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 had their first true test of the season on the road at the defending national champion’s house this weekend. The orange and purple Tigers of Clemson welcomed their first test to Death Valley as well. Each team looks different than they did last year when they met and had a fairly competitive game. Both offenses still had major question marks going into the game and strong defenses. Let’s take a look at how each specialty of the orange and navy Tigers performed in the 14-6 loss.

OFFENSE

Jarrett Stidham’s first road game as an Auburn Tiger… was not good. The offense’s first time away from Jordan-Hare Stadium… was not good. The offense gets as many thumbs downs as you can possibly give. When a team only amasses 117 yards of offense (15 yards total in the second half) and ends up turning in the worst performance of Coach Gus Malzahn’s tenure at Auburn, things are not going well.

The issues flowed from the quarterback position. At times, Jarrett Stidham was sacked because he held the ball too long. Other times, he was sacked because the wide receivers weren’t open. Or he was sacked because the O-line and running backs didn’t give him any time at all to look down field. Without a passing game, the offense became one-dimensional and a scary defensive line grew scarier for Kamryn Pettway. Changes have to be made and soon.

Wide receivers getting open is unacceptable. With names like Kyle Davis, Nate Craig-Myers and Eli Stove under Coach Kodi Burns, they have to get open more. Players with the athletic abilities they posses can change the outcomes of football games. With all due respect to Will Hastings and Ryan Davis, Auburn will not have much success in the passing game if they continue to get 90% of the receiving yards.

Play calling was another major topic of discussion following the loss to Clemson. Whether Gus Malzahn called some of the plays or Chip Lindsey called all of them, everyone needs to come to an agreement that what was called on Saturday did not work. With homecoming against Mercer this weekend, Auburn’s offense needs to find a groove, make some major decisions, and be confident with them.

DEFENSE

All of Auburn’s defense deserves two thumbs up for the second week in a row. Ask all your friends to put their thumbs up too. This is the best Auburn defense that fans have seen in a very long time and it’s exciting. In the last 30 games, the Clemson offense has been held to below 20 points twice. Both were against this Auburn football defense – the unfortunate thing for Auburn fans is that Clemson still won both of those games.

Auburn’s defensive line continued to get in the backfield, rush the quarterback and cause hurried plays. Jeff Holland and Marlon Davidson kept proving that they are filling the shoes of Carl Lawson and Montravius Adams effectively. Holland is becoming the most dominant player on Auburn’s defense and it’s not even close. If he continues to play at a high level, Auburn will have a chance. This defense is keeping Auburn in games and should continue to give hope of a great season to fans.

The only thing you could say against the Auburn defense was that when Clemson made certain adjustments just before and after halftime, they were unable to contain them as much and keep them out of the end zone. Regardless, Auburn’s offense is indebted to their defense.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Daniel Carlson accounted for all of Auburn’s points with two easy field goals in the first half. He wasn’t needed past the second half as Auburn never got close enough to use his leg.

Ian Shannon had to use his leg a lot more and did an alright job. He punted a total of eight times with a long of 49 yards. That’s not as great as Auburn special teams are used to but it did the job for Auburn on Saturday. The unfortunate part was that it never quite put Clemson in worse field position than Auburn had.

There’s not a lot to go off of with special teams as usual, but Auburn’s special teams got them one thumbs up for being productive when called upon.

FANS

Something not being mentioned very often by the Auburn Family is the hospitality of the Clemson fanbase. As someone who went to the game, there were “Welcome to Clemson” shouts from various tailgates all day long. It may never happen, but it’d be a fanbase that I would be happy to welcome into the Southeastern Conference.

NEXT WEEK: Mercer

Tune in next week as Auburn football gets another tune up game for homecoming..

Fearless and True; Forever Orange and Blue,

Austin Scott

Featured image via Gladiator