It didn’t come against an opponent that gets anyone excited, but Auburn football put together its best performance in weeks beating Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday.

The Tigers won the game 48-14, taking control early and dominating the way a Southeastern Conference team is expected to against an opponent from the Sun Belt.

While it wasn’t a win that changes many opinions or has significant impact for Auburn’s season, it was a result Auburn hadn’t seen since Sept. 14: a home win.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game:

Cam Coleman’s best game

Coming into Saturday’s matchup, Coleman’s season-high in catches was five. By halftime against ULM, he had seven catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

There seemed to be an emphasis early on to get Coleman the ball, something Auburn hasn’t always done this season. It wasn’t just routes down the field either.

Crossing routes, quick outs and goal line fades were some of the ways Coleman was utilized early on, and ULM didn’t seem to have an answer for any of them. In the third quarter, he showed off his athleticism, making a one-handed catch on a jump ball in the endzone.

His three touchdown catches were also a season high and were more than his total for the season coming into the game.

ULM obviously isn’t the strongest opponent, but Saturday might’ve been a preview of how effective Coleman can be within Auburn’s offense when he gets the ball consistently.

Payton Thorne played well through injury

There was plenty of speculation throughout the week over whether or not Thorne would start after injuring his throwing shoulder against Vanderbilt. He didn’t practice during the bye week, and Hugh Freeze hinted that the staff was debating a quarterback change and thinking “big picture.”

Despite the injury and those considerations, Thorne got the start Saturday morning and looked like his normal self. He threw three touchdown passes in the first half, showing no signs of being limited early on.

He began to show signs of the injury slowing him down later in the game, grabbing his shoulder after a throw on Auburn’s first drive of the second half. He stayed in the game for the rest of the third quarter, though, and finished the game with 286 yards and five passing touchdowns, a new career high.

Thorne’s day ended after the third quarter, allowing true freshman quarterback Walker White to make his debut to start the fourth quarter.

Offensive execution was improved

While it did come against subpar opposition, Auburn’s overall execution on offense looked better than it had in recent weeks.

Auburn converted eight of its first 10 third downs and despite still losing the field position battle at times, the offense found a way out. The biggest example of that came on a 16-play, 99-yard drive that took 7:44 off the clock.

The offense consistently moved the ball well, and it wasn’t just chunk plays either. Auburn had touchdown drives of 16, 10 and eight plays (twice), showing an ability to sustain drives and score points.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m