3 takeaways from Auburn's Week 3 win over Samford
Auburn downed Samford 45-13 Saturday afternoon to improve to 3-0 on the season.
Briefly put, it was a football game. The Tigers put up almost 350 more yards and didn’t allow a score until the 3rd quarter when the game was already out of hand.
Here are 3 takeaways from Auburn’s win over Samford.
Tigers dominate L.O.S.
Samford was not able to do anything rushing the ball on Saturday. Auburn was.
The Tigers rushed for 224 yards compared to Samford’s 74 yards, not exactly an unexpected result but also a pretty dominant performance from Hugh Freeze’s squad.
Payton Thorne had all day to let go of the rock, too. Thorne was able to do some damage with his legs and threw for 282 yards and a touchdown while adding 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Defensively, the Tigers did a good job of forcing turnovers against the Bulldogs, picking off QB Michael Hiers twice and forcing a fumble.
Jarquez Hunter scores first TD of season
Jarquez Hunter scored his first touchdown of the season Saturday after missing Weeks 1 and 2. It wasn’t the sexiest of runs, but it puts 6 points on the board nonetheless.
Offense is finding their rhythm ?@jarquezhunter https://t.co/ovcfK0aJIZ pic.twitter.com/g8eZtNDobL
— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) September 17, 2023
Hunter finished Saturday’s game with 11 carries for 37 yards and 1 touchdown, averaging 3.4 yards per carry.
Undefeated heading into Week 4 vs. Texas A&M
Auburn didn’t exactly face a gauntlet to start out this season, but it is 3-0 heading into its first SEC test of the season against Texas A&M. Not many SEC programs can say that.
The Tigers will travel to College Station to take on Fisher’s Aggies, which sit at 2-1 on the season after a pair of wins over a few cupcakes and a bad loss to Miami in Week 2.
Payton Thorne looked good against Samford, but he had some turnovers issues as well by throwing a pair of interceptions. Texas A&M has struggled to take the ball away this season.
Next week’s game starts at Noon ET and will be aired on ESPN.
Auburn is quietly looking good. Sure wish we could get weak @$$ Bama like Tennessee out of the west instead lol.
It was Samford. Who cares.
At least we are winning the games we should. But we are running out of cupcakes.
Cal was not a cupcake.
It’s good to see the open receivers not being overthrown. I get it. It’s Samford. But they have a potent offense in the FCS. Probably come out 0-3 in the next 3 games, but Georgia at home will be Beck’s first road game. Auburn fans will be in full force. A good showing will go a long way towards recruiting for the future.
Our defense is good. Albeit I’m concerned about all the injuries especially in the secondary. The oline has been good. We stopped ourselves against Cal with turnovers and penalties. But we can actually block people this year. The kickers are both good and Battie is a dangerous return man. The offense is starting to find a rhythm with Thorne and he showed some speed I didn’t know he had last night! Plus he is a just a tough kid and a good leader! Count Auburn out at your own peril! I don’t see any juggernauats in the SEC this year. We will have a chance against anybody. It will all come down to turnovers and mistakes. Whoever does the best job of limiting those things will win the west this year.
This is a most weird season for the SEC. I booked LSU to beat Bama and face UGA in Atlanta. Now it’s looking like LSU vs Ole Miss might be the defacto West playoff. To those who say A&M I can’t get there yet bc of the Jimbo factor. Auburn keeps improving and Vegas may favor the Tigers in the Iron Bowl.
While I don’t have any detailed comparative reference on injuries on other SEC teams, the mounting injuries in key groups for Auburn are really becoming a concern, particularly the LB’s and OL. Talent (depth and/or experience) were already limited in some spots and we appear to have taken a beating already in the first three games.
The performance floor appears to be improving as the staff has been able to continue to deploy/install in the first three games, but the ceiling may not be as high as I was hoping, particularly with the injuries we’re accumulating. A&M top to bottom has more talent thanks to stacked recruiting years. Auburn (all key players available) is probably talented enough to compete and win, but the margin for error isn’t large. The only wildcard, which is hard to estimate, is relative team cohesion and it’s impact on execution and effort. Always hard to gauge that with a Jimbo Fisher team, and Auburn is still finding itself as a team under the new staff.
Very well put. Pretty much an encapsulation of my thoughts on the upcoming game.