Auburn’s offense has certainly seen a decline over its last two games, both resulting in losses to current top-six ranked opponents.
“It’s just something that doesn't sit well with any of us in that room, and we know that we have good enough players to have a much better performance, and you have to take it personally,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said about the recent offensive performance.
And while there’s plenty of blame to go around – poor offensive line play, penalties, abandoning the run game and so on – quarterback Jackson Arnold has been in the spotlight of the criticism.
Arnold has dropped back to pass a whopping 91 times since the start of conference play – after the team built its identity on the ground in the first three weeks – and has been sacked a nation-worst 21 times through the first five games, 14 coming in the last two.
Obviously, some of the blame falls on the offensive line and what’s been a porous showing from that unit in pass protection – Auburn ranks 79th in the nation with a 63.3 pass blocking grade, with its worst mark of the season (51.9) coming in the loss to Texas A&M, per Pro Football Focus.
But as any observer can see, there are many instances in which Arnold simply won’t get rid of the ball. Freeze said that, after reviewing the film, he thought Arnold was responsible for five of the sacks given up against Oklahoma, who tallied nine on the day.
Arnold has had an average time to throw of 2.76 seconds, ranking 147th out of 347 quarterbacks to take a snap this season, according to PFF. Surprisingly, the least amount of time to throw recorded this season came against Ball State.
But Auburn ranks 112th nationally in passing offense.
Freeze says the goal for Arnold is to become “freer” and that he must give Auburn’s talented crop of pass catchers a chance to make a play.
“I’ve got to do a better job, along with Kent (Austin) and Jesse (Stone), of coaching him to be freer and when our guys are in some one-on-ones, give them a chance with catchable balls,” Freeze said.
On the plus side, Arnold has not committed a turnover through the first five games, which is a complete turnaround from a year ago, when Payton Thorne and Hank Brown combined for nine interceptions through the Tigers’ first five games.
Arnold is the first Auburn starting quarterback since at least 1996 not to commit a turnover in any five-game span. Additionally, he is the only starting quarterback in the SEC yet to throw an interception this season, and his 134 pass attempts without an interception are the fourth most in FBS and most among Power Four quarterbacks.
Could it be because he is too risk-averse?
“We’ve talked about that because he’s done an incredible job of taking care of the football. Truthfully, when we watch the film together, I’d love for him to be a little freer, particularly with the playmakers that we have,” Freeze said. “You want to take care of the football first and foremost, and him doing that as poorly as we’ve played still kept us in a game and gave us a chance to win, so there’s a lot of positives from that.”
Auburn obviously wants – and desperately needs – to commit to its run-game against No. 10 Georgia on Saturday. But the chances will be there for Arnold to let loose through the air. And if the Tigers want to knock off the Bulldogs for the first time since 2017, all facets of the offense must be firing on all cylinders.
Kickoff in Jordan-Hare Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
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