Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne stood by himself. His arms were crossed, standing on the sideline behind Avery Jones. He stood there watching Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner warm up to go into the game after a first half and some change where Thorne had been sacked five times, overthrown multiple wide-open receivers and, as head coach Hugh Freeze suggested, consistently made poor decisions.

Thorne completed six of 12 passes for 44 yards. His longest completion was 13 yards. He was totally ineffective.

“We had people open,” Freeze said after Auburn’s 27-10 loss Saturday to Texas A&M at Kyle Field. “And we either missed them, or the pressure distracted us, it seemed. I’ve gotta watch the film and see exactly what was going on to cause that. But we certainly missed a few opportunities in the passing game.”

So Thorne stood by himself as he watched as Ashford and Geriner went into the game. This wasn’t the quarterback rotation Auburn has used throughout the season so far with Ashford coming in for specific packages or situations. Thorne had been benched.

Benching the starting quarterback in a job he never secured further opens the chance for a renewed quarterback battle that never seemed to end in the first place, based on Freeze’s comments in press conferences.

And Auburn doesn’t have a lot of better options.

“Offensively, we’re searching,” Freeze said. “And we’ve gotta find some answers.”

These words from Freeze stood out. They’re the words of a coach who appears to be questioning where to go from here. The answer isn’t obvious.

Quarterback play wasn’t the only reason why Auburn lost to Texas A&M. No matter what quarterback was playing, they didn’t get a lot of help.

Auburn’s completely reshaped offensive line played its worst game of the season. All five of Auburn’s offensive line starters were penalized during the game. They allowed seven sacks and 15 tackles for loss.

The wide receivers hardly found much separation to create passing windows as Auburn threw for a total of 56 yards in the game, completing nine of 26 passes. Ashford had 25 rushing yards on eight carries. He completed one of four passes for four yards. Geriner completed two of seven passes for eight yards.

In the second half, Auburn had four consecutive three-and-outs. Those four drives totaled -11 yards.

It didn’t matter who was playing quarterback. And it would be much easier to throw out the tape as bad, if not for the patterns of consistent issues throughout this season that Auburn was finally punished for in its first loss of the season.

Two weeks ago in the late hours of the night after a 14-10 win over Cal, Freeze sat down outside the team’s locker room and said something quite similar about Thorne.

“I didn’t think Payton was throwing it well, truthfully,” Freeze said that night. “You know? Now, the last drive, he did. He threw a great wheel route and a great fade ball. We’ve just got to get more consistent with that.”

Two days later back in Auburn Freeze again echoed the same point. He said Thorne had to play better. In both the Cal and Texas A&M games, Thorne completed fewer than 10 passes.

He bounced back against Samford, albeit that will likely the worst defense Auburn will face all season.

After the Texas A&M loss, Auburn has the worst passing offense in the SEC and the second-worst total offense in the conference, per NCAA stats. Thus far, Auburn’s passing offense has produced 693 passing yards combined from the quarterback trio. Nearly 300 of those yards came from Thorne in one game against Samford.

Thorne was successful in 2021 at Michigan State when he had an NFL running back to hand off to with Kenneth Walker III and a reliable offensive line. He had help. He hasn’t had that at Auburn.

He came to Auburn in the summer and only had fall camp to work his way into the team. It never came as much of a surprise he would be named the starter, but it was clear his quick adjustment might be a challenge.

“You’ve gotta remember, he wasn’t here in the spring,” offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery said on Aug. 7. “Some of the things that he’s picked up on, we’ve gotta get everybody else around that to be on the same page with him.”

And from the moment he was named the starter, it was clear that wasn’t permanent. When announcing Thorne’s job, Freeze said the separation wasn’t Thorne’s play as much as it was his leadership.

“We can win games with any of the three,” Freeze said on Aug. 17. “And trust me, once someone gets that job they have to hold onto it. Hopefully the others work every day to press to make me feel like I need to second-guess that. That’s the hope.”

The next problem lies in exactly what to do going forward. The message sent to Thorne on Saturday was not one of much confidence in the quarterback.

For the inconsistencies and limitations Thorne has shown, he is still — by far — Auburn’s most experienced quarterback even though that experience hasn’t been in the SEC.

As Freeze said, Thorne had to continue to earn the job. He hasn’t done that.

But Auburn’s next game is No. 1 ranked Georgia, and this creates Auburn conundrum.

Start Thorne again and give him another chance? Go to Ashford, and use a run-heavy offense because he has never proven to be a reliable thrower nor has he had a consistent role in this offense? Be drastic and go to Geriner and give him his first career start against arguably the best defense in college football?

None of those options feel like a sure thing.

Or for Freeze’s long-term view of the program which centers on recruiting to fix the talent gap he knows Auburn has, does that answer still sit a year away with four-star quarterback commit Walker White?

On the surface, Auburn appears stuck. It would take one of the quarterbacks to take a big leap forward or a possible restructure of the offense to figure things out. With Auburn’s next three games coming against Georiga, LSU and Ole Miss, this isn’t the time or the opponents to figure things out.

The performance Auburn had against Texas A&M will likely mean losses in all three of those games.

As Freeze said, it’s time to keep searching.

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