Jeremy Johnson led the way for Auburn in the first half with 243 passing yards and two touchdowns, but the defense was the reason why the score was tied at half since the Arkansas rushing attack dominated the Tigers defense for 151 yards.
But the second half was a completely different story for Auburn's defensive unit as they shut down Arkansas while limiting them to only two rushing yards on eight attempts. The defense also only gave up 59 passing yards in the second half after giving up 116 in the first.
According to head coach Gus Malzahn, the key to that major turnaround was their ability to make the correct adjustments on defense.
"Ellis Johnson is one of the better defensive coordinators in college football," Malzahn said. "When you get good at something for a long time, it's easy to get the adjustments and settle down and then we started stopping the run. That was a huge factor in the second half. We got a lot of good stops and were able to get the ball back for our offense."
Auburn expected Arkansas to come in strong with a powerful running game since they do have two returning running backs, Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins, who eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark last season. Collins ran for 75 yards and Williams ran for 35 yards in the first half.
"Arkansas came in with a really good game plan," senior defensive lineman Gabe Wright said. "Arkansas was doing some things that we didn't see on film. The coaches just had a plan at halftime and we quickly adjusted and got the job done."
Besides the defense responding to coach Johnson's halftime adjustments, a major part of the defense stopping the Razorbacks offense in the second half was because they were playing more physical.
"Most of that was about being more physical," Wright said. "I feel like we played well. I definitely feel confident after that second half. It's not just me. I know the defense feels confident. We knew the offense was going to continue to score in the second half."
The defense not only feels confident after their impressive showing in the second half, but according to Wright, now they know that they are capable of only allowing two rushing yards in a half to a team like Arkansas who has a great running game.
"I don't even know if we've ever done that before," Wright said after the game talking about how they only allowed two rushing yards. "I think it shocked a lot of guys. It shocked us in a good way, meaning that now we know what we can do."
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