auburn’s all-time leading scorer and now has 359 points accounted for.

After the quarterback position, the toughest competition of the fall was for the starting punter job. Ian Shannon won that job and Auburn only needed him for one 42-yard punt Saturday night. The return game was also minimal.

There’s not a lot to go off of with special teams in a game like this, but Auburn’s special teams garnered a solid one-hand thumbs up.

EXTRA: FANS

The Auburn fans showed out for their first game under the lights of Jordan-Hare. The city and campus were packed and it was truly a sellout. Many Georgia Southern fans have been public with how accommodating and kind the Auburn Family was. Regardless of a score outcome, Auburn fans pride themselves on how they’re viewed by the opposing fans.

Well done, Auburn. And because of that, two thumbs up.

NEXT WEEK: Clemson

Tune in next week as we grade Auburn’s efforts after their first tough test of the season.

Fearless and True; Forever Orange and Blue,

Austin Scott

Featured image via Gladiator