Auburn (3-1) defeated the Florida Atlantic Owls (0-3) Saturday night with a score of 30-14 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in front of a crowd of 82,249.
The Tigers' first possession was underwhelming and set the tone for the night, as junior quarterback Barrett Trotter threw an interception on the game's first play from scrimmage, giving Florida Atlantic the ball on the Auburn 35 yard line.
The Owls capitalized on the turnover and good field position with a 39-yard field goal to take the opening lead.
Auburn responded with two consecutive scoring drives to close out the first quarter. Trotter hit junior wide receiver Emory Blake with a 10-yard pass to give the Tigers a 7-3 lead, and sophomore Cody Parkey connected on his first of three field goals on the night from 41 yards to push the lead to 10-3.
Blake's touchdown marked his seventh consecutive game with a score. Only Auburn great Terry Beasley has more consecutive games with a touchdown with eight.
Florida Atlantic steadily drove the ball down the field on their next possession, but the Tiger defense held firm and only surrendered a 43-yard field goal.
After exchanging punts throughout the second quarter, the Tigers had a chance to go into halftime with some momentum, but were halted by an incomplete pass on fourth down in Owls territory.
"There were a lot of small details that could have made a big difference," Trotter said. "If I hit him in the chest, we're still moving. A foot higher, and maybe we get 7 points on that drive. It's kind of frustrating."
Coming out of halftime with a 10-6 lead, Auburn received a jolt of energy from freshman cornerback Jermaine Whitehead. Whitehead intercepted a Graham Wilbert pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown to put the Tigers up by two scores.
A 51-yard screen pass from Trotter to junior running back Onterio McCalebb in the third quarter gave the Tigers a 24-6 lead. The reception was a career long for McCalebb. Two more Parkey field goals stretched the lead to 30-6.
The Tigers were held scoreless in the final quarter, but allowed the Owls to march down the field on an 11-play, 78-yard drive that cumulated in a 12-yard touchdown pass to Alfred Morris. The 78 yards were more than the Owls managed to gain the entire game against Michigan State last week.
Chizik said he was happy to win, but knows the team didn't play to their full potential.
"Offensively, we all know we struggled," Chizik said. "We've got to get some things corrected there. That really was from the opening play on. We never really got into any rhythm."
The Tigers' offensive line has protected Trotter well throughout the season, but constant pressure from the Owls forced Trotter to scramble repeatedly and make many throws on the run.
"A lot of times I felt like Barrett was running for his life tonight," Chizik said. "It's not necessarily an offensive line deal or a running back deal, it's collectively a lot of different things. All the way around whether you talk about running game, protecting the QB, I thought it was a below average football game. Beginning to end, it never got better."
Chizik noted that six players who either start or play a significant number of plays sat out tonight's game for various reasons, but their absence allowed several newcomers to shine. Fifteen true freshman played for the Tigers tonight.
"Ladarious Owens stepped in when Dee Ford couldn't play," Chizik said. "He showed up a lot. Brandon Fulse played for Phillip Lutzenkirchen and did some nice things. I think a lot of guys across the board really stepped up."
The week leading up to the game, talk centered on things Auburn needed to improve; not much was said about Florida Atlantic. Chizik said he believes there is a fine line between working on the opponent and working within.
"I think every week you work on 'us,'" Chizik said. "You've got to draw that line where you don't work too much your opponent and too little on yourself, but we will always be self evaluating, always finding ways to improve--always."
Trotter said it was harder to get psyched up for the game, but no matter the opponent, the offense as a unit must execute.
"It was more us than them," Trotter said. "I feel like we knew what they were going to do for the most part, but we just didn't play very well."
Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was not happy with the sloppy play of his unit.
"Bottom line is we sputtered and left some points and opportunities out there," Malzahn said. "We got off to a tough start. We kind of felt like we were fighting uphill the whole first half, and it kind of culminated in that last drive before halftime. We had some opportunities we normally would make. Obviously we were in no rhythm."
Defensively, coordinator Ted Roof was pleased with the three interceptions, and while the total performance wasn't spectacular, he saw improvement in the players from last week.
"We're not where we need to be in any area," Roof said. "I thought our kids improved. What you saw was them take the improvement from the practice field to the game field. At that's what we challenged them with. And for the most part, I thought we did."
The Tigers make their second trip of the season next week as the travel to Columbia to play the South Carolina Gamecocks. The game begins a month of October when the Tigers play five straight SEC games, three on the road.
"I don't have to stand here and say a whole bunch about it," Chizik said. "You know who we're playing. It's going to be an extremely tall order. Next week is USC, and that's all we're going to be focused on for the next 6 days."
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