I wrote a follow-up story to the Auburn-Georgia game for today's newspaper. I didn't see it online last night, so here's the full thing:

AUBURN, Ala. — The bus ride back from Athens after Auburn’s 31-24 loss to Georgia on Saturday was a painful trip for Tigers tight end Tommy Trott.

Waking up Sunday and realizing he had gone 0-4 in his career against the Bulldogs might have been worse.

“I wanted to beat Georgia,” the senior said. “It sure would have been fun.”

Instead, Auburn (7-4, 3-4 SEC) heads into its long-awaited bye stinging from a loss to one of its biggest rivals, a game the Tigers feel like they gave away a number of times.

“That loss is very hard to swallow, period,” head coach Gene Chizik said. “We had opportunities to create some momentum swings and changes and we just didn’t do it.”

The missed chances came on both sides of the ball. Defensively, linebacker Josh Bynes had a sure interception slip through his fingers in the third quarter. It went right to Georgia tight end Orson Charles for a 34-yard gain, setting up an eventual touchdown.

Offensively, Auburn stalled in Georgia territory five times without coming away with points.

Like the Kentucky loss Oct. 17, the Tigers’ final drive was plagued by penalties at key moments, including an illegal motion foul that negated a long pass from Kodi Burns to Terrell Zachery on a trick play and a false start by Lee Ziemba.

“And they’re by veteran guys,” said Chizik, who addressed that very topic in Sunday’s team meeting. “These are guys that you’re counting on to win ball games for you. They’ve played a lot of football. ... You can’t pin it on one guy, but in those critical situations, without question, I just think it is a lack of concentration and attention to detail.”

Auburn is 7-4 as a result, destined to finish in a pack of 7-5 SEC teams unless it can pull off the upset of No. 2 Alabama at Jordan-Hare Stadium in two weeks.

“It’s great to have that as a bounce-back game and something to work for,” Trott said. “We really feel like we have a shot of beating Alabama. We don’t think they’re unbeatable. We recognize that they’re a good team — a really good team — but we’ve played like a really good team at times this season as well. And we don’t think there’s any reason we should go in to that game without thinking we have a shot to win.”

Alabama’s lofty ranking makes the opportunity all the more appealing.

“That’s our rival,” Trott said. “We’d love nothing more than to wreck an undefeated season, upset them when they’re riding on their high horse and ranked No. 2 in the country. That’d be awesome. That’s an exciting opportunity. That’s easy to prepare for and it’s going to be something special.”

“You can always make up for any loss you have by winning this game,” linebacker Craig Stevens said.

The Tigers have two weeks to prepare, finally getting a bye after 11 straight weeks of action. Include two-a-days and it’s closer to 3½ months without much of a break.

Accordingly, Chizik plans to give his team several days off. Auburn didn’t practice Sunday, instead just going through team meetings. The players have Monday and Tuesday off before resuming practice Wednesday and Thursday. After a brief walkthrough Friday, they’ll get Saturday off as well.

“They need to regenerate,” Chizik said, “recharge their batteries.”

The players plan to take full advantage.

“I just sit around the house and enjoy the day off,” Stevens said. “That’s all you can do because during the school year and football season you’re on the move so much that when you finally get time off, you want to relax. That’s all I do.”

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