Auburn had an excellent game plan and stuck to it in a 31-16 win over Ole Miss. But the real story was the play of the offensive line, which largely dominated the game and finally looked like a cohesive unit.
Ole Miss loves playing three down defensive linemen who all go in the same direction, and blitzing linebackers or lining up defensive linemen over the A-gaps standing in order to make up for only having three defensive linemen. This can help keep an offensive line guessing in pass protection situations, but is exploitable in the run game.
Auburn took advantage of this early and often. On this play, Ole Miss has a defensive end lined up in one of the A-gaps, with a safety lined up on the edge of the line. Auburn responds by running a relatively simple run play, but one that exploits Ole Miss' scheme.
All three of Ole Miss’ down linemen go to their right, and the Auburn offensive line does a great job of letting them go that way. All offensive line coaches will tell their players that if the defensive players wants to go a certain way, let them — just keep control of him. The Auburn offensive line does this, and those three players take themselves out of the play.
The Ole Miss defensive end who is lined up in the A gap tries to perform a stunt to come back around into the other A-gap, but due to the speed of Auburn’s run play, he has no chance to do anything. Auburn’s guard Marquel Harrell heads right for him, knowing exactly what he has to do to take him out of the play.
Harrell seals off the middle linebacker, creating a large hole for Auburn running back JaTarvious Whitlow to use his burst to explode for a nice gain.
The pass protection was also much improved, and it showed later on the same drive.
Auburn found itself facing a third-and-15. In this obvious passing situation, Ole Miss had four down defensive linemen and blitzed a defensive back off the edge.
Normally this season, Auburn has needed to keep extra help to block to even have a chance at passing the ball more than 5 yards. On this play, Auburn trusts its offensive line to get the job done and they deliver. The cohesion and communication was much improved.
Everyone on the offensive line knows who they have to block, and every single linemen wins a one-on-one matchup — including a pickup of the defensive back by right tackle Jack Driscoll. As a result, Stidham has plenty of time to wait for Darius Slayton to come open, and delivers a perfect pass to pick up the third-and-long.
Auburn had its best play-calling of the season in this game, continually being one step ahead of Ole Miss. On this play, Ole Miss is sending the house. Seeing this, Auburn calls a quick halfback screen.
Auburn’s offensive line lets Ole Miss rush by on purpose, and Stidham waits until the last moment to throw the ball to Whitlow on a screen pass. Whitlow then displays some excellent open-field running skills and turns the play into an even bigger gain.
This play was greatly helped by Stidham not staring down Whitlow. Had Stidham been looking at Whitlow instead of his receiver, a few defenders might have caught on and eased up on the play. Instead, the play goes as perfectly as Auburn hoped it would resulting in another third-down conversion.
Auburn was also finally able to get the jet sweep going in this game. After killing Ole Miss on runs between the tackles all day, Auburn went to electric receiver Anthony Schwartz on an end-around to catch Ole Miss off guard.
Two of Ole Miss’ middle linebackers bit on the fake, and Slayton performs a perfect block on third linebacker, letting Schwartz get out into open space, where he is among the best players in all of college football.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
