refocusing on running fast and explosive plays

[aubiefifty 18,222]

Auburn offense looking to return to its identity of fast-paced and explosive

Today 8:18 AM

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By Giana Han

Auburn’s offense took the bye week to go back to the basics. By perfecting those, Auburn will be able to turn its focus to increasing both its pace and the number of explosive plays it has.

The Tigers have the type of team that runs on explosive plays. Although they occasionally chip away at defenders with smaller pickups, they rely on big gains to open up the offense.

“Whether it’s running game, whether it’s passing game, we have to create explosive plays,” coach Gus Malzahn said. “When we do that, we’re a good offense. When we don’t, we’re average.”

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Out of Auburn’s 33 scoring drives this season, 14 of them have included an explosive play of 30 or more yards.

Until the loss to Florida, Malzahn felt the Tigers had done a good job being explosive. The team ties for 19th nationally in long scrimmage plays of 30 yards or more. They have 18, six of which are for 40 yards or more, and they also have 31 plays for 20 yards or more.

There are five Auburn players who have a rush that went for 30 or more yards and five that have made a reception for 30 or more yards. In total, eight players have made explosive plays on the Auburn offense with quarterback Bo Nix and wide receivers Anthony Schwartz and Eli Stove making them in both the run game and the passing / receiving game.

It’s important for the types of explosive plays to be varied. Despite Auburn’s identity as a rushing offense, long runs aren’t enough.

“Shots downfield kind of opens up the running game,” running back Malik Miller said. “People are going to want to load the box. And just getting a good balance going.”

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Malzahn said they’ve emphasized finding that balance and getting those explosive plays “however you get them.”

By picking up big chunks of yardage, Auburn will be able to get back to the other part of its offensive identity: its fast-paced tempo.

When Auburn is explosive, it has the ability to move faster. It finds a pace and starts accumulating first downs. The tempo and the explosive plays start to feed into each other. As the offense picks up speed, its options open up, allowing more explosive plays.

But when moving at such a speed, it’s important to have all the basics down, which goes back to Auburn’s main focus in the bye week — solidifying its fundamentals.

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“That goes back to getting back to who we are and that’s just kind of our identity on our offense, running fast and explosive plays,” center Kaleb Kim said. “Going back to that will be huge.”

[wareagleguy 1,397]

I just want CGM et. al. to understand that explosive plays can be short passes (slants, digs, zig-zags) to talent in space and they can break it for an explosive play.

[Tiger 8,854]

AKA we'll get back to vs Arky but against teams that have the same caliber of athletes as we do Gus will go back to looking like he's surprised we had a game that day