Troubling trend for Auburn’s offense

[aubiefifty 18,237]

A closer look at a troubling trend for Auburn’s offense

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

5-6 minutes

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A disturbing trend has plagued Auburn’s offense for three weeks now.

In each of the Tigers’ last three games, they’ve struggled to find any sort of offensive consistency after halftime, scoring a total of nine second-half points against Ole Miss, Texas A&M and, most recently, Mississippi State. It has played into Auburn dropping two of those games, with back-to-back losses to the Aggies and Bulldogs -- the most recent of which produced the biggest collapse in program history.

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“We’re not as consistent in the second half, let me say that,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “I think we do some things early in the first half. We’ve got to continue to keep attacking in the second half as aggressively -- just playing and executing -- as we do in the first half. It doesn’t seem like we do that in the second half.”

Auburn’s second-half offensive struggles of late have resulted in the team putting up points on just two of its 18 possessions after halftime the last three weeks. The Tigers had a second-half field goal against the Rebels on Oct. 30 to help secure a 31-20 win at home, were shut out in the second half of the loss at Kyle Field last week and then mustered a lone late touchdown Saturday during a complete collapse against the Bulldogs.

Of the Tigers’ 16 second-half drives that have not produced points during that stretch, six have ended in punts, three have resulted in missed field goals (including a 35-yarder Saturday that was blocked by Mississippi State), four resulted in giveaways (with three lost fumbles and an interception), while two more concluded with turnovers on downs and one saw Auburn run out the clock to seal the win against Ole Miss.

Beyond the struggles in scoring points after halftime, Auburn’s offense has been largely ineffective at sustaining drives during the second half of this stretch of games. Only three of those 18 second-half possessions have produced drives of at least 50 yards and five have lasted more than seven plays. Auburn is averaging 4.7 yards per play in the second half the last three weeks, but it has managed to go just 6-of-21 on third-down tries (and 2-of-5 on fourth downs) during that stretch.

“It’s not okay to go out there and punt, you know,” Harsin said. “You want to have the mindset of an offensive player that we want to score every time we get the ball in our hands. It’s a little bit of execution; it’s mentality; it’s keeping the pedal down and being aggressive coming after the defense in the run game and the pass game and guys playing hard and finishing through fourth quarters. It’s just that mentality and having that same attacking attitude for four quarters of football.”

Those issues were accentuated in Saturday’s historic loss against Mississippi State, when Auburn’s offense admittedly didn’t do its part to keep pace when the Bulldogs scored 40 unanswered points — including five straight touchdown drives after halftime — and erased what was once a 28-3 Tigers lead.

“For whatever reason, we sputtered again and couldn’t get an explosive play,” quarterback Bo Nix said. “We couldn’t really get a drive going and sustain it. Once we did, we got stopped on downs and they blocked a field goal. We’ve got to find ways to get ourselves out of that kind of hole and move forward.”

In the second half against Mississippi State, Auburn’s offense cooled off after a blistering start to the day — when it scored touchdowns on each of its first four drives of the morning. Once seemingly out of their recent funk on that side of the ball, the Tigers couldn’t maintain that momentum in the second half. Their first three drives after halftime included the aforementioned blocked field goal, which was sandwiched between a pair of punts.

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That was followed by a turnover on downs before Auburn finally found the end zone on a Tank Bigsby 1-yard rush that ended Mississippi State’s run of 40 unanswered points. The damage was already done, and it was too little, too late. The Tigers then fumbled away their final possession, when T.J. Finley — who entered for an injured Nix — lost the ball as he was sacked in the waning minutes.

Auburn finished with 4.9 yards per play in the second half but had minus-14 rushing yards on eight carries (minus-4 on seven runs, when discounting the late sack) and had possession for just 9:43 after the break.

“What it comes down to is you got to finish in games,” Harsin said. “…An 18-point lead, it’s not enough. That’s what we talked about at halftime. That’s not enough. You got to keep playing, and at the end of the day it’s still about our execution and the things we’re trying to accomplish every time we step on the field, and it didn’t happen. It wasn’t good enough.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[au701948 1,064]

Don’t look at me Coach. That’s why you get paid about 5 million a year—to motivate and provide well thought out play calling that stretches for 4 Quarters and not just 2 Quarters each week!!??

[DAG 34,760]

Not a good look that we have two QB coaches who can't find sustainability. Come on man. Total masterpieces one half then derp the next..