How missed redzone opportunities held Auburn back against Alabama

The seconds ticked by on the clock.

Auburn was one yard away from a much-needed touchdown to end the first half after Alabama’s Jalen Milroe turned the ball over for the second time in the game, leading to an Auburn drive inside the five-yard line.

Payton Thorne had just run up the middle to put Auburn inches away from the goal line, a play that led to Hugh Freeze picking up his pace in the third period and passing the ball to Jarquez Hunter, who was trying to get out of one yard into the end zone.

That didn’t happen. Hunter was pushed back and lost a yard on fourth down from the two-yard line.

Then, instead of trying to score seven points against its archrival before halftime, Auburn decided to take a delay-of-game penalty and kick a chip-shot field goal, bringing the deficit to eight instead of possible four was reduced.

When Alabama got the ball early in the second half, the Crimson Tide ran away with the game. A 14-6 game quickly became a 28-6 game, and Auburn had little chance of getting back into the game, ultimately losing 28-14.

The goal-to-goal situation late in the half was one of Auburn’s few missed opportunities in the redzone, opportunities that could have led to a completely different game before halftime or a completely different result.

“It definitely could have been a different game,” Freeze said after the game. “I think the difference in the game was their ability to stay on the field on third down and we weren’t able to score touchdowns in the red zone.”

In the first half alone, Auburn managed drives to reach the Alabama 21, 19 (twice) and two-yard lines, but only scored a total of six points from those possessions.

On the drive inside the five-yard line at the end of the half, Auburn lined up first to go for the fourth down of both, but Thorne confirmed after the game that there was no play call, just a draw attempt score off defense and a free play in which Thorne said he threw a fade into the end zone.

Thorne had another opportunity to give Auburn a touchdown on a fade route early in the half, but he easily knocked down KeAndre Lambert-Smith in the end zone and the drive ended with a 37-yard field goal.

“If we can keep up with that, it’ll be in the end zone. I think there were seven of us there. So there’s something there that’s frustrating,” Thorne said.

The other frustrating part for Auburn about the possessions in and around the end zone was how they started.

Of Auburn’s four possessions that ended in or just outside the end zone, three resulted from Alabama turnovers. Auburn forced four Alabama turnovers in the game, but only scored six points on those turnovers.

“This is what will settle in your stomach; “That we didn’t score a goal and the chances we had,” Freeze said. “A few calls here and there, you know. The trick game. The third-and-1 tempo. With all that going on, you’re constantly questioning yourself when it comes to things like this.”

Although it wasn’t a possession that ended in the redzone, the trick play attempt mentioned by Freeze was arguably the most baffling decision of the game.

After recovering a second fumble by Milroe three plays earlier, Auburn decided to make a trick play out of a timeout, with Thorne throwing a reverse pass to Hunter and Hunter attempting a pass downfield to Lambert-Smith.

Only Hunter’s pass was intercepted, ending the drive and giving Auburn any real chance of a comeback.

“We didn’t train it well enough. There was a post safety, you can’t throw that. “They throw the screen back to Payton,” Freeze said, describing the play. “I think it would have been a chance to make a pretty big play, but obviously we didn’t coach Jarquez well enough on that.”

It wasn’t the first time missed opportunities cost Auburn a game. Failure to capitalize on opportunities one way or another has cost Auburn many losses this season.

In a season that was the fourth straight in which Auburn finished with a losing record, the seven losses were largely all due to missed opportunities.

Earlier in the week, Freeze mentioned that Auburn might only suffer one or two losses if it could finish the games. That doesn’t work and at the end of the season the tone is different.

“Life isn’t fair sometimes and it hits you hard,” Freeze said. “And we have had some experience with that.”

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