STULTZ: QB situation more delicate than ever

Although Payton Thorne had struggled all day, he had a chance to come out on top in the deciding period. Auburn's defense had given the ball back to the Tigers' offense with 2:40 left and was trailing Cal 21-14. If Thorne wanted to win back the support of the Auburn fans, now was his chance.

It took Thorne just two plays to throw a game-winning interception that was so short you could see the interception coming from miles away.

It was a microcosm of the day when the Tigers couldn't get out of their own way on offense, squashing any momentum with penalties, a revolving-door pass defense, and turnovers that would be almost laughable if they weren't so sad.

After struggling in the first half against Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the defense stepped up in the second half and repeatedly kept the offense from falling even further behind. When Cal scored with 11:27 left, the score was two points, but given Auburn's offense, it could have been five points.

Thorne's stats ended up being as bad as you'd imagine: 14 of 27 passes for 165 yards, one touchdown, and four deadly interceptions, each one worse than the last. When he wasn't sacked within seconds of receiving the snap, he was missing open receivers and throwing balls right to Cal defenders.

Even after the third interception, there was still a small chance Auburn could pull off a miracle after getting the ball back with less than 30 seconds left. No. Not today. Thorne threw a ball straight to Lu-Magia Hearns III with no Auburn receiver in sight.

It wasn't all Thorne's fault. Auburn's offensive line didn't give the quarterback any time. The receivers ran some wrong routes. But at the end of the day, it's up to Thorne to recover from this and move on to the next play.

The same question marks remain as the season begins, and while Hugh Freeze won't panic and remove Thorne from his starting position entirely, there's a feeling there will be new competition for that spot starting this week. Auburn's head coach said he wants to watch film before saying too much about Thorne and the offense's play, so we'll know more on Monday.

But if Thorne struggles in practice this week or in the first half against the Lobos, the pressure will be on to make a change for the time being. Hank Brown is the obvious choice if Freeze and his team pull the plug on Thorne for a while. He's composed in the pocket and throws a good deep ball. But he can't do it all by himself, and neither can Thorne. The protection has to be better, as well as the communication in every way.

Auburn went into Saturday's game with Thorne as quarterback. There was a big question mark over the Tigers.