Auburn's offensive line was unable to effectively protect Jarrett Stidham in last week's loss to Clemson and on several occasions when it did, he held on to the ball for too long.

That sent the redshirt-sophomore quarterback scrambling even more during the 14-6 loss that featured 11 sacks by Clemson and just 117 yards for Auburn, worst in Gus Malzahn's career and one of the five least productive offensive displays by a Power 5 conference team over the past two seasons.

Both Gus Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey placed much of the onus on Auburn's wide receivers, who they said were not open consistently and were the cause of Stidham's indecisiveness as he went 13 for 24 for 79 yards with 18 carries for minus-42 yards.

"Jarrett is a good quarterback," Malzahn said. "Jarrett just needs experience. A lot of times there wasn't guys open. That had something to do with him holding the football."

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Still, Lindsey conceded Stidham "should've thrown the ball away four, maybe five times," which could have cut the number of sacks he took in half instead of tying for the most in college football over the past five years.

"It's a combination (of things)," Lindsey said. "We've got to get open. If guys aren't open and you're being harassed, you're going to hold onto the ball. I think he doesn't want to turn the ball over, for sure. I think that's part of any quarterback - he wants to take care of the ball. I think it's something, too, that, when he has protection, he has an opportunity to make throws. But on the other end of it, we have to do a good job of getting open for him, too."

There were several instances in which Stidham should have thrown the ball though.

On the final play of the first quarter, Kamryn Pettway motioned across the formation on second-and-five from the 2-yard line and appeared to be open in the flat for what could have been at least a gain, if not a touchdown, or gone to Jalen Harris in the back left corner of the end zone. Instead, Stidham held on and scrambled from the left hash to the right sideline and was stopped for no gain. Clemson sacked him on the ensuing play and Auburn had to settle for its second field goal.

On the critical fourth-and-three from the Clemson 37-yard line in the third quarter, Stidham had the option of trying to loft a pass up for Chandler Cox or had Eli Stove open deep with no safety on what could have been an easy touchdown and potentially tied the game. He was dropped for a loss of 14 yards.

Former Jets director of college scouting Jeff Bauer gave a real-time assessment of the game for InsideTheLeague.com. During the second half, Bauer tweeted Stidham was "not seeing field well, pressured all night, not in sync, missing some open guys" and later that Clemson's pressure was "dominating" as Auburn's offensive line was "struggling" and Stidham was "flustered."

Stidham didn't want to blame his receiving corps, which was led by Ryan Davis' eight catches for 32 yards in the loss.

"There was sometimes they were open and sometimes I just didn't hit them, I just make a good throw," Stidham said. "Other times, it's just how it is, how the game of football is."

Stidham believes he's a better quarterback than his 112 passer efficiency, which ranks 101st nationally, has indicated in the first two games of the season.

"There's always room to improve and I'm always looking for ways to improve," he said. "I thought personally, last week to this week I thought I was a much better football player. But you got to watch the film (Sunday). I got to get better personally and we got to get better as a whole."