Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold ended up on the ground nine times in Auburn's 24-17 loss against Oklahoma, definitely a higher number than he would have liked.
Although that number is high, Arnold is not to blame for all of them. On that same token, the offensive line is not either.
“There’s five that I don’t think (Arnold) could do anything about," said Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze. "There’s five that I think he’s got to trust that our receivers in one-on-ones will protect him and make a play. So I thought it was dead down the middle, 50-50."
Freeze and Arnold did not waste any time getting back to work and figuring out what went wrong after the Oklahoma game.
"He and I met yesterday, watched everything," Freeze said. "Tough environment, tough defense, but we’ve got to trust our guys. Good things happened when he did that, and we’ve just got to continue to work to improve that. Don’t think he could do a whole lot about five of them, but there’s 50 percent that I think the ball’s got to come out.”
Freeze didn't take anything away from the quality of play from Oklahoma's front seven, as the unit made life difficult for Auburn's offensive line and Arnold.
“That’s a tough team to roll out against because of the way they play their edges," Freeze said. "That’s nice if you can do that, but dangerous when you half the field against them and the way they get up the field and we’re really quick off the edges. Our chip game was pretty good to us. Unfortunately when we weren’t in it … two-minute drill, they did that to us last year and it is very difficult."
Freeze did have some positive takeaways from Auburn's offensive line performance.
"I thought we had some really good plan to check to some of their all-out pressure, and we hurt them with it a few times. They made some adjustments to that, too, but a lot of it came from just internal twist and things."
Freeze, Arnold and Auburn's offensive line will have an opportunity to get back into the win column against Texas A&M on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. ESPN will carry the broadcast.