Things are slowing down for Auburn’s Bo Nix

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Things are slowing down for Auburn’s Bo Nix

Posted Nov 14, 2019

3-4 minutes

Just as his childhood dream of playing an Auburn-Georgia game is about to become reality, Bo Nix is starting to find his rhythm.

Before heading into Auburn’s second bye week, Nix had what coach Gus Malzahn said was probably his best game in Auburn’s 20-14 win over Ole Miss.

“He looked very comfortable,” Malzahn said. “And it was good that we got in some rhythm, too.”

Nix threw for 340 yards against the Rebels and completed 68 percent of his passes. His season average is 56.45 percent. The game was important for Nix’s confidence, Malzahn said, especially as he heads into his fourth top-10 match-up.

Nix has not done well against top-10 opponents. Against Oregon, Florida and LSU, he completed less than 45 percent of his passes in each game and did not throw for more than 200 yards in any of them. The game against Georgia will be different for him, though. Instead of heading out on the reward, he will get to play the Bulldogs at home.

In contrast to away games where he completed 51 percent of his passes and threw for under 200 yards in each game, Nix has completed 67 percent of his pass attempts at home and averaged 260.75 yards per game at home. But Nix has not played a ranked team at home, and only two of the four teams that visited Jordan-Hare were SEC teams.

Nonetheless, Malzahn thinks the home field advantage will be huge in improving Nix’s record against top-10 teams.

“Like I said, it’s completely different when you’re playing at home,” Malzahn said. “You can hear a lot better; you can operate a lot better.”

The noise factor is big for Nix and his offense. On top of that, he said being in Jordan-Hare gives him more of an adrenaline rush.

The struggles he had when playing all those teams on the road weren’t for nothing, either. They will make Saturday’s game seem a lot easier for him.

“I mean, I played against Florida, I played against Oregon and LSU, so some top defenses, and I just feel pretty confident when I’m out there,” Nix said. “The game has slowed down a little bit for me and I’m just out there having fun and just completing passes and doing whatever I can to help the offense move the ball.”

The Tigers will need to have a confident Nix out there. Georgia’s defense is one of the best rushing defenses in the country, so Auburn won’t be able to run them to the ground.

It will still try to run the ball, but it needs to get both parts of its game going.

“You can’t be one-dimensional,” Malzahn said.

It also needs to find a rhythm and create explosive plays. Those were two things Nix did well in his last game.

“I hit some throws, hit some deep throws, and really got in a rhythm and was kind of effective from that standpoint,” Nix said. “We came out and we knew we were going to throw the ball a little bit more than what we have been and hopefully we’ll just continue to just build upon our strengths as an offense as a whole and we’ll continue to do stuff like that.”