Yes, It's a Chuck Yeager expression.
Aeronautical engineers and fighter pilots find the concept of hitting the ground at high speed unpleasant to talk about. Consequently the expression "to auger in" was invented. The expression makes more sense if the vehicle in question is a P-51 Mustang flown by a young pilot, e.g. the Mustang augered in while chasing an Me-109.
Gary
p.s. "The bungee cord" or "bungee cord of death" is recognizable to most NASA Ames engineers as a reference to MSL's sky crane.