Why Hugh Freeze elected to kick field goals twice inside the Georgia 10-yard line

When facing a top five team on the road, it takes a special performance to stay in the game. It takes almost everything going right to actually win.

While Auburn had one of its best performances at Georgia in recent memory on Saturday, neither of those two things happened, resulting in a 31-13 Georgia win.

Auburn moved the ball well for spurts during the game, but it had trouble finishing drives and lacked some aggressiveness when it had chances at the end of possessions.

To beat a team like Georgia, it takes near perfect execution and certain risks to pay off. On Auburn's second possession of the game, it had the ball inside the Georgia 10-yard line, but ended the drive with a field goal.

The Tigers had the ball up to the 8-yard line on third down, but a stuffed quarterback run on third down gave Auburn a fourth-and-seven at the 9-yard line, setting up a decision to kick a field goal that Hugh Freeze said he didn't think twice about.

"At that moment, you're feeling pretty good, man. If we can get to the locker room, one score game or so," Freeze said.

The kick happened with a minute still left in the first quarter, but Auburn did hold Georgia to seven first-half points until the final drive of the half. Going for it on fourth-and-seven isn't a high-percentage play, but it was a situation where Auburn could've taken an early lead.

The other more confusing fourth-down decision was when Freeze elected to kick a field goal on fourth-and-goal from the 8-yard line when Auburn was down 28-10 midway through the fourth quarter. He admitted that they considered going for it, but still felt like kicking was the better option.

"The percentages are pretty low and if you kick the field goal, you're two scores down, and if you don't, you're three scores down, if you don't get the fourth down. So I thought that was the wisest play," Freeze said.

Neither of the decisions were careless or overly conservative, but one could argue that it would've taken touchdowns there for Auburn to have a chance to win. It's also far from a guarantee that Auburn converts on either play, had it decided to go for it.

Either way, not being able to score touchdowns when in the redzone is another example of Auburn falling short of the near perfection it needed to win this game.