Auburn suffered its fourth loss in five games against Georgia on Saturday, but it was the first time the Tigers looked like the inferior team.

They lost 31-13 and Georgia had firm control of the match throughout the match. Auburn was competitive and had chances to stay in the game, but small mistakes and missed opportunities kept the Tigers from having a real shot at victory.

It wasn’t all bad, but not nearly good enough to beat a team of Georgia’s caliber.

Here’s how we rated Auburn’s performance:

Offence

Grade: C-

Auburn played its first turnover-free game of the season on Saturday and that is an improvement for this offense. It also only scored 13 points, making it difficult to give the unit a better grade.

The offense found ways to move the ball at times, especially in the run game. Jarquez Hunter ran for 91 yards and averaged seven yards per rush, but had just 13 carries.

His lack of carries this week and in other games is a bit surprising, and Hunter’s frustration was palpable after the game.

“Early in the game we had some big runs and later in the game we had some big runs against them,” Hunter said. “I mean, we could have run with the ball all day. In some areas we simply had to take action.”

Through the air, Auburn was good, but not great. Payton Thorne had 200 yards on 16 of 27 passing with no touchdowns, but no turnovers. He was fouled on a fourth-and-one to start the fourth quarter, electing to run the ball himself rather than give Hunter the ball on what Hugh Freeze said was an intentional handoff .

Auburn also had two drives that came inside the Georgia 10-yard line, but both ended in field goals. Against Georgia, Auburn needed more and the offense wasn’t good enough to hang around late in the game.

Defense

Grade: C-

Like the offense, the defense was good at times, but never consistently good enough to keep Auburn in the game.

It’s not a bad day to hold Georgia under 400 yards of total offense. Keldric Faulk’s two third-down sacks were probably the most impressive moments of the game for the unit.

As the game progressed, Georgia seemed to wear down Auburn’s defense. That’s not all the defense’s fault, as stopping Auburn’s offense on fourth down gave Georgia a good starting position on its two fourth-quarter scoring plays.

Auburn also had trouble making Georgia quarterback Carson Beck uncomfortable. Despite the two sacks, Beck finished with a 79% completion percentage and went 20-for-20 on throws of 14 yards or less. That doesn’t win games against a well-oiled machine like Georgia.

Special teams

Grade: B-

Auburn wasn’t bad on special teams, but a few mistakes keep that mark from going any higher.

Towns McGough went 2-for-3 on field goals, his only miss coming on a blocked 54-yard attempt. Georgia made a nice play on the block, and a 54-yard attempt would have been a big ask even with good protection.

Jeremiah Cobb had a nice 29-yard kick return early in the game, but penalties on the return remain a theme for Auburn’s special teams.

Overall, special teams didn’t do anything to impact the game one way or another, but it still wasn’t perfect.

Coaching

Grade: C-

Auburn put together a decent game plan against Georgia, but it seemed like it lacked that extra bit of creativity and aggressiveness needed to beat a team like Georgia.

The Tigers did a lot of what they normally do on both sides of the ball, but it always took abnormal performances for this team to win.

For example, Auburn had the ball inside Georgia’s 10-yard line twice, but both drives resulted in field goals. Auburn needed seven and eight yards, respectively, for those two fourth downs, but Freeze said after the game that he only considered going for it on one of them.

That was when Auburn was already down 28-10 in the fourth quarter, and even a touchdown in that situation probably would have been too little too late.

The staff didn’t do anything terrible against Georgia, but it feels like more could have been done.

General

Grade: C-

Auburn was average against Georgia.

It was better than many of the Tigers’ recent performances in Athens, but being average isn’t enough to beat top five teams. There were positives that this mostly young team can build on, but with four losses in six games, no one in the program is interested in that anymore.

Ultimately there must be results. Those results were never expected against Georgia, but as Auburn enters its bye week midway through the season, the nation hopes to turn the small positives from each game into wins.

Peter Rauterkus reports for Auburn Sports AL.com. You can follow him on X on @peter_rauterkus or email him [email protected]M