Early in the week, Georgia Southern head coach Tyson Summers made it clear that a win — and not any moral victories - is what the Eagles were heading to Auburn for.
    After 60 minutes of football against the No. 12 team in the nation, the Eagles didn’t get a win and have to search long and hard to find any of the silver linings.
    The reworked option offense looked a bit more like the traditional triple-option Eagle fans are used to, but put up numbers (47 rushes for 70 yards, 78 yards of total offense) that were worse than most of last season’s efforts.
    At least some of the credit for that futility goes to a good Auburn defense, but it is clear that the Eagles need to get things moving much quicker and more fluidly if they want to pose a threat on offense.
    “We’ve got to get better,” GS quarterback Shai Werts said. “We knew that we were up against one of the best defenses in the country. They’re tough, but there are a lot of things that we just didn’t do right that we need to fix.”
   
DEFENSE WINDED
Ironically, it was a Georgia Southern defensive player who carried the ball farther than most Eagle running backs.
    Playing in his first game with the Eagles, linebacker Tomarcio Reese scooped up a Jarrett Stidham fumble and took it 22 yards for a touchdown.
    “That was definitely exciting,” Reese said. “I go out there wanting to play well and you dream of doing something like that to help the team. We just needed to make more plays and keep it up through the whole game”
    Reese and his defensive friends helped Georgia Southern win the turnover battle 3-1. Unfortunately, the other two Auburn turnovers led to zero points for the Eagles. Even less fortunate, the three Tiger turnovers were drowned out by the overwhelming 79-56 advantage it had on plays run and the short fields the GS defense was constantly left to protect.
    Armed with skill position weapons up and down its depth chart, the sheer volume of plays Auburn was able to run was destined to catch up to the Eagles.
   
BAD DAY
FOR THE BELT
    As discouraging as Saturday night was for Georgia Southern, it will once again prove that misery loves company.
Georgia State kicked off the week by tarnishing its new(ish) stadium with a 17-10 loss to FCS Tennessee State.
    Troy had a chance to make a statement for the Sun Belt with a win at G5 power Boise State but the Trojans’ potent offense was held in check in a 24-13 loss. Appalachian State entered 2017 with dreams of making a run at the access bowl. Many pundits thought the Mountaineers could score an early upset as they faced Georgia, but Appalachian was never in contention, losing by a count of 31-10.
    Louisiana and Texas State both beat their FCS opponents, but both had things come far too close for comfort, winning by a combined total of 12 points.
   
LOOKING AHEAD
    It’s safe to say that the Eagles can’t wait to put the Auburn game behind them.
    Very few expected Georgia Southern to pull the upset against the Tigers, but a sound defeat will make fans and critics alike pay much closer attention to see if the Eagles can bounce back. Next week, the Eagles take to their home field for the first time as they host New Hampshire.
    A win will be expected next week, much like a loss was presumed before Saturday. But first thing’s first for the Eagles as the overall offensive and defensive stats will have to improve drastically before they can think about striking a notch in the win column.