Auburn vs. Jacksonville State: Game Grades, Analysis for the Tigers

The Auburn Tigers escaped one of the biggest upsets in college football history Saturday afternoon at Jordan-Hare Stadium, coming back to beat Jacksonville State 27-20 in an overtime thriller that has Auburn licking its wounds entering the SEC slate.

It took miraculous late-game plays from guys on both sides of the ball to get the victory over an FCS opponent, which is a bare indication of just how poorly Auburn performed overall. Let's look at the squad unit by unit and rate how things went. It's not pretty.

Unit	1st-Half Grade	Final Grade
Pass Offense	D	D+
Run Offense	B-	B-
Pass Defense	F	D
Run Defense	C-	C-
Special Teams	B-	C+
Coaching	C	C

Pass Offense: The Tigers better hope quarterback Jeremy Johnson is getting the interceptions out of the way early this season. He threw two Saturday to up his tally to five, both of which were shockingly bad reads. He did enough to force overtime by hitting Melvin Ray with 39 seconds left, but the magnifying glass is directly on Johnson entering SEC play.

Run Offense: Peyton Barber looks like the guy for the early part of this season. With Kerryon Johnson getting two carries and Roc Thomas completely ineffective, Barber carried 23 times for 125 yards and the game-winning touchdown. His runs were the only thing that kept the Auburn offense going through its key touchdown drives.

Pass Defense: Where do we begin? JSU quarterback Eli Jenkins threw for 185 first-half yards and finished with 277, while Ruben Gonzalez (eight catches, 101 yards) and Josh Barge (14 catches, 132 yards) had field days on simple jump balls and tight separations. Save for Johnathan "Rudy" Ford's big game, this was an atrocious outing.

Run Defense: Not to be outdone by the terrible secondary play was the withering away of Auburn's run defense, which allowed 161 yards on the ground. The Tigers' push up front flustered Jenkins at times, but running back Troymaine Pope (85 yards) still found room to roam.

Special Teams: Ford's 46-yard kickoff return showcased his ability but didn't result in points. Kicker Daniel Carson might be the team's best player through two games, hitting two field goals (including a 49-yarder). But head coach Gus Malzahn wasn't happy with a shank from Kevin Phillips that put pressure on Auburn's defense.

Coaching: Credit JSU's offense for drawing up a spectacular game plan, but it's head-scratching that big-money defensive coordinator Will Muschamp couldn't find a solution at halftime. More of the offensive woes came from lack of execution than bad coaching, and Malzahn made good on a poor game of offense by drawing up the game-tying drive.