California outperforms Auburn

On Saturday, the Auburn Tigers played a better team and were beaten on the field 21 to 14. Auburn's defense limited Cal to just fourteen points in three quarters of action; but the offense just never could get on track.

Auburn scored its first touchdown early in the first quarter with three crisp pass completions and then did very little offensively until the fourth quarter.

Cal's Fernando Mendoza had a much better game than Auburn's Payton Thorne. Mendoza had two touchdown passes and 233 yards with 19 completions on 23 attempts. Thorne on the other hand threw four interceptions. A Jarquez Hunter fumble in the fourth quarter was followed by a 32-yard rushing touchdown for Cal to go ahead 21 to 7. Auburn did come back to score with less than six minutes left to narrow the score to 21 to 14. Two subsequent drives ended on Thorne interceptions.

Auburn's offensive line woes of the last 3 years were repeated on Saturday as Cal rushers were able to consistently penetrate that line to put pressure on Thorne resulting in several rushed throws, quarterback scrambles, and sacks.

Auburn edge Keldric Faulk had two big sacks late in the second quarter to halt Cal drives and keep the game close. Cal also missed a field goal attempt. The defense held Cal scoreless for the entire third quarter despite a lack of any meaningful support from the offense.

This is Coach Hugh Freeze's second year as head coach of the Tigers. Freeze brought in Thorne through the transfer portal his first year. Freeze made the decision not to go after a big-name quarterback in the transfer portal this offseason and instead used Auburn's limited NIL dollars to shore up other positions. That decision was being questioned by some Auburn fans after Saturday's performance. Freeze blamed the loss on all the turnovers.

"You cannot turn the ball over five times and expect to beat anybody," said Coach Freeze. "I knew this would be a good test for us. They're a senior-laden football team, they play extremely hard and they're well-coached."

Freeze burst on the coaching scene with a spread system and he remained loyal to that offensive scheme even though it had little success outside of the first drive on Saturday. Freeze refused to put Freeze under center, substitute in a fullback to lead block and pick up those free blitzers even though the painfully predictable Freeze offense again failed to move the ball consistently against competent competition either on the ground or through the air consistently. Freeze did not blame the system but rather the execution of the system.

"We never got in any sync offensively and that's very disappointing and frustrating to me," said Freeze.

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