Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and two-time Super Bowl winner Bill Parcells famously said, ‘You are what your record says you are during his coaching tenure. At times the axiom can be unfair. However, as the dust settles from Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC) getting destroyed 42-10 by No. 2 Georgia, recurring themes are starting to follow Bryan Harsin’s second season as the Tigers’ head coach.

Harsin is 9-10 as the Tigers’ head coach following the Georgia loss, with a game looming next week against No. 9 Ole Miss, who defeated Vanderbilt 52-28 around the same time Auburn was getting blasted by Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium.

Auburn not winning in Athens since 2005 isn’t on Harsin. It isn’t fair to blame him for Georgia becoming a premier program and Auburn not keeping up over the last 20 years, considering he’s not halfway through his second year as the coach. However, the Tigers suffered through a standard set of unfortunate circumstances that have followed Auburn’s struggles against Top-25 teams since the last win against a ranked team last Halloween weekend against the Rebels at Jordan-Hare.

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Untimely pre-snap penalties on offense, a costly turnover, and several mistakes plagued the Tigers in what felt like a replay of the 29-point loss against Penn State.

“You take games like this — when you lose, it should hurt, it should burn, it eats at you. It’s something that fuels you as you go back into your practice and preparation for everybody,” Harsin said. “In the film room, the coaches’ meeting rooms, and all that, are we giving our guys the best chance to succeed? Then when we get on the field, are we doing those things so that when we go out there and play, we’re not going to have some of those mistakes that showed up in the game today.”

Let’s look at a few observations from Saturday’s 32-point loss.

— Auburn had 10 penalties and had at least one pre-snap infraction on each of the first five drives of the game against Georgia. The Tigers were regularly in 3rd and long situations. Offensive lineman Brandon Council believed Auburn could ‘demolish’ Georgia if the Tigers could avoid long third downs. We’ll never know if he was right because Auburn had too many 3rd downs with more than five yards to gain.

“It’s frustrating as hell. And you don’t know why. I mean, that’s one of the things too; it happens, like it’s not changing in the game,” Harsin said. And right or wrong, you can argue it all you want. But it’s not going to change the outcome right there at that moment. So you’ve got to respond to that. And, you know, we’ve been saying it too: first and 10, second and five is different than second and 15. Right? First and 15. So, against really good teams, you start getting behind the chains; it’s the advantage to the defense.”

— Robby Ashford was 13-38 passing for 165 yards in his first road start. Ashford struggled with accuracy, but one of the issues was the third-down situations when Georgia came with blitz packages. Ashford had seven throwaways, which were often the right decision with no receivers open, or a running lane for him to scramble through. UGA didn’t record a sack against Auburn mostly because Ashford would run when the opportunity presented itself or throw it away.

“Early in the game, I thought when guys were covered, he utilized his legs and did some really good things running the ball,” Harsin said. “And we knew that would be an advantage for us. We knew that could hurt their defense if they covered everybody, and Robby was able to take off and go get some scramble yards with his legs, and he did that tonight.”

— Unfortunately for Auburn, one of Ashford’s best runs came with a costly fumble. He found a hole in the Georgia defense on 3rd and four at the UGA 41 at the 4:42 mark in the second quarter. Georgia led 14-0, but Auburn was driving; it was the Tigers’ first trip past the 50-yard line with a chance to cut the Dawgs’ lead down to seven. Instead, Ashford lost control of the ball.

“I mean, the ball came out. I think I don’t know if he just dropped it or if somebody knocked it out. I was kind of watching something else,” Harsin said. “I just saw the ball come out. So, either way, it’s a turnover. And those are costly, and that’s been something that, you know, everybody knows that, too. No one’s trying to put the ball on the ground. You want to take care of it. But that becomes a big factor in games.”

— Georgia scored the first touchdown of the game after a failed fake punt attempt by Auburn on 4th and six from the Auburn 34-yard-line with 25 seconds left in the first quarter. Tight end John Samuel Shenker took the snap and ended up four yards shy of a first down. Georgia scored a few plays later. Calling a fake punt in that situation screams desperation. However, Auburn had 258 yards compared to Georgia’s 500.

Auburn had 10 first downs, which equals the number of penalties against the team. The Tigers were also 5-17 on third down, which goes back to the false start infractions, among other concerns. Calling a fake punt in the first quarter is the type of gadget play a team runs when it knows it’s inferior and is looking for every possible way to stay competitive. Perhaps the boys in Vegas knew what they were doing when making Georgia a 29.5 favorite on the sportsbooks.

“I don’t know exactly what happened; obviously, there was a one-on-one somewhere that we didn’t win, but absolutely (did it) to try to create a spark to continue the drive,” Harsin said. “We knew tonight was going to be a challenge offensively with their defense, so any positive yards we could get and extension of drives, that was a chance for us to do that, in that field position as well, because they weren’t going to be in safe; they were going to give us a chance with that look, and they did give us the look.”

— Auburn was already down to an emergency center, with Council having to step in for Tate Johnson, who’s out with an injury. Johnson was the second-string center until Nick Brahms had to retire from football with an injury before the season. Auburn’s already depleted offensive line got more banged up against Georgia. Right Tackle Austin Troxell left with an injury, and Jalil Irvin had to spell Alec Jackson at Right Guard.

Making matters worse for Auburn Edge rusher Derick Hall left in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury. He told reporters after the game that he was fine. Losing Hall would be devasting especially since his bookend Eku Leota is done for the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

“I know on the offensive line, we lost a few key starters. On the defensive line, you know, guys were banged up and coming out,” Harsin said. “So that’s been a little bit of an issue this season, is some of the injuries, having some of our key players out, and I think that’s one of the keys to being a successful team throughout the year, is if you can avoid the injury bug a little bit. And things happen in football, unfortunately. Guys come out, but that’s where your depth really shows up, when you’ve got some guys.”

— Games are won in the trenches. Georgia got six rushing touchdowns on 264 yards, including a 62-yard run by quarterback Stetson Bennett while Auburn had 92 rushing yards, led by 52 from Ashford. If your team has Lamar Jackson or Michael Vick, it might be okay for the quarterback to be the leading rusher. But, Ashford, while speedy, mostly got his job as the pocket collapsed, and he was running to avoid sacks. Also, Tank Bigsby having 19 yards on 10 carries isn’t a recipe for success when the offense was supposed to revolve around the talented running back.

— Jarquez Hunter’s 60-plus yard touchdown catch was too little too late for Auburn to attempt a comeback. However, Hunter’s catch did stop a disturbing trend of Auburn not scoring in the second half. The Tigers got shut out in last week’s loss in the second half against LSU, in which Auburn blew a 17-0 lead. Auburn didn’t score in the second half against Missouri in the miraculous overtime win that took a missed late field goal and a fumble at the goal line to seal.

“I don’t know. We have to work on that,” Harsin said when asked about the team’s second-half scoring issues. “That remains to be seen. I wish I could sit up here and tell you. Until we actually go out there and prove it, it’s just a matter of us going back and looking at those things which we have. It’s a continuation of us needing to get better at it.”

— Hunter’s touchdown was Auburn’s first touchdown scored in the second half by an Auburn player in Sanford Stadium since 2007 by Mario Fannin. Ashford’s touchdown pass was the first by Auburn quarterback at Georgia’s home field in 2009 by Chris Todd. There are lots of legit critiques for Harsin. However, as the stats mentioned earlier reflect, Auburn’s problems beating Georgia go back over 15 years.

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group.