When we consider the fact that Vanderbilt held the Auburn Tigers scoreless for three of the four quarters they played Saturday night, sliding to their sixth loss of the season was quite academic.

If the previous week’s road victory at Kentucky had momentarily breathed new life into head coach Hugh Freeze and the Tigers, returning to even More shocking clock management and rudderless gameplay this call put everyone back in the mud.

You could say it ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, especially when running back Jarquez Hunter, only a week removed from a 278-yard performancegot 2 messy runs the entire second half.

Only 12 races in total for exceptional form. Hunter also tells the story of a team that very clearly doesn’t know its own identity on offense,

Not surprisingly, Vanderbilt committed quite heavily to stopping the Tigers’ running game.

“I thought Vandy did a good job, playing a lot of bear position and doing a lot of different things that were going to take away some of the running game from us,” Freeze reflected after the loss 17-7 Auburn.

Another calamitous defeat only increases the pressure on Coach Freeze moving forward; he just keeps getting it wrong. Calling a timeout with one second left before the two-minute warning speaks volumes about the coach’s incompetence this season, with Freeze calling it “just a bad decision.”

There’s little need to add more fuel to the fire, but wasting another solid defensive performance will tick that particular box, and in no uncertain terms.

The Auburns defensive unit needs to get closer and closer to having some serious words about the offense’s lack of support, and after all that, the only thing Freeze could offer after the game was to repeat once moreover the obvious.

“The defense played outstanding and gave us a chance to win the game,” Freeze lamented. “Offensively and on special teams, we’re not playing at a high enough level to win these games. We need to finish our practices and score points. We haven’t converted enough third downs to stay on the field. I think that’s what it comes down to.”

For goodness sake, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia didn’t even complete a pass in the second or third quarter, but he certainly didn’t lack a feverish desire to get one again against the Tigers.

“A lot of people didn’t take chances with me,” Pavia said after Vandy’s victory. “(Auburn) is just another team that didn’t get it done and I just wanted to make them pay.”

Ultimately, poor execution and poor coaching are still at the heart of Auburn’s continuing problems this year. In truth, the motivating factors that drive Pavie to win games might also be lacking on this Tigers roster at the moment.

Despite the obvious problems on offense, Freeze seems determined to maintain control by his fingernails.

The push just turned into a hustle, so giving up some responsibility might be a path of self-preservation that Freeze ultimately opts for, but not yet.

“No, I don’t think we’re at that point, maybe we’re limiting the scope of what we’re trying to do,” Freeze insisted.

In the final analysis, this is all extremely frustrating for fairly simplistic reasons, but they keep coming back like a troubling indigestion. Hunter is a player who always demonstrates selfless commitment to the Tigers cause. Not using him to carry the team becomes even more confusing, especially after that latest car accident.