Coming off a bye week Auburn looked to take down another ranked opponent. This time, Top 10 ranked Ole Miss came to town led by Lane Kiffin. Auburn took down the Rebels 31-20 on a spooky Halloween eve. Here is how they looked and how they did it.
Offense
Bo Nix’s first touchdown of the night capped off an impressive drive that was driven by hard-nosed running from RB Tank Bigsby. At the start of the play, Auburn shows strength to the left side of the formation with four eligible receivers. Even after setting the widest receiver in motion, Auburn maintained favorable numbers and leverage on the outside, and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo dials up a brilliant quarterback sweep off the motion. The linebackers and safeties are confused just enough by everything going on to allow Bo to do what Bo does best: running in space.
On first-and-10, Auburn shows an overloaded bunch formation into the field side and Ole Miss responds by stacking eight defenders around the box. It appears the original play call was for Tank Bigsby to follow Luke Deal and Demetris Robertson off left tackle, but the running lane quickly closed after some decent hole-filling by the Rebels' linebackers. Bigsby immediately cuts back into the gap that opened between center Nick Brahms and right guard Keiondre Jones, and that cut away from the point of attack causes the two safeties to take poor pursuit angles. This earns him a 27-yard gain and gets Auburn into Ole Miss territory.
Inside the red zone on a second-and-goal Auburn looks to extend its lead to two possessions. Mike Bobo has been very efficient with his red zone play calling this year and he does not disappoint here. Pulling a new play out of the book Bo Nix lines up in an empty backfield as Jarquez Hunter plays the part of a blocker. Hunter fakes the intent of blocks and roles out. A wide open Hunter catches the pass from Nix running in for a touchdown.
Starting back on their own 39-yard line, Auburn snaps the ball and fakes the handoff to Tank Bigsby. Nix rolls to the right as the line moves to the left. This movement leaves Nix with plenty of time to find a wide open Tyler Fromm, coming back across the right side of the field. Fromm gains a big chunk of yardage as he makes his way across mid-field. Another example of Bobo getting Auburns tight ends involved in the pass game.
Defense
Facing a long third-and-goal, Auburn’s defense comes out in a base package with the deepest safety just at the goal line and slightly offset to the field side. It appears that Auburn is in man coverage with only Roger McCreary initially pressing at the top of the field, though he eventually abandons the press. After the two wide receivers at the top are dealt with via a wonder pass-off from the two DBs, Matt Corrall is forced into scramble protocol to try and get the touchdown with his legs. Zakoby McClain, who is either on a delayed blitz or serving as a spy, gets the open-field tackle and holds Ole Miss to a red zone field goal attempt.
Facing an important third down for Ole Miss as the second half begins, Matt Corral drops back but is quickly met with pressure up the middle from Colby Wooden. This rushes Corral's process up and he makes a risky throw up the middle. Ole Miss receiver Jadon Jackson is being covers by Roger McCreary and Zacoby McClain is also in position to break up the pass.
Once again, Auburn's defense is put in vital third down and short position. Corral tries to fake that he is keeping the ball to keep some defenders focused on him. The ball is handed off to Henry Parrish Jr. who tries to weave his way to the first. Auburns defense is not fooled by this and Colby Wooden, with the help of Chandler Wooten, bring him down short. Auburn's defense on third and fourth down was a game-changer against Ole Miss.
Corral and the Ole Miss offense drove the ball inside the Auburn red zone in the fourth quarter. Auburn is looking to make another crucial stop here to hold Ole Miss to the least amount of points possible. Corral escapes the pocket and is almost brought down by Auburns Derick Hall. Running out of room, Corral launches the ball to the back of the end zone looking for his receiver. This was ruined by Jaylin Simpson, who came from out of Corrals view to intercept the pass, leaving Ole Miss with zero points to show from a long drive.
Special Teams
After the game, Head Coach Bryan Harsin was animated and upset about the special teams’ performance, and upon review I can’t blame him one bit. The missed kick from Anders Carlson could have come back to bite Auburn had Lane Kiffen decided not to go riverboat gambling on seemingly every fourth down, but the miss isn’t what was wrong with special teams. It was simply at times a lack of effort and execution. On the opening kickoff, you set the tone for the rest of the game, and here, Caylin Newton fails to fight to maintain inside leverage and secure his block. His man eventually makes the tackle, and the offense starts with the ball at the 17-yard line. However, this is an easily correctable problem.
At this point in the game, the result was still very much in the balance. While there were only a few little things wrong with the muffed punt recovery, this coaching staff will tell you little things will win or lose you games, and this play is no exception. As the ball is being kicked by the punter, there is a ton of space between the two blockers protecting the punter, and Smoke Monday can’t seem to take advantage of the space afforded him right in front of the punter. Further down the field, the jammers, or the outside punt coverage players, get blown by and seemingly give up on the play assuming Demetris Robertson will make the fair catch and secure the ball. In the end, Robertson drops it, and Ole Miss is gifted favorable field position in a close game. Like the kickoff return, this is an easily correctible problem.
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