Auburn report card: Evaluating the Tigers' 21-17 road loss to Missouri

Saturday felt like the same old story for Auburn.

The Tigers came close and had plenty of chances to tie the game, but they didn't. And since the door never closed, Missouri went right through and took a 21-17 win while Auburn fell to 2-5.

There were errors in all three phases of the game as Auburn was once again the second-best team. Many will likely blame the offense, but numerous mistakes across the board led to another collapse.

Here's how we rated Auburn's performance:

attack

Grade: D-

This one was bad, really bad.

Auburn managed just 286 total yards of offense in this game. Considering this came after a bye week and Auburn had two weeks to prepare, the performance is even worse in context.

If you want to take something positive from the loss, you can point out that Auburn only turned the ball over once. That's an improvement given the turnover issues in previous games, but it makes the 286 yards look even worse.

The best moment of the day was Payton Thorne's 47-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman, but Thorne struggled in the later stages of the game.

Jarquez Hunter also had his quietest game of the season, rushing for 57 yards and just three yards per carry.

There were a few little things that kept the offense from getting an F, but there isn't much else that could salvage this performance.

defense

Grade: B-

Auburn's defense was good until it wasn't.

This resulted in Missouri having limited production for most of the game, but this success coincided with the loss of Missouri starting quarterback Brady Cook due to an ankle injury.

When Cook returned with less than a minute left in the third quarter, he peppered Auburn's defense with two-legged attacks and rough plays through the air. His third play of the game was a 78-yard connection with Mookie Cooper, which set up Missouri's first touchdown of the game on the next play.

However, he was most effective on Missouri's 17-play, 95-yard drive in which he took the lead in the final minute. On that drive, he had runs of 14 and nine yards, a sign of a problem Auburn has struggled with all season.

“It was a tough thing. But we will address it and talk about it on film,” Auburn linebacker Eugene Asante said of the postgame altercation.

The disappointing part of that statement is that Auburn had chances to solve the quarterback runs problem after the New Mexico game and to Arkansas and again to Oklahoma, but the problem still persists.

Special teams

Grade: D

It takes a particularly poor performance to score a special teams touchdown and still get a D here.

Special teams penalties continue to be a problem for Auburn and cost the Tigers field position at times. The bigger mistake, however, was Towns McGough's missed 30-yard field goal.

It came when Auburn was ahead 17-6 and it felt like the turning point in the game when Cook came back into the game immediately after the miss.

McGough is now 5-of-10 this season and continues to struggle as Alex McPherson has yet to play in a game for Auburn this season.

“He is in a serious crisis, I guess you would say. With some of the smaller ones, Alex is closer in terms of health. You probably have to look at that too,” Freeze said of the kicks after the game.

Coaching

Grade: D+

Auburn still can't get over the hurdle, and that's largely due to coaching.

On offense, the most questionable sequence occurred on the drive when McGough missed the field goal. Auburn had first-and-goal at the 10-yard line but threw the ball three times in a row.

By comparison, Auburn ran the ball on eight of its previous nine plays and moved the ball efficiently.

The first throw in the sequence was a beautiful end zone shot for Robert Lewis that went through his hands, but the next play was a sack that deprived Auburn of any realistic chance of getting into the end zone.

On defense, the biggest question is how Auburn is still struggling to contain running quarterbacks seven games into the season. Asante claimed that the team would address the issue this week, but one would assume it would have been addressed and resolved by now.

In total

Grade: C-

Auburn seemed good enough to win, but that wasn't the case. Does this sound familiar?

This time, Auburn never really played well, but Missouri's mistakes gave it a lead and a sense of control.

Eventually the visiting Tigers' performance caught up with them and they suffered a pretty deserved defeat. However, you can still make a strong argument that Auburn should have won. That's what good teams do.

Good teams take advantage of their opponents' fumbled handoffs and muffed punts in the end zone and win the game.

Right now, the mark of a good team is one that Auburn doesn't reach.

Peter Rauterkus reports on Auburn Sports AL.com. You can follow him on X below @peter_rauterkus or send him an email at [email protected]M