After scoring 24 points in the first half of Saturday’s win over Mississippi State, the Auburn Tigers only managed to tack on a field goal in the second half as they secured their first SEC victory in a 27-13 win over the Bulldogs.

Since then, there have been plenty who have questioned whether the Auburn offense took its foot off the gas pedal too early against Mississippi State.

But when head coach Hugh Freeze was asked about the difference in offensive production in the second half of Saturday’s game on Monday morning, he wanted to be sure he set the record straight.

“Will you permit me to be transparent with this and we can have an honest dialogue about this, okay?,” Freeze began.

Auburn’s head coach asserted he’d seen the opinions that he and the Tigers’ offense played too conservative too soon on Saturday.

And those were just that – opinions, Freeze says.

“Do you realize we had one possession in the third quarter? Alright, what did we do on that? Got points. Pretty good drive,” Freeze said with a matter-of-fact tone. “Do you realize in the fourth quarter that we had the football on the minus-3, the minus-5 and the minus-14? And one possession on the 30 that I punted on 4th-and-1.”

In Auburn’s six drives in the second half, the first ended in a field goal, followed by three straight punts and then the final whistle.

Auburn’s less-than-desirable field position was paired with defensive adjustments made by Mississippi State’s defense, Freeze says.

“They’re bringing gut cross and super-field missile every play as we’re backed up trying to get in the game,” Freeze said. “And I was aggressive. I actually threw it for a first down and we got called for a penalty and back. I threw it three times, which is pretty crazy, probably. But I would love after this for you to go show me what aggressive looks like on the board, blocking super-field missile and gut cross. I want to know.”

Freeze said all opinions aside, those were the facts of the second half of Saturday’s game, when Auburn was outgained 223 yards to 115 yards and outscored 10-3.

“I don’t know how to be more aggressive. That’s the possessions we had. That was it, Freeze said.

“So I would’ve loved to have some possessions like we had in the first quarter at the 25 or at the 30, but I promise you I was not going to be aggressive up two scores on the 5-yard line or the 3-yard line and let something crazy happen and there be a tipped ball and all of a sudden momentum flips. That would not be based in good wisdom.”