AUBURN, Ala. — The good news for Georgia Southern in its season opener is that its defense looked great against one of the more potent attacks in the nation for a little over a quarter.
    The bad news is that the Georgia Southern offense kept asking the defense to pick up the slack.
    Georgia Southern forced three first half turnovers and scored on a fumble return, but the Eagle offense went three-and-out on its first six possessions of the season. Auburn pounced on an overworked Georgia Southern defense to break big plays and take a 24-7 halftime lead before keeping its foot on the gas to win by a final count of 41-7.
    “Hats off to (Auburn coach Gus) Malzahn and his team,” GS coach Tyson Summers said. “They’re a tough team - ranked number 12 with a top-5 defense and they played like it.”
    To say that the Eagles’ much talked about return to the option was a failure might be putting it too mildly.
    Facing an  Auburn defense that is projected to be one of the better units in the country, the Eagles did next to nothing.
    Redshirt freshman quarterback Shai Werts was sacked five times and - on option pitches - often faced the lose-lose choice of keeping or pitching with multiple unblocked defenders bearing down.
    No one else in the run game could do much more. Werts’ positive runs went for 68 yards, but sacks and negative runs backed the Eagles up 52 yards. L.A. Ramsby was the net rushing leader, gaining 33 on the night.
    A single catch for seven yards by Obe Fortune stood as the Eagles’ best individual receiving output.
    Georgia Southern deferred after winning the coin toss and Auburn didn’t miss a beat in getting it’s up-tempo offense going. The Tigers lopped off decent chunks of yardage by way of both ground and air. The Eagles finally slowed the charge a bit and a fumbled snap on 3rd-and-short forced Auburn to turn to Daniel Carlson, who nailed a 50 yard field goal for the early 3-0 lead.
    Thrown right into the fire, Werts tried to respond as he led the Georgia Southern attack.
    Auburn forced a 3-and-out on its first defensive series and — following a missed 53-yard attempt by Carlson - again forced a quick punt by the Eagles.
    The Tigers’ potent offense finally exploded on its third series of the night as Kerryon Johnson found plenty of room around the right end. He raced down the field untouched for a 59 yard scoring run and a 10-0 Auburn lead.
    Another three-and-out gave the ball right back to Auburn, but Eagle linebacker Chris DeLaRosa blindsided quarterback Jarrett Stidham and Tomarcio Reese picked up the ensuing fumble, returning it 22 yards for a touchdown and — as it would turn out — the Eagles’ only score of the game.
    “Our defense started strong and made some big plays to make it competitive early on,” Summers said. “We knew that in this environment, against a team like this, we had to keep it to where we were still in the game at halftime.
    “Unfortunately, our defense was out on the field a lot on Auburn was able to make some big plays. We had some spots where we didn’t get points or yardage on special teams and obviously, the offense had a lot of trouble with their defense.”
    The Georgia Southern offense wasn’t able to run with the spark its defense had tried to pump into it. And every time the Eagle offense had a quick possession, the Tiger attack was able to wear down the Eagle defense.
    Stidham struck a big blow when he ran a keeper untouched for a 14-yard touchdown midway through the half. Kam Martin unleashed another run through a wide open lane, romping 36 yards to the end zone for a 24-7 lead that had Georgia Southern nearly put away before halftime.
    Nothing that was said during the break was able to solve the Auburn defense.
    The Eagles began the second half with another three-and-out and Auburn followed with a drive that was capped when Stidham found Ryan Davis for a 19 yard touchdown strike. Carlson added his second field goal later in the quarter and Stidham added another 19 yard pass and catch — this time to Will Hastings — to do the final damage.
    The Eagles managed one solid offensive drive. A pair of fourth down conversions saw the Eagles gain a first-and-goal early in the fourth quarter, but a pass from Werts to Wesley Fields on fourth-and-goal was stopped for no gain.
    “I still feel like this can be a good offense,” Summers said. “This team isn’t going to get down and get discouraged. We’re going to identify what needs to be fixed and come back stronger.”
Georgia Southern returns home to host New Hampshire next Saturday at Paulson Stadium.