Auburn vs. Texas A&M: Don't Call It Bad Luck, Tigers Beat Themselves
For the next few days, you're going to hear plenty of discussion about Auburn's luck running out and karma finally coming back to the Tigers after nearly two years of close wins.
Don't fall into that trap.
There was no luck or karma involved in Texas A&M's 41-38 win over Auburn on Saturday afternoon at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn simply got beat.
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Beat by the Aggies and, perhaps more importantly, by itself.
The most obvious self-inflicted wound came with 54 seconds left at A&M's 27-yard line, when center Reese Dismukes prematurely snapped the ball to quarterback Nick Marshall—who was checking at the line of the scrimmage at the time. It will, undoubtedly, be the play that becomes known as the one that sealed the upset.
This game was lost way before that.
Auburn's defense let this game get way out of hand early due to its inability to pressure true freshman quarterback Kyle Allen and, most importantly, to tackle.
Allen wasn't sacked in the first half and only once for the entire game. The absence of a pass rush wasn't a new phenomenon for defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson's crew. They came in 10th in the SEC with 16 sacks—four of which were last week against an Ole Miss offensive line that was without star tackle Laremy Tunsil.
The bigger issue, though, was Auburn's glaring inability to tackle, as linebackers and defensive backs routinely took horrible angles to ball carriers in the first half—which closed with the Aggies up, 35-17.
As the assembled members of the media covering the game pointed out, the absence of fundamentals was a theme for the entire afternoon.
This game wasn't lost on November 8. It was lost in mid-August and late March, when the Tigers were supposed to be working on fundamentals in a camp setting. If you can't tackle in early November, your window has closed.
In retrospect, this was something that was bound to happen.
Auburn's tackling was atrocious last week in the 35-31 win over Ole Miss in Oxford, too. According to Ryan Black of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, linebacker Kris Frost specifically mentioned that the tackling had to improve from last week.
“We missed a few tackles that were unacceptable," Forst said. "But it's basically all about getting back to the basics and really focusing on what we have to do to improve.”
They didn't.
The missed tackles were precursors to Auburn uncharacteristically beating itself. More specifically, its best players, who have time and time again come up big in clutch spots, let Auburn down.
Marshall and running back Cameron Artis-Payne—both of whom were on the periphery of the Heisman Trophy race—fumbled an exchange on a zone-read play from the Aggie 2-yard line. The next drive, with Auburn on the edge of field-goal range, Dismukes—a preseason first-team All-SEC selection—snapped the ball early to end the game.
Its three offensive stars cost Auburn the game in the end, despite Artis-Payne rushing for 221 yards and two touchdowns and Marshall accounting for 286 yards and three scores (two rush, one pass).
They shouldn't have been in this game to begin with, and the mere fact that Artis-Payne, Marshall and Dismukes were in position to toss the game away late is a compliment to what they did to keep Auburn in the game in the first place.
Auburn's defense—the punchline to a bad joke for going on two years—cost Auburn the game. It wasn't luck, karma or magic.
It was time.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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