Auburn keeps fighting a battle it already lost to Oklahoma

Spoiler alert: One play does not decide a football game. Yet, the Auburn Tigers refuse to accept their loss to Oklahoma last weekend, continuing to blame it all on one play.

Auburn has another big game this weekend at Texas A&M, but you wouldn't know it by the way the Auburn head coach and athletic director keep replaying and lamenting over the 24-17 loss to Oklahoma.

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has been adamant all week about the second-quarter touchdown pass from Oklahoma's John Mateer to a wide open Isaiah Sategna, charging that the play was illegal due to violation of the substitution rule and should not have counted.

And on Thursday, five days after the game, Auburn athletic director John Cohen added even more fuel to the fire with a statement, chastising the SEC officiating crew for not interpreting the substitution rule correctly and allowing the OU touchdown to stand.

Both teams have aired their side of the story -- Auburn contending that the Sooners were aware of the illegality of the play and ran it anyway, and Oklahoma reportedly confirming that it had met with the officiating crew before the game and that the game officials gave the play the green light -- but the harsh reality is that none of the postgame rhetoric is going to change anything about the outcome of the game.

Auburn, of course, is arguing that the miscall by the officials on OU's second-quarter touchdown by Sategna cost it the game. The fact of the matter is, there were 130 offensive plays in the game (68 by Auburn, 62 by Oklahoma), so there were plenty of other plays, both good and bad, that just as easily could have impacted the outcome of the game, including a combined 22 penalties that totaled over 80 yards for both teams and aided at least one, if not both, of Auburn's touchdowns.

Auburn's argument is really a moot point

But focusing solely on the one play -- the controversial hide-out play -- that Auburn insists cost it the game, what if Oklahoma had been flagged for an illegal play and received a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty? The touchdown would have been erased and the ball moved back 15 yards from the 24-yard line to the Auburn 39 and second down replayed. There is nothing to say the Sooners wouldn't have put it in the end zone a second time, but at the very least, there was a good chance they could have kicked a field goal.

So take away the seven points and the 10-3 OU advantage. Instead, make it 6-3 in favor of the Sooners. Auburn added a pair of touchdowns, one just before halftime and one midway through the fourth quarter. Oklahoma added a pair of second-half field goals, but without the second-quarter touchdown, Auburn's lead would have been 17-12 instead of 17-16 with just under eight minutes left to go in the game.

Just as it would have been had Oklahoma's controversial touchdown counted, all Auburn had to do to pull off the huge SEC road win was stop John Mateer and the Oklahoma offense on its 75-yard game-winning drive. The Tigers weren't able to do so, and even without the two-point safety on Auburn's final possession, the Sooners would have won the game 18-17. Add the safety, and the final would have been 20-17. In either case, Oklahoma would have come out the winner.

So, stop the whining and the poor loser attitude for crying out loud. One play, no matter how controversial, did not determine the outcome of the Oklahoma-Auburn game or any other game.

It wasn't just the so-called "Immaculate Deception" play that angered Auburn and its fans about the loss to Oklahoma. The Tigers were also incensed over a ruling that took an apparent Auburn touchdown off the board in the opening moments of the game. A 64-yard fumble recovery that was returned for an Auburn touchdown was changed when video review showed that a pass to Sategna was incomplete and not a catch and subsequent fumble as ruled on the field by the officials.

The difference in that controversial play was that it was subject to video review, which resulted in the call on the field being overturned. That was not the case in the Oklahoma touchdown on the alleged trick play that also went against Auburn.

The Auburn program has put so much energy and effort this week in rebuking and grumbling about the outcome of the Oklahoma game, it is hard to imagine that the Tigers will be in the right frame of mind for their game this weekend against Texas A&M.

Meanwhile, the Sooners have a week off to enjoy their second win over a ranked opponent this season before returning to the serious business of getting ready for Kent State and without their starting quarterback.

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