It’s grades time.

Auburn finally brought its offense to a road game as head coach Hugh Freeze led a 31-15 win against Vanderbilt in Nashville. And as a whole, it looked good doing it. Had it not shot itself in the foot on multiple occasions, the margin of victory could have been bigger.

Auburn is now 5-4 overall and 2-4 in the SEC. It has won its last two SEC games in a row. It’s Auburn’s first road SEC win since a 2021 trip to Fayetteville. It’s also the first time Auburn has won two SEC games in a row since that Arkansas game and the next week against Ole Miss.

Alright, back to the present. Let’s start the report card with the offense.

Offense: B

Auburn has yet to put together a complete performance from its offense and Saturday was no exception.

There were the big plays. Auburn had its three longest scoring plays of the year with 67, 56 and 53-yard touchdowns respectively.

Jarquez Hunter had arguably the best performance of his career with a single-game career-high 183 rushing yards. He scored twice. He averaged just under 10 yards per carry. Hunter ran with power, and he ran with speed.

There was Payton Thorne, who played well for a second week in a row since Auburn stopped rotating its quarterbacks. He completed 17 of 27 passes for 194 yards but he absolutely should have had more.

That’s because his wide receivers did not help him at all, again. On Saturday, the issue wasn’t route running or being in the wrong spot as it has been in the past. Instead, it was drops. Of Thorne’s 10 incompletions, the official stats list five as drops — and that may be a generous number to Auburn.

Some of the drops were hard to excuse. Omari Kelly had one in the first half where he could have walked into the endzone on a deep ball to him over the middle of the field. He was wide open. But the pass hit his hands and fell to the ground. A brutal drop.

Though while the receivers can be blamed for most of Thorne’s incompletions Saturday, Thorne also made two horrible decisions. Vanderbilt scored in the second quarter after intercepting a pass and returning it for a touchdown. After the game, Thorne said he thought he had an open receiver but simply did not see the Vanderbilt defender at all. It was an easy interception. Thorne should have been intercepted a second time late in the first half when he lobbed a pass up into the endzone right to a Vanderbilt defender, who dropped the ball.

Auburn finished with 424 total yards including 230 on the ground. Overall, a good day. The best the offense has looked on the road all season.

Defense: A-

It’s been said all year how good this Auburn defense can be. This is no exception.

Vanderbilt had some success on the opening drive of the game, and ended up missing a field goal at the end of it.

After that? Vanderbilt got one (yes, one) first down total over its next eight drives. The only one of those eight drives that didn’t end in a punt was the clock hitting 0:00 to end the first half.

During that stretch which lasted from when Vanderbilt got the ball with 10 minutes left in the first quarter until when it got the ball with five minutes left in the third quarter, Vanderbilt had 35 total yards.

That was dominance.

Vanderbilt was 2-14 on third downs, and went 0-1 in the redzone. The defense itself only allowed eight points, excluding the Thorne interception. D.J. James and the secondary, as a whole, did a stellar job with a future NFL wide receiver in Will Sheppard. Sheppard was targeted 10 times and only had four catches for 43 yards.

This defense has been the bright spot of Auburn all season. It was again Saturday.

Special Teams: C

None of the special teams errors ended up being particularly costly, just some issues that need to get cleaned up.

Between the shanked opening kickoff from Alex McPherson, a bad penalty on a Brian Battie kick return and a Vanderbilt muffed punt in the first half that Auburn somehow didn’t fall on it, there were a few crucial mistakes.

Otherwise, McPherson is still perfect on field goals this year.

Coaching: A-

This coaching staff has figured some things out. The defense has been good all year under Ron Roberts. That is nothing new.

But Freeze and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, finally, found a way to bring this offense on the road. And yes, the opponent was Vanderbilt, but Auburn has faced bad defenses on the road before and done nothing.

Auburn coaches talked about if they should use more tempo in the offense. They tried it. It worked. The last two weeks, as the Auburn offense has found its best stretch of success this season, the coaching staff has made some key adjustments. That’s a good thing.

It’s led to an offense that appears confident, or at least as confident as it has appeared all season.

After weeks where it felt like Auburn was continually trying to shove a square into the circle hole, the coaches finally put down the square and picked up the circle piece. The opponents have been easier, certainly, but Auburn has looked much better.

And for as much as the coaching had a role in the offenses’s struggles, it has just as much of a role in the success. Auburn has improved as the season has gone on. That’s coaching.

Overall: B+

Auburn is a step closer to bowl eligibility. Auburn has the most confidence its had in more than a month. It’s a refocused group. It’s a clicking group.

Again, easier part of the schedule, but Auburn has done its job and looked good doing it. The season has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, but it’s on an upslope right now. One more win for the peak of clinching a bowl berth. That should be season goal number one at this point.

And if this success on offense is sustainable, Auburn should have no problem getting a sixth win.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]