Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze never takes long to come to his postgame press conferences. It doesn’t give him much time to digest all of what happened on the field and certainly no time to look back at any film. But as he sat down in the aftermath of a blowout 48-18 loss to No. 22 LSU, he questioned the plan he brought into Baton Rouge.

Auburn’s offense struggled through the first half scoring only seven points and falling into many of the same mistakes it had faced in its road games before the bye week.

In the second half, Freeze experimented and started backup quarterback Robby Ashford, but didn’t stick with him long before reverting back to starter Payton Thorne. While the quarterback rotation was confusing, Thorne did have likely his best-sustained patch of success on the road between the eight-minute mark of the third quarter through the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter. He completed seven of eight passes during that stretch and became the first individual Auburn passer to throw for more than 100 yards against a Power 5 opponent in almost a full calendar year.

The offense found that bit of rhythm and had its best quarter of the game in the third quarter going for over 100 yards as a team — the only quarter where Auburn did that. It’s because Auburn played with a much higher tempo at that point in the game.

Freeze said that was something Auburn coaches had discussed, but didn’t plan on doing in the game. Maybe they were wrong.

“You’ve just got to balance it each week,” Freeze said of playing with tempo. “I don’t know that we’re built to be in a scoring match right now with LSU or Ole Miss next week, both are extremely talented and good offensively. But maybe it is. Maybe we should. We can see how we perform. That wasn’t the plan coming in and I doubt it will be going forward.”

Freeze’s concern with the higher-tempo offense is it could leave an already tired and stretched defense on the field for longer. Yet Auburn already left its defense on the field for nine more minutes than the offense against LSU.

“Do we say we’re going to be a tempo offense and know that’s going to cost us more plays on a defense that’s very, very thin, and doesn’t have much depth,” Freeze said. “That’s a tough decision for sure. Tempo does help you. But you’ve just got to try to balance that and do what’s best for our team.”

But it is curious to watch Auburn continue in its struggle to find any offensive identity. Especially when playing at a high pace has long been a conversation around Auburn’s team.

All the way back at the beginning of August, much of the discussion around the offense was playing at a high pace in practice in order to play with that in the season and then in turn prepare the defense to face it.

“Man, I would say it’s really different,” wide receiver Malcolm Johnson Jr. said on Aug. 8. “The up-tempo offense — sometimes your head spins. But it also sometimes confuses the defense, and that makes it easier for us to capitalize. It’s really different — especially the conditioning that it takes.”

Offensive lineman Dillon Wade said in August that tempo could give Auburn an edge because it catches the defense “lacking.” Linebacker Austin Keys said the speed Aubrun played with in fall camp resembled what he saw with Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss before he transferred to Auburn after the 2022 season.

And then Auburn went away from that pace as the season has gone on. It has tried to establish itself as a running team, but then went away from running as it leaned heavily on the pass early against LSU and fell behind quickly.

Tempo may be the offensive identity Auburn could try next. Not much Auburn has tried has worked to this point. Auburn’s passing offense is now ranked 120th out of 130 FBS teams and the total offense is ranked 100th out of the same 130.

Freeze is right that the group can’t keep up with offenses like LSU or Ole Miss, next week’s opponent. But his players think the tempo is something Auburn should try again in another game where it is overmatched.

“Playing with tempo definitely helps,” offensive lineman Kam Stutts said Saturday night. “It puts the defense in a rough spot, having to get lined up and then make those calls. Definitely something that helps your offense out. For sure something we’re looking at more of in the future.”

Freeze said before the LSU game that he didn’t change anything schematically over the bye week. It was just continuing to work on honing in small details that were missing in the first part of the season.

It appears Freeze could now be considering a schematic change. At least something has to change after another bad day for the offense — even if Freeze knows the offense this season won’t be good enough.

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