The Auburn offense started off sluggish but found its groove en route to a 42-3 win against Ball State in its first home game of the year. The Tigers offense led by Jackson Arnold amassed 271 total pass yards along with 224 rush yards but the real story of the night for the team was the defense who was unwavering allowing only five first downs and 68 yards in total on the night.
“I thought defensively we were physical,” head coach Hugh Freeze said referring to the historic defensive performance, “and we flew around. They held them to negative rushing yards, which is the first time since 2001 that an Auburn teams done that. 14 tackles for loss and six sacks, I just thought our defense really played hungry and physical and kind of set the tone for the night.”
The Tigers defense featured a total of six sacks four of which came from Xavier Atkins and Keyron Crawford with arguably the biggest one coming from Demarcus Riddick in the first quarter to give Auburn a boost of momentum that propelled them to their first score of the game. After their first touchdown the Tigers never looked back scoring 28 unanswered points followed by two more touchdowns to ice the game.
Atkins had a field day on defense for the Tigers with multiple key tackles for loss and sacks. Atkins ended the day with five tackles and four tackles for loss further solidifying himself as an integral part of Auburn’s defense this year.
The offense for Auburn also displayed a new facet showing off their wide receiver room for the first time this year as four different receivers each had four or more receptions. The air attack was led by Cam Coleman who had 77 yards but also featured Eric Singleton who had two touchdowns along with Horatio Fields who had a touchdown of his own. Both Singleton Jr and Fields’ touchdowns were their first in an Auburn uniform.
Arnold had another solid night for the Tigers before passing the torch to freshman Deuce Knight. The starting quarterback was able to go 24-of-28 in the air averaging an 86% completion percentage while throwing for three touchdowns and distributing the ball to seven different receivers.
“I think it’s good that I can go out drive at any point in the game,” starting quarterback Arnold said about his receiving room, “and look out to my left, to my right and be comfortable with who I’m going to.”
The Tigers offense was also aided by an outstanding rushing performance from running back Jeremiah Cobb who, in the absence of Demari Altson, put up 121 yards and two touchdowns on just 11 carries.
Despite the decisive win there were a few things that Auburn would like to clean up going forward. One of those things being the four sacks that Arnold took behind a usually strong offensive front. There was also some slowness getting started to begin the game as the Tigers did not pull to a three-score lead until under a minute left in the first half.
Auburn will look to continue to improve and stay unbeaten next week as they face South Alabama next week. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. CST.
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Reid is a sophomore majoring in accounting. He joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @ReidFarris2
