Wesley Foster, sports writer for The Auburn Plainsman, analyzes the film from Auburn's victory over Mississippi State and offers his perspective on the 49-10 win.
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Auburn faced a stiff test this past weekend, playing a Mississippi State team ranked No. 24. Auburn proved it was more than up for the challenge, putting up 49 points en route to a decisive victory.
Mississippi State has a stout defense, being ranked No. 20 overall , even after this past weekend, in yards allowed per game. The Bulldogs biggest win had been a 37-7 win over a LSU team that was ranked No. 12. For the second week in a row, Auburn had excellent situational play calling, with an offense that had a lot of moving pieces to keep defenses guessing. Auburn has begun to consistently have big plays, gaining large chunks of yardage in a single play.
The first big play of the game came from a long Kerryon Johnson run, and was set up to give Johnson the chance to have a great run. The offensive line does their job perfectly and gets a great push on the defensive line.
The right guard, Braden Smith, has the most important assignment on this play and he plays it perfectly. First, he comes off the line and helps the center block the nose guard, ensuring that the nose guard cannot blow the play up right away. Next, he goes to the next level and performs a picture perfect block on the middle linebacker.
Fullback Chandler Cox blocks the other middle linebacker on the play, preventing him from making a play at the second level and limiting the gain to only around 5 yards. However, the thing that takes this play from good to great is wide receiver Nate Craig-Myers. Craig-Myers is lined up right next to the line, an unusual spot for a receiver.
As soon as the play starts he ignores his man altogether and runs straight for the strong safety who was crashing down to make a play on the ball, and blocks him. With these blocks, the entire linebacker corps, defensive line and strong safety are out of the play, and Johnson only has to get past the corners and the free safety, none of which are in any position to stop him. This would set the pace early and lead to Auburns first touchdown of the game.
Auburn’s next big gain would come off a trick play ran out of the wildcat. Johnson lines up as the quarterback, Ryan Davis is sent and motion and receives the handoff. Jarrett Stidham, who was lined up as a wide out, comes around the end and has the ball pitched to him. Stidham would then throw it to a wide open Darius Slayton to put Auburn in the red zone.
The reason this play worked is that it did not rely on trickery alone. The corner that was lined up on Stidham reads the play all the way, and is on a bee-line for Stidham, being only a few steps away when Stidham releases the ball. He would have possibly blown up the play for a loss, but he was blocked by Chandler Cox. The key to this fake is that eight players stay back to block. As soon as he hands the ball off, Johnson goes and joins the offensive line. The entire offensive line shifts over to sell the fake, but they stay together as a unit and are able to keep blocking for Stidham. This design is what enables the play to work and gives it a better chance for success in the future.
Even standard run plays have unusual blocking schemes, which has led to greater success on all plays. In the play seen below, right after Slayton's big catch, Johnson runs to the outside for a gain of about 11 yards, and plays like these are just as important for maintain momentum and sustaining drives as big plays are.
As soon as the ball is snapped, both guards begin to pull for the outside. The left guard gets out in front of Johnson and acts as a lead blocker. The right guard goes and hits a linebacker in the middle of the field to prevent him from being able to make the play. Darius Slayton lines up right next to the line, much like Craig-Myers did earlier, and goes and makes a key block on the middle linebacker.
Chandler Cox and his strength as a blocker is what enables this play to work. Cox seals the edge for the run by himself, without any help. It is rare to see a fullback seal the edge so well against and outside linebacker, and having a fullback that has the talent to do that is what lets Auburn run these plays with odd blocking schemes.
On the defensive side of the ball, it is the defense’s speed that is smothering offenses. In this read-option play, Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald makes the correct read and pulls the ball and runs it. As soon as the decision to run the ball is made, the entire Auburn defense swarms him.
Auburn corner Jeremiah Dinson sheds his block and makes a beautiful open field tackle on Fitzgerald, but at the time of the tackle there were 4 other Auburn defenders within 5 yards of the ball. This high-energy, high-speed defense wears down an offense and is very effective at sniffing out and stopping any type of run.
The offensive line shakeup is proving to be successful for the Tigers, as Stidham had all the time in the world for most of the night. Early in the third quarter, after State pinned Auburn back inside their own one-yard line with a perfect punt. Lindsey and the offense rolled the dice, electing to call a deep pass instead of playing conservative to escape the shadow of their own goal-line.
Stidham sat patiently in the pocket, as Cox and the offensive line picked up the four rushing for MSU and their linebacker blitzing on a delayed rush. Johnson hung back to help, but ended up just standing around in the endzone because the blocking was well taken care of. Eli Stove runs his deep out to perfection, while Slayton occupies a linebacker and a pair of defensive backs with a feigned slant route.
Malik Willis scored his first career touchdown on a read option late in the fourth. The play design itself is fairly standard, drawing people in with the threat of the run and Willis keeping it to go outside. It is Willis and his speed that make the play work. Willis makes the correct read, and cuts around one defender and then simply burns the defense with his pure speed.
Malik Willis scored his first career touchdown on a read option late in the fourth. The play design itself is fairly standard, drawing people in with the threat of the run and Willis keeping it to go outside. It is Willis and his speed that make the play work. Willis makes the correct read, and cuts around one defender and then simply burns the defense with his pure speed.
This was one of the most dominant showings from the Auburn Tigers all year, and they will look to go two-for-two against Mississippi schools as they battle Ole Miss at home next week.
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