Wake up and roll over to check your phone just to make sure Auburn actually won last night.

This was ugly. It was a game Auburn didn’t have much business winning, and it won anyway, 14-10 against Cal all the way out in Berkeley, California.

So it’s time for grades. Let’s start with the worst of the bunch.

Offense: D-

I truly thought about giving an F. I wrote the rest of this story below and came back to edit through and I’m still not sure why I didn’t give an F.

Really the only reason this isn’t an F was the clutch 10-play, 69-yard drive in the fourth quarter where Auburn finally decided to use Rivaldo Fairweather and it led to the first passing success of the game. Fairweather caught the game-winning touchdown pass on the drive which saved Auburn.

But even outside of the two Fairweather catches on that drive, it still wasn’t a smooth possession.

Auburn’s offense was horrible against Cal. No other adjective to use.

Outside of the long touchdown drive, Auburn didn’t move the ball more than 26 yards on any one possession. For the game, Auburn didn’t break 100 passing yards and had a total of 230 yards of offense.

Auburn went more than an entire quarter without completing a pass.

That same offense turned the ball over four times. And just from the naked eye above in the press box, it was so clear no one was on the same page. Hugh Freeze has talked in the past about bad decisions on run-pass-option plays or receivers running the wrong routes and in many places, that appeared to be the case here. Watching the film on this offense is going to be a session full of frustration, anger and hand-wringing.

It looked like every single thing Auburn did on offense, even a run up the middle, was a chore. After a dominant rushing game last week, albeit against a lesser opponent in UMass, Auburn had a total of 136 rushing yards between six ball carries. Auburn had 3.6 yards per carry. It was hard to watch at times. And that includes having Jarquez Hunter return to play.

Auburn’s offensive efficiency numbers were awful, especially considering it actually won.

It made some sense for Auburn to struggle offensively after such a long trip. But this was worse than expected.

Last week, Auburn won because of its offense. This week, Auburn won in spite of its offense.

Defense: A-

Obviously being a college football program, Auburn can’t give out raises. But it feels like Euegene Asante deserves one anyway.

His stock certainly continued to rise.

Asante led Auburn with 12 tackles. He had a sack, he had two QB hits, he had a pass breakup. He had multiple tackels for loss. And they all seemed to come in the most timely moments.

Auburn’s defense was consistently asked to do all the heavy lifting. When the offense sputtered, when it pleaded with the defense to just get one more stop to give them a chance to finally figure it out, the defense kept coming through over and over again.

Cal won the time-of-possession battle by nearly 10 minutes. The defense was on the field so much and still found a way to keep getting timely stops. To keep coming up clutch when it needed to.

Was it perfect? No.

Auburn bent a good bit. It got lucky with three missed field goals and one 51-yard make that called back for a penalty. But given the job that was asked of them, the defense did all it could possibly do. And generally, Auburn held star Cal running back Jaydn Ott in check before he was injured in the third quarter.

This defense bailed Auburn out. This defense is the reason why Auburn won. It’s impossible to give less than an A.

Special Teams: B

Nothing special, pun intended, from the special teams.

The kick and punt returns didn’t provide the same boost of Auburn’s win last week against UMass. Brian Battie returned three kicks for an average of 19 yards. Keionte Scott returned two punts for 10 yards total.

Alex McPherson didn’t attempt a field goal and Oscar Chapman was solid punting with 41 yards per punt. His role was quiet, but he helped in the field position battle.

It’s hard to figure out how much credit to give to the field goal block unit, but it’s hard to say they didn’t have an impact.

Auburn got some good pressure on Michael Luckhurst’s kicks. Is that the reason why he missed three field goals? Hard to say. But those three kicks did not go between the uprights and in its own right, those points left on the field are another reason why Auburn won.

I’m sure Auburn coaches won’t be complaining.

Coaching: C

I felt like Ron Roberts called a really solid game defensively. But we talked about what the defense did well. If this coaching grade was Roberts alone, it would be more than a C grade here.

Okay, about the offense now.

This probably was a much bigger challenge for offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery and Freeze calling plays together. Wasn’t able to get to this question in Freeze’s press conference last night, but it’s something I plan to bring up Monday.

It’s also fair to wonder about what adjustments Auburn’s offense made. It didn’t feel like there were many. Or at least if there were, they didn’t work. Two completions to Rivaldo Fairweather don’t erase everything.

Auburn came out of the locker room at halftime and went on to not complete a single pass in the third quarter. Before Auburn goes back and watches the film, there will be time to figure out where the blame lies between play calling, coaching and the players’ execution. It’s probably a combination of it all.

From the press box, it often felt like the offense was shoving the square block into the circle hole. Auburn kept trying to establish the run and it never worked. There were not any overtly head-scratching decisions or play calls, just a lot that backfired.

And then there were the seven penalties. All of them brutally timed.

Overall: C

It’s hard to place where to give Auburn an overall grade. There were some big bright spots on defense and some ugly stains on offense that some OxyClen isn’t getting out quickly. And somehow, Auburn won. It still feels crazy that Auburn actually won.

So a grade in the middle feels about right. Auburn’s bad offense weighs a lot in my mind. It was just a mess on that side of the ball. You’re probably gonna want to cover this tape in lighter fluid and forget it existed. Other than that one touchdown drive because man Rivaldo Fairweather was a stud.

But again, it’s a lot easier to move forward from a game like this because Auburn won. Auburn’s red-eye flight back to Auburn last night was a lot easier having a 2-0 record and not 1-1.

But there’s a lot of work that has to happen from here. Auburn surely is thankful to get back to Jordan-Hare Stadium this week and face Samford before beginning SEC play at Texas A&M the week after.

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